Agency Management System – Page 8 – SmartForce®’s Blog

Crime analysts need new tools for sharing key information with law enforcement colleagues

One of a crime analyst’s most important roles is to distribute information to fellow law enforcement officers. Getting this information into the hands of officers on patrol, responding to calls, or actively working cases is critical to effective police work.

While email has its place in distributing information, crime analysts have told us that using an agency management system has distinct advantages. With so many daily emails coming to officers, they may overlook critical information they need from crime analysts. A quick delete of an email can make it difficult to find at the moment it’s most needed.

Email and agency management systems are both needed in modern police departments, but they should be used, particularly by crime analysts, in very specific circumstances.

Occasions When Crime Analysts Should Use Email

There are a number of times when sending information through email is the best choice, including:

Sending an official department memo that goes to all personnel.
Requesting specific information from one person or a small group of people.
Notifying a group of people where to find information that has been recently posted.
Responding to a specific request made by one person or a small group of people.

By limiting use of email to these functions, officers will know the types of information to expect from crime analysts via email.

Advantages of Disseminating Information through an Agency Management System

For distributing regularly produced or one-time-only crime analysis, an agency management system has many distinct advantages over email. Here are some the best reasons to use agency management systems for sharing crime analysis information:

Real-time communications: With the ability to communicate in real time through discussion boards or threads, law enforcement personnel can discuss what further crime analysis is needed, what areas need more examination or what other products need to be created. All personnel involved in an investigation can keep up to date on its status, including notifications when a crime is solved, an arrest is made or a suspect provides new information that needs further investigation.
Organized information: Pertinent Information about an investigation can be stored and organized in one place. This alleviates the need for individual personnel to create their own organization system and for information to be distributed consistently and accurately. This allows relevant personnel to access information specific to their own investigative needs. For example, information can be organized by district, type of product or other self-created categories as needed by the department.
Searchable archives: With archived reports, personnel can use keyword searches or phrases to locate and retrieve needed information. Officers do not need to search through old emails or request a crime analyst to locate and resend information.
Large files are easily accessible: Photos, graphs, maps, charts, videos, BOLOs and other data are often large files that can be cumbersome and eat up storage on mobile devices. Agency management systems make such files easy to access, retrieve and use immediately.
Pop-up alerts: When information is particularly important, such as a crime pattern bulletin or video of a crime in progress, an alert, much like a website pop-up ad, can be posted. These pop-ups provide a helpful alert to personnel who access the agency management system, keeping them apprised of vital information as quickly as possible. When the crisis is over, the alert can be removed and archived.

With SmartForce™ by Adventos, law enforcement agencies can provide crime analysts with the right tools to effectively communicate about key information and updates. With practical storage, retrieval and alert functions, officers who need information can access it quickly.

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.

Koper Curve and SmartForce

Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education

The Koper Curve theory of policing is gaining traction in a number of police departments. Yet for many agencies, having the right data and analysis available to implement the Koper Curve method is daunting. Poor record-keeping and a lack of usable data can hinder policing efforts to reduce crime incidents with this policing strategy.

Fortunately, there are platform solutions to help police departments more efficiently connect people and data to help prevent and reduce crime in problematic areas.

Koper Curve Explained

The Koper Curve is named for Christopher S. Koper, an associate professor at George Mason University and Senior Fellow at the university’s Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. The premise is based on the notion that most crime incidents occur in a small percentage of areas in a particular jurisdiction. Some studies indicate that as much as 50 percent of crime occurs in less than 5 percent of blocks or street segments.

By focusing on these hot spots, Koper’s research found, crime rates can be reduced substantially. Instead of stationing officers in one place or telling patrol officers to patrol hot spots is costly and ineffective. Instead, the theory recommends proactive, random and intermittent patrols of these hot spots for 10-16 minutes at least every two hours. Koper’s research showed that the likelihood of criminal activity within 30 minutes of a patrol drive-by was 15 percent. When random police stops lasting 10-16 minutes were incorporated, the likelihood of criminal activity dropped to 4 percent.

The key is intermittent, unscheduled patrols of a meaningful duration rather than regularly scheduled drop-ins.

From a resource perspective the Koper Curve principle has other advantages. For one it makes better use of patrol officers’ time. Secondly, it builds trust and credibility within the nearby community through increased presence and visibility.

