Shared Vision. Collaboration. Technology.

Overview

Background

The Oregon State Sheriff's Association (OSSA) was formed in 1916 to give all 36 Oregon Sheriffs a single and effective voice. OSSA's primary goals include remaining at the forefront of police science and technology to provide their members educational programs, enhancing the public image of all Oregon sheriffs, and facilitating problem-solving and collaboration amongst sheriffs.

To further these goals, OSSA partnered with PowerDMS in 2017 to provide technology that would allow the association to securely share information, training, and best practices to all 36 sheriff offices. PowerDMS is a trusted platform for each sheriff’s office to view, manage, and distribute content to their line staff. OSSA uses PowerDMS for Partners to provide a secure and searchable repository of policy and training content for their member offices to upload into PowerDMS for use. These seamlessly integrated solutions ensure a fast, secure, and user-friendly experience when sharing content from the association to each sheriff's office.

When first implementing PowerDMS, one of OSSA's members, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, had developed high-quality domestic violence response training content to ensure deputies followed newly passed legislation in Oregon. With PowerDMS for Partners, OSSA was able to securely post this training online and invite its members to subscribe to the content. Each sheriff's office could then distribute the training content in the form of an online course and test deputies' understanding of the materials via a test by utilizing PowerDMS. This provided a fast and easy way to get all 36 offices on the same page and provided accountability and tracking.

Operations in an Unprecedented Time

Fast forward to 2020 and the start of a global pandemic, COVID-19. While OSSA saw the value of content sharing and keeping all their member offices on the same page, they never imagined the solution they had implemented in 2017 would help stop the spread of the virus and save lives.

Before the pandemic, OSSA and its member offices were committed to working together and adopting best practices to achieve operational excellence. This underlying ethos shined even brighter when all the agencies started sharing and adopting the same policies, procedures, and protocols early on in the spread of COVID-19. When the pandemic began, OSSA created a COVID-19 folder in PowerDMS.

Each week the executive-level staff of each office would have a conference call regarding their COVID-19 response. OSSA would document the outcomes of these calls and post them in PowerDMS. Additionally, individual offices would share their policies and protocols with OSSA, who would then upload them into the COVID folders. If an office wanted to know what others were doing they could quickly search the COVID folders and find what they needed.

As a result of all this real-time information sharing, every jail was doing temperature checks, asking questions about symptoms, and adopted standardized transport procedures.

“We want to be doing the same thing for all 36 counties, coming from sound legal advice and making sense. But when you can say "this is what we're going to do, this is a procedure we're going to put in place, this is a practice, this is a change" and you can have the support of those other 35 sheriffs, it strengthens the message of everything being shared.”

Operations Lt. Nick Hunter, Marion County Sheriff's Office (OR)

The Impact on Member Sheriff Offices

As of late May, none of the 36 jails in Oregon had reported a single case of COVID-19. This accomplishment can largely be attributed to the coordinated response of all sheriff's offices very early on in the spread of COVID-19.

Before PowerDMS, best practices, procedures, training, and protocols were shared via email or physically mailed if the file size was too large. While email is a useful communication tool, its limitations became clear in a global pandemic context.

“The problem with email is that things get lost. Emails are not categorized, even though it might be relevant. You also get people asking for the same thing multiple times.”

Operations Captain Eby, Clackamas County Sheriff's Office (OR)

In addition to their successful operational response to COVID-19, the Oregon sheriff's were also able to share resources related to community well being and mental health. For example, one office created a suicide prevention training flyer, which was then shared with the other 35 offices for implementation and use in their facilities.

“The strength of the OSSA is based on the commitment of those 36 sheriffs and those 36 executive teams coming together. This [PowerDMS] has opened a new portal, so to speak, to get content out when you need to.”

Operations Lt. Nick Hunter, Marion County Sheriff's Office (OR)

Looking Forward

Now more than ever, OSSA and its member sheriff's offices have realized the power of information sharing. As they all move slowly into reopening, they are continuing to collaborate and share their updated procedures and protocols in this new world of social distancing. As OSSA and the different offices develop further training, they will be uploading it for all to see and utilize. And with PowerDMS, each sheriff's office already has a tool to deliver and track training, in a socially distanced manner.

“Out of crisis or out of tragedy, we tend to learn things and the ability to share all of this content, yes, it applied to COVID-19, but no, that doesn't have to be the end of content sharing. It's not like we're, we're going to move away from content sharing because we're not talking about COVID.”

Operations Lt. Nick Hunter, Marion County Sheriff's Office (OR)