About the recent attacks

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

americanFlagThe recent litany of attacks on police and civilians alike is beyond disturbing. They add to today’s already unsettled reality, and they call attention to our ability to correct the things that need correcting. Do we have bigger problems than racism? What is the enemy? How much bloodshed do we need to endure in order to identify the scope of our problems? And then: how long will it take to right the ship?

 I don’t know about you but 24/7 access to what’s bad in this world leaves me feeling very unsettled. It makes me wonder: is this world we live in really this bad…what I’m reading, and hearing, and watching?

 I don’t think it is. I don’t think it is because of what I see and witness when I’m not paying attention to the news—when I’m working or spending time with family and friends. At work, especially, I see that the focus has not changed—protecting the innocent. Despite what’s reported, most of our country’s law enforcement personnel wake up every day committed to protecting the innocent. I work with these people day in and day out. Most are driven by a deep desire to serve, to find the bad guys, and get them off our streets. That day-to-day grind is not newsworthy, however, so it goes unreported.

 Like you, I have a growing number of questions. And the only answer I’ve come to recently is that I know, 100 percent, things need to be fixed and we have to do it together. Collectively, we need to do whatever we can to improve our social situation. We need to be more vigilant citizens, holding each other and public officials accountable for the decisions we make.

 On behalf of the entire Adventos team and its Board, we stand united with America’s great citizenry and its protectors.

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Government Cybersecurity

José Herrera
VP of Technology

governmentCybersecurityAccording to a study that was conducted by IBM in 2015, the average cost of a data breach is currently at an all-time high: $3.8 million dollars. The United States government has recently participated in the creation of a Cybersecurity National Action Plan, also referred to as CNAP. Accompanied by a federal budget increase of $19 billion dollars between now and 2017, this plan emphasizes the importance of investing in an aging federal IT infrastructure on an ongoing basis.

Slow Progress thus far

One of the issues facing the federal government and law enforcement agencies is that while awareness of cybersecurity threats is high, progress towards a secure and modern government is real slow. Many law enforcement agencies in particular still rely on legacy systems that not only fall woefully behind in security practices, but that also leave both government data and the security of our citizens at risk. These factors are now being exacerbated by the widespread use of mobile technologies.

How to create a Safer (Digital) Future

In order to guarantee a safer environment for both law enforcement partners and citizens, a new approach to protection is needed. Biometric logins can help eliminate the need for passwords. Law enforcement partners need to start making an investment in certified cloud services that not only have rights management and encryption capabilities, but also functionality that helps to simplify identity management to make signing into multiple services from any device as secure as possible.

We, at Adventos™ are leveraging Microsoft’s state of the art technologies into our SmartForce™ Agency Management System (AMS) application, so we can speed up the adoption of end to end secure public safety solutions that will not only increase efficiency and communication within any given department, but also will reduce the risk of cybersecurity breaches that put all of us at increased risk.

To find out more information about the Cybersecurity National Action Plan or about the government cybersecurity imperative perspective, visit this helpful resource today.

To learn more about Adventos™ products for public safety  agencies that meets or exceeds security standards, please visit us at www.adventos.com

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Agile as a Software Development Methodology for Public safety

José Herrera
VP of Technology

agileSoftwareDevelopmentWhat is Agile Software Development for public safety?

In essence, agile software development is less any one particular technique and more a complete set of principles that help user in a bold new era of collaboration, organization and innovation. These are key factors that have made Agile a software industry standard, but even more important for us is that is tailor made for public safety because its ever changing environment and new challenges that are arising in the field on a daily basis. Public safety needs technology to quickly adapt to these changes and keep them ahead of the trends, connected to their communities and ultimately allow public servants to spend more time adding value to their community and less time doing paperwork.

The agile software development methodology can be broken down into four core areas:

  • Individuals
  • Working Software
  • Customer Collaboration
  • Responding to Change

Individuals

We at Adventos develops software by empowering our developers to work together with our field team hand and hand, this integration gives us the ability to bring creative ideas forward, allowing us to deliver new and innovative ways to help improve efficiency and effectiveness in public safety agencies across the country.

