Month: December 2015

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Often times, organizational leaders can unknowingly create inconsistencies in executing their strategic direction.  In their quest to find the great idea that will transform the organization, they whiplash their people with new and ever changing tactics. These tactics (e.g. changing shift schedules, creating new divisions/units, implementing new technology, developing new initiatives, etc.) might make sense individually, but if they haven’t been positioned as an integrated way of moving the agency forward and how they apply to the ever changing environment, people in the organization might become skeptical about senior management’s ability to secure the future.

Leaders have to place strategic changes, initiatives, and goals into a broader organizational context, or they risk losing good talent, burning out managers, and wasting money on programs that don’t pay off. People have to see why what they’re doing has to change and why they should suddenly be moving in a new direction.

Our environment, public opinion, and the economy changes fast, so no approach will stay perfect, thus strategic plans will always need adjustment, interested learners, and iteration.  One best practice to keep people energized and willing to adjust, is to help them understand how the current focus connects with or builds upon the last set of strategic directions and imperatives in their current reality.

The following is how one Police Chief, who I find skillful at carefully positioning each new change initiative as something that builds upon previous foundations, implemented change in his agency.

First he selected a leader capable of carrying the project forward.  He made sure to fully brief him on his vision of the project and allowed his project leader to share his perspectives so they were on the same page regarding the project and its benefits.  The Chief also made clear he what his project leader’s role and responsibilities would be as well as how much he believed in the project leader’s ability to lead the project.  Doing so created a sense of ownership and vested commitment.

Next, he briefed the core leadership team and introduced SmartForce™ as a strategic initiative that was in line with previous initiatives, such as modernizing their RMS and CAD system.

During the kick-off he detailed why he had chosen SmartForce™ as their platform for a one-stop-shop communication and information sharing.  He used clear examples of challenges facing the agency and what SmartForce would do for the agency.  He included how the SmartForce project was aligned to their agency’s principles and values such as leadership, customer service, engagement with the community, and the simplification of work processes to create more productive work time.  He involved them emotionally by connecting the dots for them and therefore his initiative was not seen as one more thing to learn or do.  When the Chief wrapped up his opening remarks saying, “I expect this to work and I expect you to make it work, too”.  Everyone wanted to make this new initiative work and no one felt dragged into just another futile project.

Creating this kind of context is a critical component of leadership. People need to know how the dots are connected, not because they don’t want to follow the next new program, but because they want to make sure their energy expenditure will be worthwhile and productive.

If you manage people, think about how you can help them connect the dots between the work they do and what their work is meant to achieve. Ask yourself, what are the threads that tie together past initiatives and strategic directions with current ones? How can I best illustrate moving from our current state to the necessary future state?  What are the lessons learned that you can apply to the next project? How have past efforts helped you build capability over time, and how can that help you win as a team and as an organization?

Unless you take the time to help your people understand the answers to these questions and emotionally engage them, they may experience change as a series of random and arbitrary directives with no rhyme or reason. By putting change into a longer-term context, whatever you are trying to accomplish will have a better chance of success.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Read “New and Improved Must Have Tools for Crime Analysists” and link to this one:https://smartforcetech.com/blog/adventos/new-and-improved-must-have-tools-for-crime-analysts/

Crime Analysts across the country are becoming the secret weapons for their organizations. Their crime products, whether the identification of crime patterns, problem areas, or spotting repeat offenders, are helping organize and prioritize crime reduction responses and community policing efforts.

To empower these secret weapons, crime analysts must have the proper tools to be successful in their roles. In this article we identify the top six tools every crime analyst must own.

One – CAD and RMS

While CAD and RMS are not analytical tools per se, for a crime analyst and for an agency to be successful in implementing crime reduction strategies, they must have the ability to mine and understand agency data originating in CAD and RMS.

Intelligent Tip:

Ensure your RMS data structures are based on industry standards, such as NIBRS and NEIM. With well understood data structures you will be able to more easily integrate Crime Analysis and Prediction software, as well as leverage regional data and industry best practices.

