The Challenge
In 2017, the Moore Police Department was struggling to keep up with the numerous changes in law and how it impacted their policies. Additionally, the department encountered compliance issues with officer acknowledgment of policy updates. “We had some issues when trying to keep track of which officers were actually signing off on and acknowledging they received, read and understand the policies,” Captain Ted Belling says. “We discovered we had some officers who were avoiding acknowledgment because they didn’t want to be held accountable.”
While working to establish and implement sound policies, MPD also wanted to focus on training challenges. “The whole operation of a police department has to revolve around the patrol schedule and it’s hard to get officers in classrooms for training and still maintain an acceptable level of staffing and patrol,” Sergeant Troy Fullbright says.
The Solution
Recognizing the risk involved with inadequate policies, training and tracking, the MPD found a unified solution with complementary offerings from Lexipol: the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Policies solution augmented with online training from PoliceOne Academy.
“The city wanted to work with Lexipol because they wanted to make sure our policies were in alignment with state and federal law,” Captain Belling says. Using Lexipol’s online policy management system, MPD was able to access more than 170 Oklahoma-specific policies, customize them to meet their specific needs, roll out the policies to officers, and track policy acknowledgment and training. “Once the policies were modified, we used PoliceOne Academy to write a short test for each policy,” Captain Belling says. “From there, the officers had 10 days to read and acknowledge the policies and then take the online test. We did this until we had all policies and procedures implemented.”
Using the course building tool, MPD customized their training as well. “We use roll call training to push out various topics we need to cover,” Sergeant Fullbright says. “PoliceOne Academy is a super easy, cost-efficient way to get officers plugged into training content. It helps us make better educated, well-rounded officers because the variety of the content is way more than you could have through in-house expertise.”
The online courses also enabled MPD prepare officers for in-person training, allowing for more hands-on time. “We have to do driver training, firearms training and defensive tactics training every year. By pushing out some of the other topics through roll call, it frees up the schedule for when we really do need to get bodies in a classroom,” Sergeant Fullbright says.
The Results
Lexipol’s policy management solution and PoliceOne Academy have helped MPD achieve three goals: 1) implement continuously updated, legally vetted policies 2) decrease the time officers are off the street, and 3) improve accountability for both policies and training.
“I like that Lexipol keeps us up to date on state and federal laws,” Captain Belling says. “A big part of policy is ensuring you’re not using policies that could cause liability issues. That’s what we are trying to avoid by using Lexipol policies. It’s nice to have Lexipol keep them up to date for us.”
With PoliceOne Academy, MPD has 24/7 access to more than 1,500 online courses and videos, allowing officers to train when it’s convenient. “One of the first things I did this year was push out some mental health training. That freed up a day where I didn’t have to adjust shift schedules to get people through training,” Sergeant Troy Fullbright says. “The officers can complete the courses somewhat at their leisure; we aren’t having to pull them off the street to do it.”
Utilizing the unique reporting features for both the policy and training platforms, MPD improved officer accountability. “Lexipol makes it really easy to keep track of officer acknowledgments. We have it set up with groups so the supervisor can go in and they can monitor their own officers,” Captain Belling says.
To help meet annual training mandates, PoliceOne Academy reports to the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) for the department. “The reporting to CLEET has been excellent,” Sergeant Fullbright says. “Everything you do has to get recorded and reported to CLEET”—which can be time-consuming if done manually. “With PoliceOne Academy, the officers do the class and the next month it magically shows up on their training record!”.
Using Lexipol’s online policies and training helped MPD experience the benefits of a unified policy and training solution: confidence in policies and the seamless flow of information, data and reports throughout a department.
