Why fix what isn't broken? Off-Duty and Overtime Management
PowerDetails has attended a number of accreditation conferences like CALEA and FLA-PAC over the years, speaking to law enforcement agencies to better understand their off-duty and overtime processes.
No matter how many times we highlight the benefits of a technology-driven solution to oversee off-duty management, one question will always be asked.
“Why fix what isn't broken?"
In an industry where systemic change takes time, this is a legitimate question.
Why should an agency change its ways when their homegrown traditional methods still work for them?
The truth is, traditional methods of scheduling and managing off-duty details are severely flawed in their ability to record and report data as well as enforcing policies that prevent abuse of the system. For agencies who have never dealt with an off-duty related incident, it's less a question of "if" and more so a matter of "when" will their current system fail?
PowerDetails strives to address these flaws by providing a technology-driven solution that prevents incidents from ever occurring. Our system utilizes an automated rules engine that can enforce your agency's off-duty and overtime policies and ensure that officers are not working too many extra jobs. The system is even capable of processing, tracking, and reporting on all payments/scheduling activity — directly in our mobile-friendly app!
With every passing scandal and incident that makes its way to the news, agencies need to decide if they are going to wait until a problem arises to improve their process or be proactive and make the necessary changes now.
To better understand how significantly off-duty management software can affect your agency, take a look at what some of our customers had to say about their process before and after PowerDetails.
Before:
"We had some staff members complain to the Captain because they never knew of the jobs that were coming up."
"Well, there were some complaints, but the catalyst was a fight between 2 staff members over who deserved an upcoming detail."
"The coordinator was getting too many phone calls over the weekend due to people having to cancel a shift and this created some no-shows that employers were not happy about."
"We had some overly eager team members working too many hours and we needed an automated way to prevent that from happening."
"We had too many people driving into the office to bid on jobs and patrol was worried about road depletion."
"We were having some issues keeping track of our accounts payable. It was hard to tell if the employers submitted payment or still owed money to the officers or the city."
6 Months Later:
"The complaints stopped and some users that used to complain had to "decline" some jobs. This showed their level of interest in working details was not as high as they initially insinuated."
"Users like the system a lot because they know every job that is coming up and they are sure the policy is being enforced and that nobody is playing favorites."
"The coordinator is saving about 4 hours a week and since the system handles cancellations automatically the weekend calls have stopped."
"Our officers and the city is getting paid faster since the system offers a detailed invoice as soon as the jobs are completed."
The best way for your agency to assess the benefits of an automated off-duty and overtime management system is by trying it for yourself.
Click here to schedule up a Free web demonstration, and we will gladly set you up with a 15-day trial.
Are you ready to streamline your Extra-Duty Details?
