Month: May 2016

Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education

In just a few short years, computers have revolutionized nearly every industry and activity including crime analysis. There are a number of key ways in which computer technology has made it easier for law enforcement to do its job and to better execute policing strategies for crime prevention and reduction that keep our communities safer and more secure for generations to come.

Agency Management

An agency management system is important not only for crime analysis, but for law enforcement as a whole. With a police agency management system, disparate data bases and redundant procedures can be eliminated, efficiency increased, and costs kept under control. These systems make it easy to manage official communication, streamline administrative processes and improve crime reduction efforts.

Crime Analysis

Analyzing crimes and understanding where crime is likely to happen in the future requires a variety of computerized tools and programs to determine likely repeat suspects and other crucial details. Data from computer aided dispatch (CAD) and records management systems (RMS) is compiled using crime analysis software which can make it easy to analyze trends, generate graphs and heat maps.

Geographic Analysis

Analyzing geographic information is essential for analyzing and predicting crime. This data includes maps of the locations of sex offenders, parolees, probationers, and other persons of interest to law enforcement. Many agencies handle this through a program called Geographic Information Systems, or GIS.

Communicating Crime Analysis Information

Because crime analysis generates a plethora of records and crime bulletins, organizing and disseminating them efficiently to the right audiences in a CJIS compliant environment is an essential part of the job. Analysts combine common suites like Microsoft Office with sophisticated programs such as SmartForce™ for targeted information sharing, accountability, and CJIS security that simply can’t be accomplished or sustained through email.

Social Media

For police agencies, going onto sites like Facebook and Twitter isn’t time-wasting like it might be for the rest of us. Many criminals have given themselves away by posting evidence of themselves committing or planning to commit crimes as well as associating themselves with other persons of interest, which makes keeping a watchful eye on these sites of paramount importance. Law enforcement agencies make sure that their officers are also online searching social media so that when these things happen, cases can be cleared more efficiently.

These are just a few of the many ways in which technology is changing the crime analysis playing field. If you’d like to find out more information about how upgrading your technology systems will help your crime analysis, prevention, and reduction efforts as well as other essential aspects of your operations, please don’t hesitate to contact us today, 303-800-5044.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

A Fusion Center is a place where a group of law enforcement agencies share information. The sharing can include the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. armed forces, the U.S. Department of Justice, other federal agencies, and state and local jurisdictions. Most Fusion Centers—78 in the U.S. as of March 2016—operate at the state or local government level. Every Fusion Center is part of the larger National Network of Fusion Centers, managed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). Federal inter-agency efforts are made to share information and products, conduct training, deploy personnel, and provide connectivity to classified and unclassified systems.

Each Center’s goal is to better identify, investigate, prevent and respond to criminal or terrorist activity.

To identify threats early and prevent incidents from occurring, analysts and other representatives from member agencies poor over data, providing each’s unique perspective and insights. When the Center needs information or needs to share information, each representative serves again as a conduit to his or her agency.

The challenge each Center faces is seamless collection, analysis and distribution of information among member agencies. This can often be a logistically complicated matter, with different systems, data types and procedures among the member agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice published a 100-page guide for agencies on how to establish fusion centers and coordinate information among members.

Fusion Centers are most successful when there is coordinated, rapid information sharing across law enforcement agencies. While Centers enable faster information sharing, they still rely too much on email, which is limiting and which presents security risks. Email is limited in its ability to share information in different formats in a coordinated and organized manner.

When used correctly, Fusion Centers are successful; click here to read the latest Success Stories.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

In October 2014, 10 people were arrested in Hampton Roads, Virginia, on charges of manufacturing synthetic narcotics, money laundering, false branding, and conspiracy. The arrests curbed the use of the drug, which is intended to mimic a hallucinogenic in marijuana.

The arrests came about largely due to the coordinated efforts by multiple law enforcement agencies to share data and the keen analysis of that data. It is just one of many successful examples of the power of fusion centers and their ability to collect, share, distribute, and interpret data from myriad sources.

Police work today is increasingly dependent on collaborative efforts by different agencies to leverage the power of data. To gain that significant advantage, agencies need a powerful tool, such as Adventos Corporation’s SmartForce™ agency management system. Such systems allow officers and department leadership to easily share data from various sources, in different formats, in one secure and shared platform.

What are Fusion Centers?

A fusion center is a group of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that work together to collect and share information. The intent is that this inter-agency cooperation helps agencies identify, monitor, investigate, stop, and respond to criminal activity and acts of terrorism.

The list of agencies involved in the 78 fusion centers in operation (as of March 2016) varies by location and purpose, but can include the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, various branches of the U.S. armed forces, other federal agencies, and state and local agencies. Typically, fusion centers are managed by local or state governments.

Representatives from the member agencies, often working out of the same central location, act as messengers and communicators. They carry information from their agencies to the fusion centers and share requests for information back to those agencies. They serve to interpret a fusion center’s findings through their agency’s lens and also ensure that critical information learned by the centers is communicated throughout the agencies.

