The Challenge
Located just west of Chicago, the community of Wood Dale, IL is served by the Wood Dale Police Department. The department's mission statement to “strive to enhance and improve the quality of life in Wood Dale,” and their strong emphasis on community policing demonstrates their commitment to proactively addressing the needs of the city's 13,774 residents.
With multiple units, including canine, crime prevention, investigations, patrol, and more, the agency’s 35 sworn officers and 11 civilian members provide a wide range of services to their community. The agency is also accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), first receiving accreditation in 2001 and successfully achieving reaccreditation every cycle since.
Prior to partnering with Frontline, the department used paper forms, Google drives, and an in-house system to manage much of their policy and training management, as well as aspects of their community policing program.
However, to effectively manage the day-to-day needs of the department, as well as the extra requirements the department must comply with to maintain their accreditation, the agency needed a way to consolidate data into one centralized system.
The Choice
In 2023, the Wood Dale Police Department chose Frontline as their technology partner. First introduced to Frontline through a presentation at a CALEA meeting, the agency quickly discovered that Frontline would help them meet their goal of unifying information.
I said ‘this is perfect, this is exactly what we’re looking for,” said a Planning & Research Analyst with the department. As a CALEA-accredited agency, Wood Dale PD is also required to have policies in place regarding body-worn cameras. Implementing Frontline’s BWC Audits helped them fulfill that requirement.
Additionally, as previously stated, Wood Dale PD prioritizes their community policing initiatives. The fact that Frontline also offers Community Policing Connect, which provides the agency with tools that connect them to their community, was a benefit.
The Change
By partnering with Frontline, the Wood Dale Police Department has:
- Digitally managed daily observation reports and simplified training workflows, removing the reliance on paper and cutting down on time spent handling manual admin work.
- Created automatic reminders for training hours required by the state at 6-month, 3-month, and 1-month intervals.
- Ensured compliance with state mandates and CALEA requirements for the documentation of uses of force, as well as other CALEA requirements for conduct and wellness.
- Streamlined processes regarding daily squad checks, accidents and damage reports, and referrals to the department’s employee assistance program.
- Supported community policing initiatives by providing their community with a public portal for comments, online entry for overnight parkers, as well as simplifying other processes such as managing keyholders for local businesses.
- Improved processes for annual and quarterly performance evaluations for current and new officers.
- Simplified the bi-monthly review of body-worn camera footage and ensured compliance with CALEA requirements for BWC.
- Saved at least an hour a day, which was previously spent on manual policy management, allowing administrative staff to reinvest that time on other priorities.
According to the Planning & Research Analyst, the biggest benefit has been from Policy Tracker, which has helped the agency save significant time for policy updates and the process of gathering officer signatures.
Another important benefit of the agency’s partnership with Frontline is in the area of early intervention. In addition to requirements around BWC, documenting uses of force, conduct, and wellness, CALEA also has standards requiring the use of an early intervention system.
ontline’s Pro Standards Tracker provides the functionality Wood Dale PD needs, while also providing additional functionality to track compliments, awards, and other important aspects of conduct.
“Any violations of general orders go into Pro Standards Tracker,” she said.
Alongside tracking conduct that violates general orders or policy, the agency also tracks wellness-related information in Pro Standards Tracker.
“If I’m having a hard time at work and my direct supervisor notices, they can give me a referral to our employee assistance program, which they then document,” the Planning & Research Analyst said. “We know our people are getting the help that they need.”
On the training side of the department’s operations, they are utilizing Training Tracker to stay on top of state mandates for in-service training and set up notifications to let officers know about upcoming due dates. These notifications are incredibly important to help Wood Dale PD’s officers stay compliant with training mandates.
"[If the sworn members of the department don't complete their mandated training], they could lose their badge,” she said. “The state will decertify them.”
Most recently, Wood Dale PD has implemented DOR Tracker to digitize daily observation reports and other aspects of their FTO program, further improving the training experience for officers and supervisors.
“[Frontline] is a huge time saver,” the Planning & Research Analyst said. “It’s 10 times easier than the processes we had before.”
Through their partnership with Frontline, Wood Dale Police Department is better prepared to meet the unique challenges they face, meet state mandates and accreditation standards, and serve their community.
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.