Data challenges

Departments seeking to operationalize the Koper Curve principles in their patrols are to be commended. It is a powerful example of evidence-based police work.

However, many agencies face constraints in implementing the Koper Curve due to a lack of processes and systems to collect, track, and analyze the pertinent data. Without data that can easily be entered, stored, accessed and acted upon, there is little accountability for hot-spot policing and it is difficult to manage or measure results. While some department personnel may have educated guesses or hunches as to where those hot spots are or the results from hot-spot policing, a clear examination of the data is required to make a clear determination.

SmartForce™ from Adventos is a powerful solution. SmartForce™ is a first-of-its-kind agency management system software platform that lets law enforcement agencies connect internally and to their communities. Agencies using SmartForce™ are more efficient, better organized and have more functionality for collaborating on intelligence needs, connecting with the public, and keeping officers informed and safe.

SmartForce™ has a module specifically designed to let officers input their patrol activities during un-committed time in one location. Categorized data, easy retrieval, and clear reporting lets analysts and supervisors access the information both in real time and after the fact. By aggregating directed patrol information, offender checks and citizen contacts, departments can prevent or reduce crime in particular jurisdictional areas.

For departments eager to use the Koper Curve model to make their communities safer, SmartForce™ from Adventos is the right choice.

For more information about the SmartForce™ Agency Management System and how it improves hot-spot policing, community-policing, and intelligence collaboration, click here to watch the SmartForce demo. After watching the demonstration video, interested law enforcement officials are invited to request a free trial of the agency management. Click here to view the video and request a free trial today.

The High Cost of Not Finding Information in Law Enforcement

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

For law enforcement agencies, not being able to find the right information quickly can mean the difference between life and death and a loss of community trust.

A report by IDC titled The High Cost of Not Finding Information shows the challenges executives face when information is elusive. Good information is the foundation of good decision-making and allows organizations to run efficiently by saving time, frustration and duplication of effort. Executives also admit that tracking and accessing the right information is a daily problem in many organizations.

The risks are notable.

Without accurate and timely information, poor decisions are made. Siloed communication leads to multiple staff members or units working on the same project. Productivity and morale are poor when needed information is missing, lost, or difficult to find.

In the public safety space, agencies that suffer from poor information management also risk the safety of staff members and the general public. Confidence in an agency can erode or suspicions may be raised if information that should be available cannot be produced easily or takes too long to be be found and acted upon.

Our work with more than 250 law enforcement agencies shows that these risks and frustrations are real and significant issues for department leadership.

Law enforcement agencies rely heavily on computer aided dispatch (CAD) and record management systems (RMS) to manage core functions, including calls for service and response activities. However, these systems are, at best, only a partial solution for traditional policing during committed time. These systems dispatch officers and keep records, but both are backwards-looking technologies, they do not provide departments with needed information to guide decision-making and responses in a targeted and real time.

Existing CAD and RMS systems are not enough for effective modern police work. Today, we find more agencies wanting and needing to better manage key management functions, including uncommitted time, community oriented policing efforts, and regional information sharing. These functions include police work that falls outside the traditional boundaries covered by CAD and RMS, such as:

Coordinating organized shift briefings and roll call pass-on.
Communicating responses to crime in a real time, targeted way by following a crime thread.
Confirming that messages from command officers is seen and acknowledged by officers.
Centrally managing all correspondence and requests from the community.
Ensuring community responses, whether ongoing or ad hoc, are channeled up and down the chain of command, with status reporting on requests, whether from an elected official, media outlet, or private citizen.
Managing crime intelligence information including bulletins that are generated internally and those that span multiple jurisdictions.
Leading a real-time, coordinated response to a major crime incident. Again, such responses may be internal, or involve multiple agencies or a regional SWAT team.
Coordinating community-related initiatives such as working with retailers, school safety programs, and faith groups.

Managing large-scale events that require coordination among multiple parties that do not share RMS data.

Internally managing employee policy acknowledgement, training records and employment history.

Coordinating new initiatives that requires communication and alignment, such as body-worn camera testing and implementation.

Managing these complex tasks today, agencies often rely on different, incompatible and disconnected systems, including emails, paper-based filing and communication, Excel and Word files, Access databases or a city- or town-provided intranet. These may be partial solutions, but often lead to situations where information is difficult to find.