Coordination captures criminals

The 2014 Hampton Roads arrests came about after a large investigation designed to curb the spread of synthetic narcotics, also known as “spice.” The investigation involved a host of partners, including the Virginia Fusion Center, Homeland Security agencies, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and state and local law enforcement agencies.

An analyst from the fusion center lead the investigation, using in-depth analysis of collected data to show connections among the people and businesses involved. The multi-agency raid came about with additional support from narcotics investigators from a local regional drug task force.

The power of sharing

Adventos Corp. is committed to supporting the work of fusion centers and other agency collaborations. The SmartForce™ agency management system allows participating agencies a shared virtual workspace. In this space, working on any desktop or mobile device, participating officers can share, store, communicate, extract, analyze, and report on data collected from different systems and in different formats.

SmartForce™ is CJIS-compliant and is a cloud-based enterprise solution using Microsoft’s Government Cloud secure servers.

For agencies eager to tap into the power of collaboration, SmartForce™ provides an enterprise solution that helps officers keep the communities they serve safe and protected. Learn more about SmartForce™ here.

Doug Owens
Director of Implementation

Microsoft’s InfoPath is an incredibly powerful tool that businesses all of the world on a daily basis use for the purposes of designing, distributing, completing and submitting electronic forms using structured data. At Adventos, we notice that many of our clients love and rely on it because of the freedom it provides – they can create ANY form built from the ground up to address the needs of a particular workflow, period.

Unfortunately, Microsoft currently has an “InfoPath Problem” which means that our customers do, too.

What’s Going on with InfoPath?

At the end of January 2014, Microsoft made an announcement that shocked many: InfoPath was in the process of going away. This was always intended to be a long process – the company first announced that support would end in April of 2023, before finally extending it to 2026. While support for InfoPath 2013 and SharePoint Designer 2013 will continue until that time, it still creates a long-term problem that many businesses need to address before that date on the calendar arrives.

As a replacement for InfoPath, Microsoft is currently developing a cross-platform solution that is designed to offer the same form creation functionality in a brand new way. Microsoft also indicated that InfoPath Forms Services will both be included in the next on-site release of SharePoint Server 2016 and will continue to be supported by Office 365 indefinitely.

The Adventos Approach

At Adventos, we understand that it is the creation of forms and workflows – not InfoPath itself – that law enforcement agencies need. While we pledge to continue to support these ideas and will provide customers with feature rich solutions that help accomplish these goals, we cannot in good faith continue to support a technology in Microsoft that will soon go away – even if that date is still a decade in the future.

Furthermore, Adventos has long experienced issues with InfoPath and data migration. When law enforcement agencies depend on forms and workflows to help do their jobs and protect our communities on a daily basis, we ultimately decided that it doesn’t make sense to continue to rely on InfoPath if it makes these tasks harder, not easier.

SmartForce

As with most of our decisions, Adventos pledges to use the SmartForce agency management system as our primary means of supporting our customers. We understand just how important the types of custom forms created in InfoPath are to you, which is why we continually work to provide our own in-house solutions to address these goals.

If your law enforcement agency is in need of a configured workflow to help you and your officers more effectively do your jobs, we will build it. If you need to be able to quickly create a data list, we’ll teach you how. Anything InfoPath can do SmartForce can do and you’ll also have the added benefit of continued support on a permanent basis – something Microsoft has clearly stated will not be possible.

While we at Adventos fully acknowledge that InfoPath is an incredibly powerful tool that has brought with it a number of benefits for law enforcement agencies, its days are officially numbered. By focusing on the adoption of SmartForce capabilities and using the workflow and functionality it provides, we believe that you’ll find the gap left behind when Microsoft stops supporting InfoPath isn’t nearly as big as you may have been led to believe.

To find out more information about InfoPath form support and similar functionality with Adventos and SmartForce, please click here.

Jared Rose
VP of Sales

At Adventos, one of the most common questions that we see IT departments and law enforcement agencies face time and again comes down to whether to build an on premise infrastructure or go with a cloud-based solution for all of their agency management system needs. While both have their fair share of advantages and disadvantages, the true answer to this question requires you to take a deeper look at the specifics of your own organizational objectives and needs to help guarantee you’ll have the service you need when you need it the most. The good news is that SmartForce runs both on premise and on the cloud

Security and Compliance

One of the major benefits that a cloud-based solution has over an on-premise alternative is one of security and compliance. According to a study recently conducted by IJIS, companies that used cloud-based solutions had 45% fewer incidents of data loss, 45% less security-related downtime and a staggering 93% fewer audit deficiencies – all of which are hugely important qualities for law enforcement agencies in particular.

