Mahoning County SO Streamlines Training and Equipment Management with Vector Solutions

The Challenge

Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for providing services to not just its local population of approximately 228,000 spread across 425 square miles, but also to the Mahoning County Justice Center, a 460+ inmate jail located in its county seat, Youngstown, Ohio.

As a result, the Sheriff’s Office must provide a wide range of training, equipment, and support services. According to a Sergeant with the Sheriff’s Office, the agency’s employees fall into four distinct classifications. The State of Ohio requires varying training for each classification, creating significant complexity when assigning, managing, and tracking training.

However, despite these challenges, the Sheriff’s Office is among the leading law enforcement agencies in the area.

This success, the Sergeant said, has largely been the result of the acquisition of new equipment and software, including the Vector LMS Training Management System and Check It from Vector Solutions.

The Choice

Prior to partnering with Vector Solutions, the Sheriff’s Office was utilizing a mix of spreadsheets and internally developed software to meet their training and inventory management needs.

According to the Sergeant, the in-house training management site “got the job done” but “wasn’t anything special.” It also wasn’t particularly user-friendly, for the Deputies or administrators.

In addition, managing equipment and inventory was a time-consuming and tedious process that required fillable PDF forms, mass emails, manual data entry, and over a dozen Excel spreadsheets.

“I’d have to list every employee and then every year I’d have to go in and type out ‘Glock model 23, serial number WA120 for every person.’ And then add radios, ‘Motorola model APX 6000 serial number 461CUV2942,’” he said. “Same thing with the battery, the battery charger or the lapel microphone.”

When the county moved to change its data processing system, it prompted the Sheriff’s Office to move on from its in-house training management system. According to the Sergeant, several companies were considered but Vector Solutions came out on top by virtue of offering both training and inventory management, as well as a superior customer service experience.

“The reason we chose Vector Solution was because it was an all-in-one solution,” he said.

The Change

With Vector Solutions, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office has:

• Simplified and streamlined training and certification management through batch assignment, the use of credentials to manage complex training requirements, comprehensive reporting functionality, and other features.
• Ensured all 200+ Deputies receive required training despite complex training needs due to offering services to both the community and the Mahoning County Justice Center.
• Improved user-experience for both administrators and Deputies, allowing tasks to be completed faster and with less user error.
• Reduced reliance on manual processes through digitization of all training-related documentation, allowing the agency’s training program to go almost entirely paperless.
• Saved time previously spent on equipment management by drastically reducing manual data entry and reliance on spreadsheets.
• Improved communication relating to equipment between administration, Deputies, and maintenance personnel, ensuring every item is catalogued and officers know the status of repairs and work orders.

Following implementation, the Sheriff’s Office has saved countless hours that, instead of being wasted on manual, time-consuming processes, have been put to work in other critical areas for the local community.

“Doing inventory the old way was a month’s worth of work. Now it’s a couple of days,” the Sergeant said.

According to the Sergeant, it’s been much the same regarding training as well.

“What took me a little over 2 weeks to do last year I was able to do in less than two days this year,” he said.

Both administrators and Deputies have benefited from an improved training and equipment management experience since the implementation.

“They all love it cause it’s so easy. They jump on, boom, it’s right on their home screen,” he said. “Back when I knew we were moving forward with Vector, I called up our Fleet Manager and said we’d have a way to go paperless. He literally drove to my office and gave me a hug.”

To read more client testimonials, check out our Success Stories.