With SmartForce™ by Adventos, law enforcement agencies have another option. 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. SmartForce™ is a real-time communication and collaboration platform to better connect law enforcement agencies internally and to the communities that they serve. Click here to find out more.

A New Way of Managing Response to Resistance

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

Law enforcement agencies today face increasing public scrutiny on the use of force during arrests and other incidents. Increasing demand for accountability, transparency and accurate reporting on these matters is coming from all corners: the public, elected officials, the media, and activists. With high-profile incidents grabbing headlines, protests and growing skepticism, police departments need to be able to accurately track and monitor such incidents.

Unfortunately, there is little to no commonality to the measuring or reporting of use of force incidents among law enforcement agencies and, in some cases, within agencies themselves. In some cases, there is a lack of automated, computerized record-keeping at all.

A New York Times article reported on the issues in great detail. When the Justice Department surveyed police departments on use of force several years ago, the results were troubling … not for the incidents themselves but for the vast inconsistencies and lack of standards in how to measure use-of-force incidents. Among the Times’ findings:

Vast differences in tracking. Not all departments mandate tracking of use of force. Among those that do, some attach the information to related police reports, some use separate databases and others keep paper records.
Reporting standards are nonexistent. Some departments track each incident separately. Others report the number of reports where use of force is indicated, which means the same incident may be counted multiple times via different officers’ reports. Some departments only report on incidents that occur during arrests.
‘Use of force’ is defined differently in different jurisdictions. In some cases, officers punching a person or throwing them to the ground was considered a use of force, but not in all cases. Some included incidents using less lethal weapons while others did not.
Some departments are reluctant to report the information for fear that the data, without proper context, could lead to criticism.

With SmartForce™ by Adventos, agencies can solve these issues by bringing accurate tracking and reporting of use of force into a paperless world. SmartForce™ gives departments the ability to streamline processes critical to effective department operations; record, store and retrieve information; manage compliance with policies; and track training progress.

The SmartForce™ High Liability Management module helps reduce the risks and exposures of police departments in use-of-force incidents. The module’s Response to Resistance application sequentially tracks and reports on uses of force. The information is searchable and allows for real-time reporting for command staff or open-records requests. Body-worn camera footage can be included in reports. All the information is accessible on mobile devices, too.

SmartForce™ by Adventos is the solution for police departments wanting to streamline communication, reduce crime, manage workflows and improve reporting. With high-level dashboards, collaborative intelligence-sharing capabilities, and intuitive interfaces, SmartForce™ lets police departments improve operations and manage staff effectively.

How SmartForce Maintains CJIS Compliance

Doug Owens
Director of Implementation

All agencies serving the public must pay extra attention to the security of the computerized systems they use. This is especially true of police agencies. These departments use computers to keep track of evidence, assign cases and tasks to officers, and handle other essential operations. Such types of information need a higher level of protection than general data.

To provide the needed level of security, Adventos hosts its SmartForce system on Microsoft’s Government Cloud. This is a special set of cloud servers that incorporates several top-grade security systems and is compliant with CJIS. In states where a signed information agreement is necessary, Microsoft has signed the Security Addendum of the FBI CJIS Security Policy. This commits Microsoft to meeting the same requirements that public safety and law enforcement agencies are held to. It also means that your agency can prove compliance by using the signed Security Addendum as evidence.

Why Does the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) System Require Such High Security?

This system holds criminal records, fingerprint records, sex offender registrations, and other justice-related information. These sorts of records attract criminal computer activity because they can be used for identity theft, blackmail, and other such information-related crimes. Therefore, the law requires a high amount of computer security for those who handle criminal justice information (CJI). This law applies to cloud service providers and other private contractors as well as law enforcement agencies.

Choosing a CJIS-Compliant Provider Makes Data Security Easy for Your Agency

Setting up a full security system in-house can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive. The easiest way to meet all of the requirements is to avoid coding your own system and outsource instead. With SmartForce, you’ll get far more than a security package in return. Your agency will get a fully-ready police agency management system that works on Microsoft’s CJIS-compliant Government Cloud. With the nuts and bolts of security already taken care of, all you need to do to be all set is start using the system.

Are There Any Security Requirements Left for Agencies to Handle?

