As an impartial marketing consultant and police/public coverage researcher, I’m privileged to interview superb police leaders from throughout the nation for numerous tasks.
Whereas researching developments in police coaching, I met a number of chiefs and sheriffs whose inventive minds and revolutionary spirits caught my consideration. These dynamic leaders are implementing significant change inside their departments and communities, and they’re seeing tangible outcomes. Essentially the most spectacular half is that a lot of them are working on shoestring budgets, which makes their creativity and motivation much more invaluable.
I’m honored to showcase these leaders on this multi-article sequence titled “Pioneers in Policing: Modern Approaches in Regulation Enforcement Management.”
When Philip Lukens turned chief of police in Alliance, Nebraska in December 2020, he confronted an uphill battle: low case clearance charges, a 50% staffing scarcity, a metropolis ranked quantity six on the highest 10 worst cities in Nebraska and a severely restricted finances.
He wished to implement adjustments to enhance how his officers operated and to redefine public security for his group. These adjustments required creativity, innovation and management, and Chief Lukens was the best particular person for the job.
The targets
Chief Lukens’ targets appeared easy:
- He wished extra individuals to name the police to report crime. He believes all crime ought to be thought of excessive precedence, as even property crimes have an effect on UCR charges and public security sentiment. He wished residents to really feel protected of their communities and comfy calling the police for help. He considered his personal mom and requested himself, “Would this expertise go my mother’s check?” This merely meant, that if his personal mom wanted to name the police in his group, would she have a optimistic expertise?
- He wished to make life simpler for everybody in his division by leveraging assets and know-how that will enable computer systems to do pc work and people to do human work.
The plan
Chief Philip Lukens
Chief Lukens introduced his whole division collectively to decide on the division’s mission, imaginative and prescient and values, guaranteeing all officers have been working from the identical founding ideas. The mission the crew selected is to “Serve our group by defending all” and their imaginative and prescient is “Management by way of dedication of service.” To execute the mission and imaginative and prescient, the crew selected the next values to information their every day ideas and actions: Excellence, Professionalism, Integrity and Compassion (EPIC).
As soon as the founding ideas have been established, Chief Lukens regarded to know-how and synthetic intelligence to automate time-consuming processes and put officers again out into the group.
Know-how and predictive policing
The Alliance Police Division makes use of CentralSquare’s Document Administration System (RMS). Chief Lukens instantly noticed the potential for add-ons.
1. Non-arrest pathways to remedy
He partnered with the Police Assisted Dependancy & Restoration Initiative (PAARI) to assist create non-arrest pathways to remedy for residents battling substance abuse. After any dispatch calls involving substance use, the RMS routinely forwards the dispatch report back to members of the PAARI community who then attain out to the citizen to supply assets like remedy, employment help, or monetary steerage.
2. Neighborhood volunteer coordinators
For non-chemical-dependency calls, akin to automobile theft, Chief Lukens carried out the Volunteers in Policing (VIPS) program. Much like PAARI, an arrest report is routinely emailed to group volunteer coordinators who attain out to supply help, steerage and assets to assist residents keep away from jail and clear up the basis explanation for their points.
3. Officer security
Chief Lukens knew he wanted higher visibility of his officers within the area and protection areas, so he included Intrepid, an app that tracks officers’ mobile phone location versus automobile location. By monitoring cell telephones, dispatch, directors and different police can find officers even when they’re away from their automobiles, enhancing officer security. This know-how additionally permits Chief Lukens to view a map to find out which areas have satisfactory protection and which want further officers. He can park decoy automobiles in “scorching spots” and even program “ghost calls” upfront that dispatch officers to particular areas for added patrol protection.
4. Measure group sentiment
To gauge group sentiment and construct belief with residents, Chief Lukens paired with Know Your Drive, an organization that gauges suggestions on particular person officers in addition to requires service. Officers distribute enterprise playing cards with distinctive QR codes to residents they interact with. After the interplay, that citizen can scan the code and supply suggestions. The caller additionally receives an SMS message providing them the identical alternative to supply suggestions on the expertise. This service is linked to the RMS, which routinely generates a every day report of suggestions, affording officers a possibility to succeed in out to residents to appropriate conditions or misunderstandings.
