Recruitment and retention are two primary challenges facing many law enforcement agencies across the country, with the health and wellness of law enforcement officers becoming an increasingly critical area of focus.

Public safety agencies like the Livermore Police Department currently use data to create early intervention systems. Captain Reynolds, from Livermore PD, recently spoke with GovTech about how his department uses Peregrine to support his officers in non-traditional ways.

[In] recent months the department began using a tool from Peregrine that includes a digital officer wellness dashboard — not only an example of the evolution of EIS technology but of how dashboards are becoming a bigger part of the public safety world.

As Livermore Police Department Captain John Reynolds told Government Technology, the tool enables the department to track calls in real time and break down data to show the type of calls that specific officers are handling, such as violent crimes or suicides.

Peregrine allows department leaders to compare calls for specific periods of time — say, 30 days — and, combined with supervisors’ observations and intuition, help spot potential areas of concern. Sometimes it might be as simple as an officer not having enough time off, a common problem as departments struggle with low staffing levels.

“It’s a good way of tracking what officers are exposed to,” Reynolds said. “It gives you a snapshot. I would prefer not to have to sift through pages or spreadsheets of data.”

When the system spots a potential issue, the next step is “initiating conversations with employees, like a check-in,” he said.

That can lead to a referral to the employee assistance program, via which Livermore officers can get up to 33 visits per year with a mental health professional.

With time, success could be measured through a variety of metrics, he said, including a reduction in sick calls, or counting mental wellness-related claims. Less tangible but still important signs — things that officers and their supervisors tend to sense — could include less burnout and boosted morale.

Read the whole article in GovTech here, and get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can support recruitment and retention at your department.