SCCJA Improves Training Availability and Operations

In 2006, an editorial ran in Charleston’s Post and Courier that exposed how South Carolina police officers with poor performance records were continuing their work as police officers simply by transferring to different departments. Following the negative press and political pressure, Governor Mark Sanford formed a committee to gain a better understanding of the issue. Of the changes recommended, the state called for improved police officer records management. Subsequently, South Carolina lawmakers passed legislation that provided SCCJA with funding for equipment and software. This led to SCCJA’s search for a new system to manage their training certifications and records, and ultimately their purchase of the Acadis Readiness Suite.

Prior to Acadis, SCCJA had been using several systems to manage their information: REGGIE, Law Enforcement Training System (LETS), Microsoft Excel® and Word®, and a combination of different paper documents. The homegrown REGGIE system handled the registration process, and LETS housed officer employment certifications and training records.

Since SCCJA lacked a Learning Management System, they relied heavily on classroom-based sessions for training course delivery. South Carolina offers an educational broadcasting network called ETV (Educational Television), which was used to broadcast live recordings and recorded classroom sessions; as time progressed, SCCJA also began to offer online classes through the ETV system. Yet, this system was not a formal LMS, and did not offer the advantages of delivering the secure training that Acadis made a reality at SCCJA.

For managing its training, SCCJA relied heavily on paper documents, which often involved a complex shuffling of physical documents and folders. SCCJA’s systems were problematic since they were not integrated, forcing staff to track the location of paper documents through phone calls and email, and to address the human errors inherent in completing large amounts of paperwork.

When important documents were created, they were composed in Word and, in tandem with Excel, using Word’s merge functionality. These merged files and their electronic storage grew to be quite large since every document was kept on file with little protocol for records retention. Physical copies of letters—which sometimes documented either training achievements or failures—were not retained and the information contained was not recorded in LETS.

The lack of a communicative training management system created problems that rippled through the academy’s training operations. For instance, the food service regularly purchased groceries without knowing the actual number of students for which to prepare meals, often buying supplies on Wednesday and only learning of the final student head count on Friday. Special dietary or religious needs were unknown until the student first walked through the food line, as this information was not collected during the registration process. Student Housing printed out the pre-roster from LETS three days before a new class. Room assignments were organized based on the printed pre-roster. Information about each room, such as whether they shared bathrooms with another room, could not be recorded in LETS, forcing the Student Housing Manager to rely on memory alone.

Staff kept person record in LETS, but there were severe limitations. For example, staff could not email copies of these records, and when information was changed or notes added, LETS did not provide an audit trail notating who had altered the information.

Registration began when a training officer phoned the academy. The academy would check for availability in REGGIE, and then assign a date for registration only if they had available seats in a class. Potential students would travel to SCCJA’s campus in Columbia for registration, and, if the potential student successfully registered, the academy would send them a letter two weeks before the class began. Registration information did not appear on the person record in LETS since REGGIE and LETS were separate, non-integrated, and non-communicating software systems.

The class roster was also in paper format, and grades were handwritten. After final grades were entered and a class ended, the rosters were scanned and discarded, but the information was not entered into a database.