Mariano Delle Donne – Page 3 – SmartForce®’s Blog

Why we do what we do

Checking in.

The other day, my five-year-old son asked me if SmartForce^TM(our Agency Management System or AMS) was being used all around the world-where he couldn’t see any different picture. What he understands is that we help police officers keep people safe, and catch the “bad guys”. What I am reminded of is that we have the opportunity and the responsibility to empower our public safety agencies to drive change in an ever-changing world.

You face serious challenges, and some that didn’t exist even 5 or 10 years ago. Much is being asked of you, and I see you get up each day and try to make your community a better place. Why you do it is clear. You are warriors, and peace keepers, guardians and goliaths essential to the communities you serve. It takes grit, courage, a love of country and time and time again I see a compassion for our fellow man.

Checking in.

Why We Do It is for all of the reasons above and because we choose to play an important role in helping one billion people with improved public safety. We only do this by helping and equipping YOU; the nearly one million police officers (the men and women in blue), with the power of people and software.

You need software solutions that are democratic and social, that allow you to respond faster than ever before, that accelerate the speed at which information flows and the rate at which you’re able to connect.

We want to positively impact the mothers, the fathers, the children, the teachers and EVERYONE in between so that they can enjoy the peace-of-mind that only comes with knowing that their communities are safe and are being taken care of.

But above all else, we do what we do because of our vision. We see a world that is increasingly safe, where you have exactly what you need, when you need it – and we want to help us all get there.

We do this now via solutions like SmartForce ™, which allows law enforcement agencies around the globe search through and access critical information faster, share it in a secure and targeted way, streamline workflows and facilitate collaboration – all in one fell swoop.

Checking in.

Sometimes it’s the voice of a five-year-old that reminds us of our bigger purpose, the roles we all play, and why we do it.

Response to Resistance (RtR), a new approach to Use of Force

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

If you had to make a list of all the controversial topics in the world of law enforcement, the use of force would be right at the top. This has only intensified in recent years as the term itself, along with what is acceptable when employed, are constantly evolving.

At Adventos, we have made an effort to incorporate the concepts of “Response to Resistance” into our entire SmartForce™ suite of products because we understand that every interaction our officers have with the public could be scrutinized. This is true regarding internal teams as well as external agents such as the media. Therefore, law enforcement agencies across the nation are fast adopting the principles we set on “Response to Resistance” which are:

Transparency
Accountability
Accessibility

Transparency

Internal procedures and checkpoints have been increased in the last few years in all law enforcement agencies in the United States. There is understandably a sense that law enforcement agencies must do everything in their power to increase visibility of what offices are doing in our communities and be ready to provide all level of details almost instantly.

Accountability

The core functionality of SmartForce™ allows for each officer to be held truly accountable for every action they take, both good and bad — the way it should be. This means they have to adhere to appropriately stringent polices when it comes to “Response to Resistance.” As a result, agencies must provide a reliable, effective way for officers to track each interaction and record the results. The idea is to gather real-time or almost real-time information, and analyze the data to improve future outcomes.

SmartForce™ provides a new avenue for law enforcement agencies to do precisely that on a daily basis. Moreover, this information can and should be used to drive better, more effective, and more holistic training opportunities moving forward.

Accessibility

Make no mistake: We now live in a mobile world. The days of waiting to get back to HQ to file reports are now gone. Internal Supervisors, as well as the public, expect information to be available almost instantly. At Adventos, we provide immediate access to our “Response to Resistance” application from anywhere there is an Internet connection. This includes MDC’s, Tablets and Smart Phones.

All these principles must be incorporated into any solution that is attempting to record and analyze interactions. What we learn from “Response to Resistance” now will have an enormous the impact on officers and the communities they serve.

We at Adventos are proud to provide the only such solution in the market today that does all of this and more. We designed SmartForce™ and our “Response to Resistance” suite using feedback from law enforcement agencies across the nation to make sure we facilitate tracking in the most effective, user-friendly and fair way possible. The ultimate goal is to be able to learn from each interaction, analyze the individual circumstances of each case, and improve the outcome for both officers as well as suspects.

To learn more about the current and expanding features of SmartForce™ Agency Management Solution (AMS) developed in collaboration with our customer and Agency partners, please visit our Website at www.adventos.com.

PIO Need Better Tools

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Public Information Officers, commonly referred to as PIOs, are the communications coordinators who working diligently with law enforcement agencies, fire departments, local and state governments, school districts and more who provide mission-critical information to the public on a regular basis.

In essence, it is their job to keep us informed. When we need to know something, they’re the ones that provide it with us. They play a pivotal role in everything from standard day-to-day operations to public emergencies and everything in between.

And unfortunately, they need better tools. Or at least, tools that are better than the ones they have right now.

