Category: SmartForce®

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Law enforcement agencies and departments implementing a body-worn camera system face a number of operational challenges. From training and compliance to complaint tracking and open records requests, agencies face increasing demands and public pressure.

The SmartForce™ agency management system by Adventos™ addresses these issues to make managing a body-worn camera program easier for officers and office staff alike. Hassle, frustration, and reluctance are reduced with the SmartForce system, which works with any camera hardware system.
Below are the ways the SmartForce agency management system aids agencies.

Policy Compliance

Many agencies struggle with managing the receipt and acknowledgement of body-worn camera policies, audit management, and testing. The Adventos SmartForce system streamlines policy drafting, submissions, auditing, and reporting, so management can focus on policy shaping rather than wondering if officers are in compliance.

Response to Resistance

For too many departments, use of force reporting involves outdated, hand-written forms or legacy internal affairs software systems that are past their prime. SmartForce captures what truly matters in use of force incidents. The system can embed video evidence into a report, create a chronological sequence of events, and handle reporting of multiple officers, parties and witnesses. The software tracks what responses to resistance and de-escalation techniques were used. In tandem with a body-worn camera program, SmartForce is an effective way to track responses to resistance.

Citizen Complaint Tracking

In today’s digital environment, community members can easily record an incident and file a formal complaint. SmartForce allows complaint reports to be routed easily through a chain of command seamlessly and efficiently. Clean and consistent handling of citizen complaints has several advantages. It creates a culture of accountability and improves morale among officers, saves personnel time and money, and boosts public perception of a department.

Training Management

A legacy of paperwork-based processes leads to inefficient management in training academies. Training progress and completion is often submitted and analyzed by hand. With SmartForce, daily observation reports, completion and certification tracking for an entire department is possible. For body-worn camera usage, additional training may be needed and, along with policy compliance, can be tracked using the software.

Video Storage

Body-worn cameras increase the need for agencies to manage an increasing volume of video storage. Some body-worn camera vendors use proprietary, closed platforms. SmartForce runs on the Microsoft Cloud for Government solution and is Criminal Justice Information Services-compliant. SmartForce allows agencies to embed video in response-to-resistance incident or citizen complaint reports. With written reports and video evidence together, tracking and administration is simplified for important information.

Open Records Requests

Coordinating responses to an open records request can be a complicated and overwhelming task. Outdated processes are still commonplace, with manual filing, categorization, retrieval and disclosure reporting. With SmartForce, these processes are streamlined and centralized to ensure timely compliance and adherence to legal requirements.

Public Information Officer

The role of the public information officer (PIO) is growing in importance among law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. PIOs need rapid access to accurate information in real time to meet increasing demands for information and accountability. Never is this need more amplified than in a crisis situation. SmartForce is the only software solution designed to empower PIOs to work with colleagues to collect and distribute information in routine and urgent moments.

The SmartForce™ Agency Management System can be integrated with your current Body Worn Camera hardware in a single platform that is easy to use. See SmartForce™ in action with a free 30 day trial at www.adventos.com.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Divisions and Units that rarely interact because of shift or physical separation, can now collaborate on crime reduction initiatives and community programs. Why? Because of the advent of efficient Agency Management Systems (AMSs). AMSs save time and reduce duplicated effort in an ever changing environment.

McKinsey & Company estimates the average knowledge worker spends 28 hours per week using email, searching for information, and collaborating. By adopting some collaborative tools available in AMSs, organizations can become up to 25% more efficient and reduce email and the time spent searching for data and documents. That 25% percent increase can easily be achieved with the right technology and culture. Communication and collaboration moves your officers to a higher level of empowerment, transparency, and accountability to achieve your agency’s goals.

The following are points of interest if you’re thinking about implementing an AMS in your agency. Make sure you are ready to manage the change management process by following these tips:

• Show how the tool works quickly, so users can plug and go.
• Choose easy over complex, by starting with the most common processes for users, like patrol replying to threads on crime patterns, problem locations, and neighborhood and traffic issues. Make officers contributors right away, so they will be part of the collaboration and sharing of valuable information.
• Show how the tool solves certain challenges in the agency, like accessing data from multiple databases and getting better crime reduction results during discretionary time.
• How and why the new AMS is more effective than the legacy methods. Push back should be expected, but be ready to explain how much more efficient everyone’s work will be with your new software tool. Take for example a current painful paper process, and then illustrate how efficient it would be to click a few buttons for work to be completed electronically, via AMS.

Interested parties can learn more about the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it automates administrative processes associated with law enforcement duties by clicking here. After watching the demo, interested law enforcement officials are invited to click the “Start My Free Trial” button to experience SmartForce, firsthand.

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Every time you write a blog, you are distilling your vision for the Police department and for the community you serve. Those who want to learn more from their Chief of Police, have a place to do so proactively and people eager to understand the department can reference the blog and learn on their own.

