The Challenge
Providing services to 11 of the 12 incorporated police departments, all of the fire agencies, the county Sheriff, and a handful of other local agencies, the Monterey County Emergency Communications Department (ECD) is the primary Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) for Monterey County, California. In 2023 alone, the agency answered 285,339 emergency calls, 431,557 non-emergency calls, and generated more than 497,000 calls for service across all public safety disciplines. According to a Departmental System Coordinator with the agency, on an average day, Monterey County ECD handles1,500 calls.
To handle this workload, the agency has a team of 60 employees, 42 of which are dispatchers or call takers. With an initial onboarding period of 3 weeks and a total training period of 12-18 months, combined with challenges common to the industry like retention and recruiting difficulties, training and personnel management at Monterey ECD is a complex operation.
“Our training is very extensive,” said the Departmental System Coordinator.
Prior to partnering with Frontline, the agency utilized paper and Microsoft Word documents for many of their training processes. However, these tools did not provide the agency with the level of transparency or convenience they were looking for.
The Choice
In 2023, the Monterey ECD chose Frontline as their technology partner with a primary goal of improving their daily observation report (DOR) processes. To fulfil this goal, the agency implemented Frontline’s DOR Tracker, which allowed the agency to save time and improve insight into approval workflows.
Following their implementation of DOR Tracker, the agency also implemented Frontline’s Policy Tracker, Performance Tracker, and Pro Standards Tracker to further digitize their processes for managing policies, employee conduct, and performance reviews.
The Change
By partnering with Frontline, the Monterey County Emergency Communications Department has:
- Digitized daily observation reports and streamlined training-related processes, eliminating the need for paper and reducing time spent on manual administrative tasks.
- Improved approval workflows and added convenience during the initial training period for both trainees and trainers.
- Improved oversight by providing the agency with a reliable system for policy- and employee-related documentation, both protecting the agency and promoting accountability amongst employees.
- Streamlined and simplified all aspects of policy management, eliminating the need to manually gather employee acknowledgements.
- Improved processes around telecommunicator evaluations, both self-submitted as well as from trainers or supervisors, ensuring all performance is considered during 6-month performance evaluations.
- Increased reliability in capturing both complaints and compliments and incorporating them into employee reviews.
- Ensured telecommunicators receive mental health support following traumatic exposures via the Pro Standards Tracker wellness module.
Before Frontline, the agency utilized emails and paper signatures when collecting employee acknowledgements of new policies. Now, the agency has digitized all their policies in Policy Tracker and has simplified processes to deliver new policies and capture employee signatures and acknowledgements. Additionally, the agency utilizes reminders through Policy Tracker to notify employees when they have new policies to review, ensuring every employee is up to date with all changes to operating procedures.
“We use Policy Tracker the heaviest because there’s always new stuff going out, as well as DOR Tracker because we always have new trainees,” the Departmental System Coordinator said.
Previously, trainers used Microsoft Word documents to fill out DORs. Once they implemented DOR Tracker, the agency was able to directly convert their existing procedures into the digital environment.
“We basically copied everything from that form and created a digital form within DOR Tracker,” the Departmental System Coordinator said. “Now, we don’t have to print anything. Trainers can just fill it in, and the trainee gets an e-mail to review the DOR.”
In addition to improving workflows and saving both trainers and trainees time, managing DORs digital has also reduced liability for the agency.
“Before there was a lot of ‘oh, I didn’t get this,’ or ‘that was never given to me,’” he said. “Using [DOR Tracker] has added more transparency.”
In addition to ensuring employee accountability, Frontline is also helping Monterey ECD ensure telecommunicators receive accurate and holistic performance evaluations with Performance Tracker.
“Every 6 months we do an evaluation of an employee, and everything that’s been added for that employee is right in Performance Tracker. It saves so much time from manually collecting infomration,” the Departmental System Coordinator said.
On a monthly basis, each telecommunicator at Monterey ECD submits a Monthly Activity Log regarding their own performance. With Performance Tracker, supervisors can easily review these submissions and attach them to the employee’s 6-month evaluation.
“[Before Frontline], the paper processes were ridiculous. It took a lot of time,” he said.
Through Frontline’s software solutions, Monterey ECD is better prepared to meet the unique challenges they face and provide quality emergency telecommunication services to their community and the agencies they partner with.
To learn more about how Frontline can support operations at your agency, please request a demo today.
Frontline’s suite of public safety software solutions includes policy management, quality assurance for PSAPs, internal affairs, training records management, community policing, body-worn camera audits, DOR tracking, field training management, and employee evaluations.