None of this is to say that there is a “one size fits all” answer to this particular question. For some, an on-premise solution will be the only way to guarantee the level of control over their data and processes that they need on a daily basis. For many others, however, a cloud-based solution is the single best way to control costs, guarantee scalability, security and compliance and deploy as quickly and as efficiently as possible

Time to Deploy

Picking the right solution is one thing – getting that solution up and running across an agency is something else entirely. Setting up your own on-premise infrastructure allows you to maintain complete control over your environment, but it also takes time. If the time to deploy for an in-house solution is a month, you’re looking at a months of salaries for IT employees, two months of overtime when issues arise or when things don’t go as expected, etc. With a cloud-based solution, you have none of these concerns – an agency management system like SmartForce can typically be deployed in a manner of hours, not months, and can then be further customized to fit the precise way you like to work.

Maintenance and Upgrades

Many people don’t realize until it’s far too late that when they decide to set up their own on-premise solution, there is a large amount of responsibility that comes with the control they’re trying to hold onto. This most commonly takes the form of maintenance and upgrades. If something goes wrong, you need to fix it – or find the person who can and schedule their service. If something needs to be upgraded, it isn’t going to happen automatically – you need to find the right person to get the job done, which means labor costs, downtime and more.

With a cloud-based solution, however, regular upgrades are built into the cost of the solution in the first place. You don’t have to worry about updating as much as a single piece of software – as everything is delivered in an on-demand capacity, you always have access to the latest tools at all times. Maintenance and upgrades aren’t just easier – they’re literally things you don’t have to worry about any longer.

Scalability

One of the most important qualities that law enforcement agencies need to consider when deciding between cloud vs. on-premise solutions is one of scalability. Always having access to the resources you need when you need them is key to operational success, but the reverse is also true: paying too much for resources you aren’t effectively utilizing is one of the most efficient ways to waste money today.

Cloud-based solutions like SmartForce are inherently scalable as storage, processing and other requirements are served up in an on-demand manner. Essentially, you’re paying one fixed price for whatever you need, whenever you need it.

Costs

This was purposely listed last. After careful consideration of the first four factors and your particular agency and goals you are in the best place to determine the true cost of deploying the solution on-premise or via the cloud.

Parties interested in the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves intelligence and community collaboration, click here. After watching the demo video, you are invited to request a free trial of the agency management system to try for yourselves.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Business meetings are essential for promoting teamwork, but they need to provide high value in order to keep participants engaged. A high-value meeting involves concise, effective communications, keeps the attention of attendees, and is free of distracting behavior. It’s easy to foster the right environment by following these simple steps:

1. Meetings must have clear purposes. This keeps everything on track and provides specific goals to accomplish. The task of defining a meeting’s purpose falls to its organizer or “owner”. Organizers should ask themselves questions like “Am I seeking input?” “Am I attempting to bring about a consensus?” Always have a tangible purpose for a meeting and communicate it to all participants.
2. Prepare for the meeting in advance. Organizers should have all technology set up before the meeting starts. This way, it can start as soon as everyone arrives and everyone will keep their focus. Attendees who will be presenting should also prepare in advance.
3. Only invite those who need to be at the meeting. When people learn that your meetings are truly relevant to them, they become far more excited about attending. Who needs to be there? If you’re announcing a change, invite those who will be directly affected by that change. When you’re seeking input on a new plan, bring in those who can give qualified opinions. Follow this principle for every meeting. Other people can be informed of key points via memo and on an as-needed basis.
4. Make a schedule and stick to it. This is extremely important for getting buy-in on the idea of having meetings. Set a clear schedule for topics during the meeting and state a hared ending time. During the meeting, schedules help keep everyone on topic and they keep discussions concise, thus powerful. A definite ending time allows attendees to plan other activities in their day with confidence that they won’t be made late for them.
5. Choose the right amount of time for your meetings. A well-planned meeting should last a maximum of 40 minutes. At most, it should run for a bit less than an hour. This amount of time ensures you’ll keep the attention of your participants.
6. Use technology appropriately. Meeting attendees should bring their tablets or laptop so they can take notes and look up relevant information. However, they should resist the temptation to use their technology to engage in activity that will distract from the meeting at hand.
7. Be sure to follow up. Often, those who attend a meeting will end up with several different interpretations of the discussions. Meeting organizers, make sure everyone’s on the same page by sharing a recap memo to all participants. The memo needs to hit on all of the solid points: Assign duties, responsibilities, and deadlines. It should also cover the important, but less tangible things, like overall goals and decisions reached. This memo needs to be shared within 24 hours so misunderstandings don’t have a chance to take root.
8. Avoid status update meetings. With today’s technology, there is no need to hold a meeting just to “bring everyone up to date”. Ideally, use a collaboration and information sharing platform like Smart Solutions by Adventos (SmartForce, SmartCity, SmartFire) to help ensure everyone is up to date with relevant information.

When meetings are set up properly, they are impactful, motivating, and useful. Participants will be energized and focused, while organizers will make efficient strides towards the goals of their meetings. Implement these steps to improve your meetings today and get everyone on board.

Parties interested in the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves intelligence and community collaboration, click here. After watching the demo video, you are invited to request a free trial of the agency management system to try for yourselves.