The introduction of Know Your Drive led to quick behavioral adjustments amongst officers, and Chief Lukens believes this service is simply as invaluable of a software for police as handcuffs. Officers now compete with each other for optimistic rankings or compliments, and Chief Lukens is growing a reward system to make sure officers obtain the credit score they deserve.
5. Bodycam footage automation
One essential space Chief Lukens knew he wanted to automate was physique digital camera footage. He makes use of software program from CentralSquare, paired with an add-on known as Lawyer Shopper Portal, to routinely bundle and ship case reviews to county lawyers. CentralSquare additionally affords a Digital Proof Administration System (DEMS) that makes physique digital camera footage routinely accessible to prosecutors. For these techniques to work correctly, Chief Lukens wanted to exchange the system that required officers to bodily add digital camera footage and as an alternative implement a cloud-based system that provided direct add to the cloud, which he discovered through Visible Labs. Bodycam footage is now uploaded to the cloud inside minutes, and from there, software program known as Vollee routinely dictates the footage, offering officers with a written transcript they will merely copy/paste into their report.
6. Augmented intelligence
Right here’s the place issues actually get attention-grabbing. Utilizing an augmented predictive intelligence platform known as Metis, Alliance Police Division officers can enter elements of a crime (like “housebreaking suspect June 15”) and obtain an inventory of potential suspects. Metis integrates with and spools information from all techniques: the RMS, ALPR (license plate reader), dictation software program, HALO cameras, and so forth. The system then affords officers insights to make educated selections, establish rising threats and decrease future dangers.
Outcomes
Chief Lukens’ know-how and predictive policing initiatives are reducing crime charges and permitting officers to focus extra on group engagement. His division is so short-staffed that, at the moment, all officers are patrol officers and he has no detective division. But, by way of his technological developments, case clearance charges are increased now than when he had detectives. And as case clearance charges are growing, crime charges are reducing. There was a 30% drop in crime since 2022. From 2021 to 2022, crimes towards individuals dropped 20%, and since 2022 have dropped an extra 30%.
Too good to be true? You possibly can see for your self. All division statistics are displayed on a dashboard on the Alliance Police Division web site, together with the division’s Know Your Drive rating (at the moment 91%). Together with these enhancements, in March 2023, Alliance was named one of many prime 10 most secure cities in Nebraska.
Chief Lukens’ know-how and predictive policing initiatives are reducing crime charges and permitting officers to focus extra on group engagement.
These tech initiatives have helped Chief Lukens to realize his aim of utilizing AI on the again finish to be extra human-focused on the entrance finish. His officers at the moment are much less busy with reviews and tedious work, so that they’re capable of spend extra time seen in the neighborhood. Crime is down, case clearances are up, and the group holds optimistic sentiment towards their police.
Nothing extra to do, proper? Not for Chief Lukens. He continues to seek for new and improved know-how to reinforce regulation enforcement and permit people to do human work whereas computer systems deal with the remainder.
About Chief Philip Lukens
Chief Philip Lukens started his policing profession in 1995. Each the Chief and the Alliance Police Division have been well known for revolutionary and artistic policing initiatives. The Alliance Police Division obtained CALEA accreditation on July 29, and Chief Lukens was lately chosen as a member of the 2023 Nationwide Institute of Justice (NIJ) Regulation Enforcement Advancing Information and Science (LEADS) program cohort. He stays dedicated to evidence-based, human-centered policing.
For the reason that writing of this text, Chief Philip Lukens has departed from the Alliance Police Division, however his indelible legacy continues to resonate throughout the division’s tradition and operations. Throughout his tenure, Chief Lukens exhibited unwavering dedication to the ideas of group policing, emphasizing belief, transparency and collaboration between regulation enforcement and the residents they serve. His revolutionary approaches to crime discount, officer coaching and group engagement have left an everlasting mark, shaping the division’s ethos for years to return. Chief Lukens’ dedication to excellence in policing lingers on, inspiring each present and future officers to uphold the excessive requirements he set, guaranteeing a safer and extra linked Alliance group. Chief Lukens is offered for consulting and will be reached by way of LinkedIn.