Basic common sense precautions should be all that are required. Make sure passwords aren’t written down and left in the office, follow good security procedures with any printouts, and make sure to monitor access to your computers. These and other simple measures will help to ensure that your security doesn’t have any obvious openings.

To learn more about Adventos SmartForce, Microsoft’s CJIS compliance, or how everything works together, just contact us, at 303-800-5044. We’ll be glad to explain everything and show you how easy it can be to be completely CJIS compliant.

Adventos™ Proud to Sponsor the Annual Conference of the Texas Police Chiefs Association

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

Adventos™ is excited to sponsor the Texas Police Chiefs Association’s annual conference, which is scheduled to take place March 21-24 in Austin, Texas. This conference allows law enforcement professionals the opportunity to take advantage of leadership training and skills development to improve their individual and organizational performance.

Click here to read press release.

Managing Open Records Requests in SmartForce™ with Office 365

Doug Owens
Director of Implementation

How does an organization that purchased SmartForce handle Open Records Requests?

SmartForce™ is built on top of the Microsoft SharePoint platform, so clients have access to the eDiscovery (electronic discovery) process to find, preserve, analyze, and package electronic content for a legal request or investigation.

Is our data safe?

Yes. With Office 365, customers own their own data. Legal requests from any government agency are sent directly to the customer and not handled by Microsoft. Microsoft does not provide any access to anyone. To learn more please visit the Office 365 Trust Center.

Is SharePoint really capable of records management?

Yes. SharePoint has significant records management capabilities right out of the box. In Office 365 there are now 1TB site collections and unlimited size tenants, so it can scale to meet an array of records management needs.

What about legal preservation?

While using eDiscovery Center with SharePoint 2013 or Office 365, users are able to capture relevant records managed within the environment and preserve them by specifying SharePoint sites and enabling In-Place Hold. With In-Place Hold enabled, your users can continue to work on their documents with no impact. eDiscovery Center uses the built in SharePoint search to index and search all SharePoint sites and while on premises you can also index and search file shares. You can place your collections from other systems, such as a user’s local computer in SharePoint or a file share, to search your data in one place. The eDiscovery Center can also search and manage holds for Exchange mailboxes. The eDiscovery Center is a type of site collection, just like a Records Center, and is useful not only for legal preservation of records, but also for beneficial FOIA, FOIL, and PDR (Public Disclosure Requests), because you can easily search and export data.

What is the difference between a document library in The Record Center and In Place Records Management?

In Place Records Management requires users to identify key metadata associated with each created record and preserved within a SharePoint site. In a dynamic and collaborative environment, not all items are considered a record. Rather, only the “finished” product is what’s required to be captured in line with the Corporate Retention Policy and Retention Schedule. In other words, you may be capturing items that are not records when implementing in-place records. In Place Records Management allows you to define records within any collaboration and personal sites when the records will be included with other documents. The Records Center is a single location where you can store and manage all your records.

For electronic records, do you require any approvals before disposition/deletion occurs or does that disposition occur automatically, with no human intervention?

SharePoint allows automatic destruction/disposition. However, it is a desired practice to require approvals and reviews before deletion occurs and the possibility of human oversight.

Are there any compatible metadata extractors for scanned documents?

Yes, but not out of the box. Third party solutions exist and they can be customized to be able to identify metadata fields from unique, scanned images. We recommend that a person validates this information before moving items into the SharePoint Records Center.

How is security handled?

With SharePoint 2013, In-Place Hold is not visible to users, so you can preserve content without people even knowing the data is on hold. Only your eDiscovery users who have access to the eDiscovery Center can see what locations are on hold.

A very valuable resource is this eDiscovery FAQ which you can find here.

SmartForce software eases management of body-worn cameras by law-enforcement agencies

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.

Adventos™ Proud to Sponsor the FBI National Academy Associates of Texas Chapter Regional Meeting

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

Adventos™ to sponsor the FBI National Academy Associates of Texas Chapter Regional Meeting taking place on March 10, 2016 in Rowlett, Texas. This meeting provides Dallas/Fort Worth law enforcement officials the opportunity to come together, review best practices, and discuss key issues impacting Texas law enforcement.

To read the press release, please click here.

Adventos™ Pleased to Sponsor the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police Mid-Year Conference

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

The Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police convened in Evans, Colorado for their mid-year meeting to discuss the impacts of state legislation, current events, officer safety, and policing issues around the state.

Press release link here.