Category: SmartForce®

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3.  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.
4. 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.

Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education

You’ve all heard of CAD and RMS and know they are integral systems for operating a law enforcement organization.  However, in today’s policing a new system is required.  The third leg of the Police “3-Legged Stool” is an Agency Management System (AMS).  Thankfully this third system does not come with the same price tag or require the intense resource allocation of CAD and RMS, but it is equally integral to operating in an environment of ever increasing demands that outpace government budgets.

Why Do I Need an Agency Management System?

With today’s increased demands and expectations on law enforcement agencies, gone are the days of just responding to calls for service and writing reports.  Therefore, a third software solution is required in addition to CAD and RMS systems.  In general, Agency Management Systems (AMS) enable quicker search and access to critical data, targeted information sharing, user-friendly electronic workflows, and facilitate collaboration so key initiatives and group problem solving are accomplished more efficiently.  SmartForce™ is a unique AMS since it is law enforcement specific, meets the Criminal Justice Information Services Division’s strict standards for security, and allows for internal and external collaboration.  Other off-the-shelf systems do not meet this criteria, are not designed to account for today’s evidence-based law enforcement complexities or workflows, and provide limited information-sharing features.

What Makes SmartForce™ So Great?

The SmartForce™ Agency Management System (AMS) enables law enforcement agencies to manage their ever increasing amount of data and complex departmental functions more accurately and efficiently, as well as improve intelligence-led and community-policing strategies.

Best of all, SmartForce™ was designed for officers—to be user friendly and secure—with input from more than 300 public safety customers. Today, we have customers from coast to coast ranging from small to large market police departments, sheriffs’ offices, and even a gang and intelligence fusion center all using SmartForce™ and continuing to provide us feedback on how it can make their jobs easier and provide greater levels of public safety.

Let’s face it…you’re constantly called to do more with less. SmartForce’s technology does more by helping your agency work Smarter! Positive outcomes of our SmartForce™ AMS include:

• Better execution of crime reduction and prevention strategies
• More efficient management of community-policing efforts during uncommitted patrol time
• More procedural justice transparency and quicker reporting for command staff, elected officials, the general public, or media
• Faster communication of incident details to officers, particularly in life-or-death situations
• Better management and reporting of high liability concerns like use-of-force and complaints
• More automated administrative processes (e.g., tasks, shift change assignments, document management), enabling more uncommitted time
• Easier management of training, compliance, and reporting workflows
• More collaboration with neighboring agencies and community partners

Other Agency-relevant considerations that guided Adventos’ development of SmartForce™ include:

• A mobile-friendly design enabling ease-of-use on desktop computers, MDC’s, tablets, and smartphones
• New hardware isn’t needed
• An intuitive design for all levels of sophistication and agency sizes
• Quick and effective training

Meaningful Intelligence Sharing

Availability — Information sharing isn’t enough. Information needs to be shared to the right people, with the right priority…instantly. Information must also be found quickly with a deep search engine that can even dig through pdf’s, video, and audio files.  Available information is the only valuable and actionable information.  Email fails to meet these criteria.  SmartForce™ ensures law enforcement personnel can access and share the critical information they need, when they need it.

Internal Group Problem Solving — SmartForce™ helps agency groups solve problems by providing easy access to relevant data as well as real-time discussion threads and bulletin boards to collaborate and complete projects together in a faster period of time.

Community Group Engagement — SmartForce™ lets community groups and local businesses share content like building blueprints, surveillance video, photos, and crime prevention strategies; engage in real-time discussions; and post questions and answers among key organizational leaders, task forces, and other agencies. Business owners, schools, HOAs, churches, and other community partners that have used these features report immediate and improved feelings of security and a better connection to law enforcement agencies.

Security

SmartForce™ enables departments to set permissions and security features for specific job functions from sworn to non-sworn in regard to criminal investigations, situational awareness, and administrative tasks.

SmartForce™ is hosted in Microsoft’s Government Cloud, so mission-critical data is secured in a CJIS compliant environment, and always accessible. In states where a signed information agreement is necessary, Microsoft has signed the Security Addendum of the FBI CJIS Security Policy which requires Microsoft to meet the same requirements public safety and law enforcement agencies are held to. It also means your agency can prove compliance by using the signed Security Addendum as evidence.

Mobility First

SmartForce™ reduces unnecessary administrative and travel time for officers in the field. Many functions previously requiring administrative extra steps and travel are easily and securely performed in SmartForce™, from anywhere.  For example, officers returning from off-duty can be caught up immediately by scanning the SmartForce™ shift briefing board from their smartphones and there is no need to burn DVD’s of video/photo evidence to be couriered to the District Attorney’s office during case preparation for court proceedings.

Most Popular SmartForce™ Features

Information and Intelligence Collaboration

• Roll-Call/Shift Briefing Bulletin Boards
• CJIS compliant Bulletin Dissemination
• Real-Time Criminal Intelligence
• Officer Safety Intelligence
• Discussion Threads to collaborate on pattern crimes, problem locations, major crimes and neighborhood/traffic
• Photo, Video, Bulletin, and Warrant Libraries
• Assigned Problems Manager
• Alerts and Announcements Manager
• Community Bulletin Board

Body Worn Camera and High Liability Management

• Response to Resistance Reporting
• Complaints and Commendations Reporting
• Compliance Management
• Training Officer Management (FTO, PTO, or Modified)
• Public Information Officer
• Video Library Management

Community Collaboration

• Community Partner Access Sites for Neighborhood Watch, Schools, Business Watch, Task Forces, etc.
• Community Leaders Discussion Forum
• Community Request Management
• Activity/Initiative Management
• Community Policing Outreach

Administrative Streamlining

• Legal, Policy, and Training Acknowledgement
• Document Management
• Calendar Management
• Forms Library
• Policy Library
• Inventory or Quartermaster Management
• Extra-Duty
• Public Safety and Community Directory
• Absence and Vacation Tracking, including approval workflows

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.