Working Software

Adventos chose to build an Agency Management System (AMS) solution for the benefits that it brings not to a single silo, but to an entire organization. An AMS helps every individual to stay connected, regardless of the role they play, which ultimately leads to a stronger and more capable organization from the top down.

Customer Collaboration

Above all else, the most important element of the agile software development methodology is the customer. We are customer centric, everything we do is driven by customer and market input and then develop new solutions that address the needs of all our clients in Public safety.

Responding to Change

We understand the needs of public safety agencies are always evolving and they need software that can quickly adapt to these changes. We have adopted a flexible software methodology in order to be the standard provider of AMS for all public safety agencies including Police, & Fire departments, as well as, providing complete solutions for our cities. We are committed to do our part to help our agency partners make a positive impact on our communities and responding to change is a huge part of that.

The Adventos Way

From that perspective, we at Adventos didn’t choose agile as a software development methodology for our Smart Force suite of applications. Agile choose us. Thanks to the fact that it allows us to provide best-in-class law enforcement and public safety applications with speed for ever-evolving needs, we absolutely wouldn’t have it any other way.

To learn more about the current and expanding features of Smart Force AMS solution, developed in collaboration with our customer partners, please visit our site at www.adventos.com.

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Four Steps That Can Help Agencies Become More Standardized

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

MoreStandardizedPolice 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.

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The “Big-Three” Police Software Systems

Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education

3LeggedStoolYou’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

WhyDoINeedAnAgencyManagementSystem

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Recognizing Employees is the Simplest Way to Boost Morale

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

goodJobIt’s no secret that happy employees are productive employees – this is true in all avenues of life, regardless of the industry you’re talking about. According to a report published on the Huffington Post, 88% of workers in the United States admitted they just don’t have passion for their work. More than that, this type of employee disengagement spawned in large part due to low morale, costs the United States economy an estimated $500 billion per year.

What does this have to do with law enforcement, you ask? Everything, as the same report indicated that employees working in government, which law enforcement is a part of, had the lowest rate of engagement out of any reported industry.

So how do you tackle the root cause of such a big problem? Thankfully, the solution is quite straightforward: start recognizing the hard work that your employees do on a daily basis.

In another survey that was conducted in association with HBR.org, 82% of employed Americans revealed that they just don’t feel their immediate supervisors recognize them enough for their contributions. Along the same lines, 40% of respondents said they’d be more willing to put extra energy into their work if they were recognized more often.

With these numbers, the answer to your morale issues becomes clear. When an officer or civilian staff member does something truly special, when they go above and beyond the call of duty and make an appreciable contribution to keeping our communities safer on a daily basis, don’t just tell them. Tell everyone.

But recognizing your people doesn’t just take the form of an occasional pat on the back. According to HBR, there are a number of clear steps you should be taking on a regular basis to help boost morale through employee recognition:

  • Celebrate the little victories. Going out of your way to publicly recognize and reward smaller wins is a great way to keep everyone motivated over a long period of time, which itself feeds into those big milestones that your law enforcement agency will thrive on.
  • Make it as personal as possible. Did you know that over 75% of people say that they save handwritten “thank you” notes, especially when they receive them from their employers? You don’t have to celebrate every employee accomplishment with a massive party – sometimes a simple note will more than suffice.
  • You have to want it. When you begin making an effort to recognize employees more, don’t just do it because you feel you have to. Do it because you WANT to. Not only will it help your recognition be more genuine, but it also means a whole lot more to the person receiving recognition.

Law enforcement has some of the most hardworking men and women on the face of our planet. If you really want to make sure that low morale is NOT something you have to worry about, making an effort to recognize and celebrate a job well done is a great way to accomplish exactly that!

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How Computer Technology has Improved Crime Analysis

Brian Mc Grew
VP of Education

computerTechnologyIn 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.

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Adventos Releases Major Upgrade to SmartForce™

Julie Fryberger
Office of the CEO

sf41With the release of SmartForce™ Version 1.4, Adventos provides law enforcement agencies improved functionality, enhanced officer safety features, system integration, and automation of administrative police department functions.  Read entire article here.

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What is a Fusion Center?

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

fusionCenterLawE

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.

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Fusion centers show the true power of data sharing among law enforcement agencies

Mariano Delle Donne
CEO

fusionCentersAdventosIn 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.

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