Case Study:
Los Angeles Police Department
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) required a learning tracking and management system to replace their existing system which was not considered fit for purpose. The system needed to be capable of managing and delivering both classroom and online learning to the 20,000 sworn and non-sworn law enforcement officials within the agency. Informa Systems successfully implemented a system to meet all of these requirements, and the system, to date, has delivered over 700,000 training courses to officers.
LAPD has a very complex organization structure with over 3,000 separate organizational entities linked in a hierarchical and non-hierarchical tree. Informa Systems had to modify their organization structure database to record and store this organization structure. Furthermore, code had to be written to manage this organizational structure.
Informa Systems had to import a live feed from the LAPD HR database. In the internal HR data structure, officers had multiple IDs depending on whether there were sworn, civilian or reserve. Furthermore, training managers had to be given the option of recording the training under any of these IDs. This is a significant difference to most data structures where the officer ID is unique.
A major goal of the LAPD system is to deliver LAPD policies and procedures online. These policies are often in the form of PDF documents. Informa Systems implemented a simple creation tool to support pdfs with the ability to include questions. The officer's responses are tracked and recorded to ensure compliance.
After reviewing the method LAPD used to track and manage their learning, Informa Systems implemented a process to enable officers to rapidly record their classroom learning in a one-step approach that included scheduling the class, enrolling the officers and recording their grades. This greatly simplified the process of recording classroom learning.
One of the other unexpected challenges in this project was the requirement to deliver at least 200 online training courses, simultaneously. Officers often take training at the last moment – before the deadline - and can tax the delivery infrastructure. Informa Systems conducted numerous simulations – with different video bitrates, to calculate the throughput and to ensure that the server was capable of delivering the video streams.
The implementation of InformaOne as a mission critical application allows LAPD to deliver just-in-time learning in a challenging environment.
The Los Angeles Police Department can be reached at Los Angeles Police Department. The Training Division is at LAPD Training Division.