Alaska POST Centralizes Data and Tracks Decertifications with a Case Management System
About the Customer
The Alaska Police Standards Council is a statewide organization that manages and determines certification eligibility for thousands of officers across the state. Their core services include decisions on whether or not a certification should be revoked in cases of misconduct, monitoring compliance against current regulations and legislation, and developing and monitoring law enforcement training requirements.
Background
Prior to implementing the case management system, their processes consisted of updating information manually in multiple places, including file explorer and an excel spreadsheet. They used an excel spreadsheet to track cases and file explorer to store documentation. In the past, they had also been keeping a case log to document daily activities and happenings, however current processes had prevented them from implementing an updated system.
Current methods created a lot of redundancies, made it hard to find information and files, and information was disconnected because various parts were hosted in different systems. The staff had to spend much needed time looking for things and updating information in multiple areas.
Additionally, tasks and deadlines were not easily trackable which often meant delays in processing decertification cases for officers.
Opportunity
The POST recognized that their methods weren’t as efficient as they could be and that the Acadis Case Management solution offered ways to change that.
“The case management module will allow us to keep a more detailed log of cases and help us not have to have another separate document to put something in, every single time something happens. It’s nice and important that we have one place for all of it.” —Sarah Hieb, Administrator Investigator
Goals
With the Acadis Case Management system, their goals for its use included immediate impact on both current and future processes.
- Centralize information in one system to cut down on redundancies, make it easier to find needed files, and improve inefficiencies
- Create workflows to remind users of tasks and make sure projects continue as needed and don’t drop off
- Track daily activities and happenings with decertification cases with an official case log
- Prep their processes to utilize Acadis for statewide use-of-force tracking, which is part of current legislation in the State
- Provide transparency with easier reporting to legislative bodies
Solution Deployed
By implementing the Acadis Case Management module, they were able to centralize their information, create workflows to remind users on tasks needed, and to keep better tracking of cases with an actual case log—all in one system.
“Having the case in the same spot, where users can go in and look at it at-a-glance versus going to a file, seeing if we updated the file name to reflect the last thing that happened and try to figure out what happened before that—it’s all in one spot now and I can view it at a glance, so that’s the most important improvement in using the case management system for us.” – Sarah Hieb, Administrator Investigator
The department even has an online form for public compliments, and those compliments get added to personnel records in Acadis EIS. With the police department’s noticeable gains in morale and efficiency, the Tomball Fire Department and the city itself also joined the system not long after.
The Result
By reducing redundancies and making information easier to find, the staff has spent less time updating information and more time focusing on upcoming legislation and happenings that will impact their organization.
With keyword search in the Acadis system, it’s easier to find the case they are looking for and understand more quickly on what is happening with it. Additionally, cases are promptly followed up on and processed in a more timely and dependable manner.
Ultimately, the solution has made the department more efficient and created more opportunities for the future to streamline their operations and better prepare them to adapt to new changes and legislation coming from the state legislation.