The PIO Problem

The main reason why PIOs need better tools than the one that they have now stems from a general misunderstanding about the work they do daily. The job of a Public Information Officer is NOT simply to pass data from “Point A” to “Point B.” It actually extends quite a bit deeper than that. They’re not a spokesperson or a public relations professional – they need open and secure lines of communication with the communities they serve. They need to not only communicate but COLLABORATE, both internally and with the surrounding areas.

Presently, the technology that many PIOs rely on leaves a lot to be desired to say the least. These systems are simply not set up to respond to incidents in fast, effective and smart ways, to say nothing of the lack of organization required to build their culture and showcase all of the great work that goes on in the world of law enforcement (not just the “bad news” that is so commonly reported by the press).

Simply put, we at Adventos believe that PIOs need a tool that will allow them to do all of this and more. They need something that not only gives them the ability to do the work they need to do, but HOW they like to do it.

And thankfully, we’ve just given it to them.

The Public Information Officer Module

The Public Information Officer module in SmartForce was designed from the ground up with a simple word in mind: empowerment. PIOs have access to all the data they need to communicate and collaborate with their communities in the safest and most effective ways possible right at their fingertips.

The “Contacts” list includes category fields like “News,” “Social Media,” Liaison,” “Community” and more, allowing them to instantly share the right data with the right people at the touch of a button. The “Media Kit” is a fully functional document library supporting all of today’s most commonly used formats, making sure that absolutely nothing is lost in translation.

Creating customized press releases is also a breeze, as the “Press Releases” list in the PIO module includes criteria like:

Type of Incident (user editable)
Date Prepared
Incident Location
Cause of Incident
Additional Hazards
Status and more

The “Feature Stories,” “Incidents,” “Social Media” and “Other Documents” document libraries were also designed with this goal in mind. They’re intended to help PIOs get organized, compile the most actionable, valuable data at their fingertips so that they have everything they need to make the most informed choices moving forward.

But able all else, the “Public Information Officer” module is simple. We believe that PIOs should have the ability to work smarter, not harder, which is one of the reasons why we at Adventos are champions of the idea that a 21st century job like a PIO should have access to the latest and greatest 21st century tools at the same time.

About the recent attacks

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

The recent litany of attacks on police and civilians alike is beyond disturbing. They add to today’s already unsettled reality, and they call attention to our ability to correct the things that need correcting. Do we have bigger problems than racism? What is the enemy? How much bloodshed do we need to endure in order to identify the scope of our problems? And then: how long will it take to right the ship?

I don’t know about you but 24/7 access to what’s bad in this world leaves me feeling very unsettled. It makes me wonder: is this world we live in really this bad…what I’m reading, and hearing, and watching?

I don’t think it is. I don’t think it is because of what I see and witness when I’m not paying attention to the news—when I’m working or spending time with family and friends. At work, especially, I see that the focus has not changed—protecting the innocent. Despite what’s reported, most of our country’s law enforcement personnel wake up every day committed to protecting the innocent. I work with these people day in and day out. Most are driven by a deep desire to serve, to find the bad guys, and get them off our streets. That day-to-day grind is not newsworthy, however, so it goes unreported.

Like you, I have a growing number of questions. And the only answer I’ve come to recently is that I know, 100 percent, things need to be fixed and we have to do it together. Collectively, we need to do whatever we can to improve our social situation. We need to be more vigilant citizens, holding each other and public officials accountable for the decisions we make.

On behalf of the entire Adventos team and its Board, we stand united with America’s great citizenry and its protectors.

Four Steps That Can Help Agencies Become More Standardized

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Police departments operate efficiently when standardized administrative procedures are in place, but often people have their own way of doing things. These inconsistencies make it difficult to train new recruits on procedures and best practices. This can cause inefficiencies, drive up costs, and introduce liabilities within police departments.

By incorporating standard procedures, police departments can improve their administrative systems, thereby reducing stress, cutting costs, and improving morale, performance, and public safety.

Here are 4 steps that can help agencies become more effective:

Current Policy Review – Strategically review current procedures. Decide which work best, which aren’t working, which could be streamlined, and which will promote efficiency and policy standardization in your agency.
Set New Policy Standard – After you have decided which processes you’d like to standardize, make them policy and share the policy with all personnel. After a short while, you should notice your agency running more efficiently, giving officers time to work on back burner tasks.
Use Individual Skill Sets Fully – Standardizations breed efficiencies which in turn frees up time for personnel. You will now be able to give officers new tasks and responsibilities, but make sure the new tasks fit their skill sets. Staff will be more engaged with work they like to do and are able to do well, which not only helps with efficiency, but also builds morale.
Periodically Review Procedures – Expect your policies to change as time goes by and your agency changes. If a best practice is no longer working, change it, delete it, or tweak it. Refresh the way you do things, so your agency is working as efficiently as possible.

A helpful tool:

SmartForce brings together a department’s official communications, administration and business processes in a single, compliant, first-of-its-kind, integrated agency management system. Check out our free demo video to see the power of SmartForce in action.

