The Sky’s the Limit: How Patrolfinder Helped Fulshear PD Improve Control, Accountability and Visibility
For police departments facing rapid growth, limited staffing, and increasing demands for accountability, knowing where officers are patrolling—and how effectively—is no longer optional. For Chief Kenny Seymour of the Fulshear Police Department in Texas, Patrolfinder has become a critical operational tool to manage growth, direct patrols strategically, and demonstrate value to both the community and elected officials.
Fulshear is not a typical small or mid-sized city. According to Chief Seymour, it is experiencing extraordinary growth. “When I tell you growth, I hear people all the time say 75 percent, 100 percent—we’re 600 percent,” he said. New developments and neighborhoods seem to appear almost overnight, stretching patrol coverage and making it increasingly difficult to ensure consistent police presence citywide.
Solving the Visibility and Coverage Challenge
Before Patrolfinder, ensuring comprehensive patrol coverage across an expanding city was largely dependent on experience, officer discretion, and assumptions. That created gaps—especially for newer officers. “What I found is young officers were chasing the ball,” Chief Seymour explained. “They’re looking at active things and forgetting areas of the city that are just as important.”
Patrolfinder gave Fulshear PD something it didn’t previously have: objective, visual confirmation of patrol coverage. The platform tracks patrol activity and ensures every street is accounted for—without micromanaging officers or sacrificing discretion.
“I think what you guys [Patrolfinder] have done is you got us to a point where every street in my city is accounted for,” Seymour said.
Seymour said there are two important aspects to the data Patrolfinder provides:
- The department can defend itself against false information about patrols
- The department can allocate resources more strategically and justify why more resources are needed.
That shift had an immediate operational impact. The department reduced its patrol refresh rate dramatically—cutting full‑city coverage from 48 hours down to 24. “We were able to touch all of our patrol points in 48 hours. We’re actually doing it in 24 hours now,” he said.
Turning Community Perception into Measurable Reality
One of the most pressing challenges chiefs face today is public perception—particularly complaints that residents “never see” police in their neighborhoods. Patrolfinder helped Fulshear move from anecdotal responses to data‑backed answers.
“Taxpayers want to know what their money’s getting,” Chief Seymour noted. “Well—here it is.”
Instead of relying on memory or reports, the department can now show exactly when an area was patrolled, how often officers were present, and whether patrol expectations were met. That data has helped reduce complaints and increase confidence that officers are, in fact, where they are supposed to be.
Chief Seymour emphasized that visibility is more than perception—it’s deterrence. “If you’re being seen by the citizen, you’re also being seen by the criminal. And if we can take away opportunities, we can minimize crime that way. That’s kind of the big, big thing!”
Accountability Without “Big Brother”
Importantly, Patrolfinder is being built into the culture at Fulshear Police Department, giving supervisors a benchmark for effectiveness, not discipline.
“I know that high visibility, having officers saturate areas, is effective in deterring crime. So how do we do that? How do we put them in the right places at the right time?” Chief Seymore rhetorically asked.
Patrolfinder plays a key role.
“This is actually giving them that strategy,” he said, noting highlighting what areas need attention and also determining what is working and what is not.
“It’s not that I’m looking at what they’re doing. What I want to know how they’re doing at what they’re doing. I’m not looking at what they’re doing—I want to know how effective is what they’re doing,” Seymour said. Patrolfinder is a tool to benchmark how effective patrols are.
The data has also strengthened leadership decision‑making. When coverage targets aren’t met, the department can evaluate whether the issue is staffing, call volume, or deployment strategy—allowing the chief to justify resources without guesswork. “If I can’t beat that deadline, then there’s a problem. I have to look at that,” Seymour explained. “I have to look at that and you know, we’re not going to sacrifice the calls for service.”
A Platform for Strategic Policing
For Chief Seymour, Patrolfinder is not just about tracking patrols—it’s about planning smarter, protecting proactive time, and ensuring police presence aligns with community needs.
“Where do we need to be? What times do we need to be there?” he said. “This helps us allocate resources and be more effective.”
In an era of rapid growth, rising scrutiny, and limited staffing, Fulshear PD has found that clarity and accountability make all the difference. As Chief Seymour put it, “Since we’ve come online [with Patrolfinder], the sky’s the limit with what we can do with the data.”