Two – Crime Analysis Software

Crime analysis software can be as simple as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that targets crime reduction priorities for an agency or a more robust crime intelligence product which has the ability to integrate RMS and CAD data into powerful and customizable dashboards with analytics, query, visualization, and information sharing. Ideally, this software has the ability to provide visually-intuitive heat maps, trend analysis, charts, and is able to quickly uncover emerging trends gaining deeper insight into key issues and areas.

Crime analysis software tools should have the ability to use historical RMS data to produce targeted crime forecasts that are accurate. In any agency, utilizing crime analysis software in either a simple or more robust application should lead to more efficiently allocated Officer resources and help to improve the focus of their time and efforts on proactively reducing and preventing crime.

Intelligent Tip:

Ideally, the applications are cloud-based, so they are accessible from any device for analysts, officers, command staff, and specialty units in the office or on the road. Take a look at Motorola’s CommandCentral Analytics product which has many best in class features essential in predictive software tools.

Three – Law Enforcement Specific GIS

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help leverage the massive amounts of location-based data collected each day to create actionable intelligence you can use and share. GIS provides solutions used by thousands of cities, counties and law enforcement agencies worldwide for investigations, operations, planning, and administration. Intelligence analysis can sometimes go beyond traditional crime analysis. During analysis you can fuse together reporting from GIS data that relates to Corrections, Parole, and Probation, in-vehicle mobile mapping, traffic, accident analysis, etc.

Intelligent Tip:

GIS is a very powerful tool. For the majority of crime analysis mapping needs, a quick look at the relationship between crime locations or measure of distance will suffice. Having said this, if your agency is making significant investments in crime intelligence, ESRI tools are the industry standard and the trusted leader in GIS for large US governments and corporations.

Four – Agency Management System

Public safety responses to crime reduction initiatives must be organized, targeted and active. Many times they require the coordination of multiple units and often occur during uncommitted time. It can be frustrating for crime analysts to create crime intelligence products that result in little activity or impact. To amplify the impact of crime reduction responses, an Agency Management System is required. An Agency Management System allows for intelligence products to be assigned to the audiences that can and must take action, organizes discussions on the intelligence product, and allows for the tracking and coordination of responses in real time.

Intelligent Tip:

While coordination of crime reduction responses can be accomplished with a simple intranet portal or passed on through email (see our post about the risks of email), an Agency Management System such as SmartForce™ adds levels of sophistication that compliment your RMS and CAD. Because of its CJIS compliant, mobile, and reporting features, SmartForce™ is the best platform for sharing intelligence and responses for targeted crime reduction during uncommitted time.

Five – Microsoft Office

Crime analysts bear a great deal of responsibility in the agency and therefore deserve tools that give them the greatest capabilities to be effective and streamlined. A crime analyst must save products as PDFs, receive PDFs, and open them to revise and share information with one click. Microsoft Office provides this capability for a low cost and integrates with agency management systems like SmartForce™.

Intelligent Tip:

The free options available are limited in their capabilities. Microsoft Office is available as a subscription on the Cloud as Office 365 for Government and adds CJIS compliance capabilities. The annual price tag is recovered quickly when your crime analysts and field teams have the right information at their fingertips.

Six – KeyPass

With great power comes big responsibility. Crime analysts have access to many databases and sources of information which require multiple secure passwords. There are tools for managing passwords that will securely generate, store, and manage passwords for various computer systems, websites, and services you access.

Intelligent Tip:

This field has many great players. KeyPass is our recommended tool, but if your agency is already working with a secure password keeper or tool that meets or exceeds your agency standards, keep it!

About SmartForce™ by Adventos

SmartForce™ is the only CJIS compliant and mobile agency management system designed to account for uncommitted time and to drive current policing strategies.  SmartForce™ also provides a single platform for integrating and automating all law enforcement administrative processes outside of CAD and RMS.

For more information visit adventos.com and view a video demonstration of SmartForce™ today.