Here are a few things to think about when blogging:

One – Start with an internal blog that is private to the department personnel and for agency personnel only.

Two – Write consistently: once a week, every two weeks, or once a month. Writing three or four articles ahead of time gives you a head start on your various topics and it also helps stimulate thought and your writing will flow.

Three – Write about topics that give you the biggest mileage: building culture, service to the community, and minimizing potential high liability concerns.

Four – Start a public community blog. Once you are in a rhythm of blogging internally, select a few articles that your community would enjoy. Writing a community blog will promote and encourage community engagement and trust.

Five – Be yourself!

If you are not yet blogging, you should really give it a try. The benefits you reap will certainly outweigh the time and effort you put in. The support you will get from your agency and community will increase.

Adventos | www.adventos.com | 303-800-5040

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Secure, mobile and real-time Shift Briefings and Roll-Call Pass-On was one of the first features we made available as part of the SmartForce Agency Management System. It was a feature requested from a Chief of Police who wanted to improve internal communication. I recently felt like honoring the concept of Roll-Call Pass-On, so I did research to find out what was behind this practice and how it could be taken to the next level.

One of the first articles I read was written in the 1950’s, by Richard Simon, a Deputy Chief from the Los Angeles Police Department. It really jumped out at me, for it was extensive, thoughtful, and its information very well presented. An excerpt is below, but you can read the full article here:

“Every police administrator recognizes, and at least pays lip service to, the necessity for adherence to the principles of sound organization. One of these principles is that there must be a clear-cut statement of authority and responsibility in order that each person thoroughly understands his duties. Those who are responsible for the operation of a police department cannot expect a policeman to perform with dispatch and maximum efficiency unless he has been told first of what his job consists.”

I also enjoyed the information shared via a 2014 Facebook poll from PoliceOne which offered 8 conceivable and inspiring ways to improve Roll-Call Pass-On (you can review this poll here). It was much lighter in nature, compared to the article above, but still contained valuable material.
Combining these articles with the other research I’ve conducted, my various conversations with agency members, and my business knowledge, I’ve concluded that the following six practices will definitely improve Roll-Call Pass-On:

One – Make it MOBILE

Today, there is no reason not to have information available 24×7 and on the go. Collating, printing, and passing paper around during roll-call is inefficient, as now day’s information can be electronically pulled up in a CJIS compliant platform with any mobile device. This makes the dissemination of awareness, information, intelligence, tactics, and officer safety information, easier and faster to access at any time. You can still have a physical meeting and use a projector or flat screen TV to review information, but during a 24-hour day there is a running log of important pass-on information that can and should be accessed while on the go, via a mobile device.

Two – Make it ACTIONABLE

Leverage the power of information and data for decision making, rather than just status updates. While status reporting is important, decision making is more valuable in a Law Enforcement setting. Ensure you are quickly moving past the status update components and focus on action oriented and outcome focused decision making. With a system like SmartForce™, information can be accessed or read ahead of time, so meetings can quickly turn to decisions, tactics, and actions.

Three – Make it ACCOUNTABLE

During Roll-Call Pass-On, assign follow-up activities. Be clear on who will do what, by when, and if needed, how it will be done. With a documented way of assigning follow up, you are driving accountability to a person or a squad. With ownership there is responsibility and improved results.

Four – Make it INTERESTING

Share information in an interesting and unique way to ensure officers retain what information they need to be successful. It is one thing to share information, it’s another to ensure people learn from and retain it. Try giving creative titles to your shared material or inserting photos and videos that pertain to what people need to learn, so the information becomes more interesting and engaging.

Five – Make it CONCISE

Being respectful of everyone’s time is important, so share information directed to the whole group. If there is an issue that only applies to a few officers, seek them out individually and discuss the matter later on.

Six – Remember to PRAISE the behavior you want to reinforce

Call out officers who have gone above and beyond, solved a particular case with techniques you want to highlight, or followed a new policy in a situation and achieved excellent results. When doing so, don’t just say “great job”, be specific by communicating to the group exactly what the officer did that caused you to categorize their behavior or results as great. By being specific, your officers know you honestly appreciate what they do and it raises the bar for the others to strive to be their best, too.

To learn more about how SmartForce™ can help you with Roll-Call Pass-On, Shift Briefings, and intelligence sharing, check out our video demonstration on our website, at www.adventos.com or give us a call, at 303-800-5044.

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

Gaps in information sharing led the DOJ to push for agencies to adopt intelligence-led policing. Here are a few examples of agencies that have deployed the strategy.

Read more at PoliceOne here.

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

Sharing information across multiple agencies can be aided by intelligence-led policing strategies. Just don’t get tripped up by these common mistakes.

Read more in PoliceOne here.