Introduction
There are unique challenges that exist when it comes to investigating police scheduling software. With thousands of police and law enforcement departments across the United States and Canada, each one has unique needs and challenges when it comes to appropriately staffing officers. According to Wikipedia, there are 17,985 U.S. police agencies in the United States alone!
The team at eSchedule works closely with each police department to setup their police scheduling software according to their existing policies and scheduling needs.
Schedule Views (Filters)
Depending on the size of the department (number of employees / officers / deputies, etc.), there is usually a need to setup different ‘filters’ or ‘views’ when looking at the schedule. eSchedule offers a quick and easy way to view the schedule according to the employee’s specific department (e.g. Road, Investigations, Dispatch, etc.) or general shift time (for example, “C” shift may be 2300-0700). Each employee can set their default settings so that when they login to eSchedule and see the schedule, they only view what’s pertinent to them.
Police Officer Rotations
As is the case with most 24-hour public safety departments, police officers tend to work some sort of set or rotation (we call them “Recurrences” in eSchedule). If you’re currently trying to schedule your staff manually, whether it be on paper, in Excel or some other generic calendar or scheduling program, it is likely a pain to easily schedule employees on a rotation.
For example, if Deputy Jones is working this schedule rotation:
[4 on 3 off] [3 on 4 off]
….that means you’ll need to go into each day and manually place officer Jones onto the appropriate days.
With eSchedule, we simplify this process. Our team will create a “4/3/3/4” recurrence option for you to more easily schedule your law enforcement employees. All you have to do is click the first instance of the rotation, choose the employee’s name, click the 4/3/3/4 recurrence option and click SIGN ON. Deputy Jones will now be scheduled on that rotation indefinitely.
The best part? If Deputy Jones changes rotations, or leaves the department, for example, you can easily remove him/her from the schedule with the simple click of a button.
Human Error
We are all human and we all make mistakes. However, in the public safety world, we can’t allow for scheduling mistakes to happen. If your supervisor or scheduler fails to properly staff your department, lives could be at risk due to low or improper staffing levels.
eSchedule gives you all the tools you need to ensure proper staffing. Your employees have 24/7 access to view the schedule (including open shifts) from their mobile device / smartphone, tablet / iPad or any computer.
Your police officers will always know when they’re scheduled to work thanks to the e-mail reminders we send as well.
Reporting
With eSchedule, everything is trackable and reports are available 24/7 to supervisors or schedulers. All activities taken via the Scheduling Module are documented and quantifiable for reports. Accurate tracking ensures nothing falls through the cracks and gives you the data you need to make sure your police department continues to operate smoothly.
Police Scheduling Software Recap
The experts at eSchedule will work closely with you to design a solution that meets the needs of your department.
For more information about eSchedule and to learn how we can best help your police department, please reach out to us.