Recognizing Employees is the Simplest Way to Boost Morale

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

It’s no secret that happy employees are productive employees – this is true in all avenues of life, regardless of the industry you’re talking about. According to a report published on the Huffington Post, 88% of workers in the United States admitted they just don’t have passion for their work. More than that, this type of employee disengagement spawned in large part due to low morale, costs the United States economy an estimated $500 billion per year.

What does this have to do with law enforcement, you ask? Everything, as the same report indicated that employees working in government, which law enforcement is a part of, had the lowest rate of engagement out of any reported industry.

So how do you tackle the root cause of such a big problem? Thankfully, the solution is quite straightforward: start recognizing the hard work that your employees do on a daily basis.

In another survey that was conducted in association with HBR.org, 82% of employed Americans revealed that they just don’t feel their immediate supervisors recognize them enough for their contributions. Along the same lines, 40% of respondents said they’d be more willing to put extra energy into their work if they were recognized more often.

With these numbers, the answer to your morale issues becomes clear. When an officer or civilian staff member does something truly special, when they go above and beyond the call of duty and make an appreciable contribution to keeping our communities safer on a daily basis, don’t just tell them. Tell everyone.

But recognizing your people doesn’t just take the form of an occasional pat on the back. According to HBR, there are a number of clear steps you should be taking on a regular basis to help boost morale through employee recognition:

Celebrate the little victories. Going out of your way to publicly recognize and reward smaller wins is a great way to keep everyone motivated over a long period of time, which itself feeds into those big milestones that your law enforcement agency will thrive on.
Make it as personal as possible. Did you know that over 75% of people say that they save handwritten “thank you” notes, especially when they receive them from their employers? You don’t have to celebrate every employee accomplishment with a massive party – sometimes a simple note will more than suffice.
You have to want it. When you begin making an effort to recognize employees more, don’t just do it because you feel you have to. Do it because you WANT to. Not only will it help your recognition be more genuine, but it also means a whole lot more to the person receiving recognition.

Law enforcement has some of the most hardworking men and women on the face of our planet. If you really want to make sure that low morale is NOT something you have to worry about, making an effort to recognize and celebrate a job well done is a great way to accomplish exactly that!

What is a Fusion Center?

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.

Fusion centers show the true power of data sharing among law enforcement agencies

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.

Procedural justice: How a simple concept can help cops make a big impact

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Procedural justice often boils down to people treating other people with dignity and politeness, regardless of whether they’re a suspect or a cop or somewhere in between. Read the full article at PoliceOne.com.

Easy Steps to Implementation of an Agency Management System

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Almost any business that implements a new software system faces reluctant staff members who do not want to give up using their tried and true system and transition to a new one. You can make strides in overcoming this reluctance by focusing on a few implementation steps.

Utilize a Collaborative Approach: Emphasize Need for Feedback

Engage new users in the implementation process in the early phases of selecting the system before implementation actually begins. Create an environment of collaboration by establishing a mechanism for feedback beginning from the time you first inform users there will be a new system.

Throughout the process, collect pros and cons from your users. Find out what is and isn’t working with the AMS. Ask the right questions to bring forth relevant information from those who are obviously struggling, but may have trouble articulating their concerns.

Many times what people think isn’t working presents a simple teaching moment. Other times it might be a question for the deployment team. Either way, solution-oriented feedback is a great way to overcome the challenges of using the new tool.

When a focus is on collaboration and concerns of the users are addressed, they feel like they are part of the process and are more willing to cooperate and be enthusiastic about the new system. Continue engaging with personnel throughout the entire implementation process.

Implement the New System in Phases and Keep It Super Simple

Make it simple: Keep in mind the “crawl, then walk, then run” concept as you implement the new system in phases, so those who may be “technophobic” are not intimidated. The easier the new tool is to use and understand, the easier it will be to become accustomed to it, and the fewer problems there will be.

Take the time to train less technical users on how these new tools work and how the tools will improve the ease with which they do their daily job tasks, as well as improve their communication with other crime analysts.

Implement in phases: Implementing the new program in phases is a major part of making it easy. Begin each phase with a discussion of how the software is expected to work and how it will make each user’s specific tasks simpler and more efficient. Emphasize the advantages of the new system over the old.

Provide a way to receive frequent feedback from users so that concerns can be addressed before they become real problems. Consider having periodic brainstorming sessions where users can share their concerns and obtain solutions.

As users learn the benefits of the new system, and as collaboration becomes the norm in your agency, people will want to bring sensitive projects onto the intranet. Using the tools will become common practice and staff will enjoy sharing content only with those to whom they choose to make it accessible.

Best Practices Are Ever-Changing

Processes, policies and procedures change with the times. Annual revisions will keep all employees and staff up-to-date and compliant with new agency policy and keep them current on how the Agency Management System will be used.

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.