BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Why can't I do this simple thing?

Status
Not open for further replies.

jonwienke

More Info Coming Soon!
Joined
Jul 18, 2014
Messages
13,416
Location
VA
Can we consider adding the 2 letter State designator in the descriptions?

+1 on that, just for consistency's sake. Also, when the database listing is for "State Police" and you're picking up stuff from WV, VA, PA, and MD from one location, it's hard to keep track of who's on first and what's on second.

IMO, all of the labels in the database should be standardized as follows:

State agencies should always be [state code] [agency name].
"VA State Police"
"VA Dept of Fish & Game"
"PA Turnpike Authority"

County agencies should always be [county name] Cty. [agency name]. (Exceptions would be in Louisiana, where "Parish" is used instead of "County", and countries outside the US that use other terms for county-equivalent governmental units.)
"Berkeley Cty. Sheriff"
"Berkeley Cty. Animal Control"
"Landrieux Par. Alligator Removal"

City agencies should be [city name] [agency name].
"Martinsburg PD"
"Richmond FD"

All national level agencies and entities should start with a 3-letter country code. While many national agencies are named differently in different countries, sometimes they have the same/similar names.
"USA Dept of Justice"
"USA Federal Bureau of Investigation"
"USA Dept of Veterans' Affairs" (note that this disambiguates Virginia state agencies and federal Veterans' Affairs)
"CAN Dept of Justice"

Right now, there are a lot of inconsistencies in the the database labels. In WV, there are entries for "Berkeley" and "Berkeley County" that should be merged together. This is true for about half the counties in WV.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top