Fredericton Police Force Improvement & Innovation Initiatives (Details)

Name of province/ territory:

New Brunswick

City/ Region:

Fredericton

Description of Initiative:

The City of Fredericton has introduced Lean Six Sigma through the City Administrator’s Office and adopted its philosophies. The City of Fredericton, including the Fredericton Police Force (FPF), has fully embraced this managerial concept and has taken steps to implement it throughout the corporation. Lean Six Sigma is a managerial concept combining Lean and Six Sigma processes that result in the elimination of waste within an organization. These processes are Improvement & Innovation (I&I) initiatives.

A total of 54 improvement projects are starting, underway or fully implemented. There are over 100 city employees involved in projects at various levels. All of these efforts are intended to make Fredericton more efficient and effective, resulting in improved services and savings for the corporation and the customers we serve. The corporate goal is to find $1.5 million in sustained savings in 2013.

Employees are trained in different techniques, such as Waste Walks, and can achieve various levels up to a Black Belt. A Waste Walk is an activity where project team members walk through a work area or look at a process that is being considered for improvement, ask questions, and then identify waste (non-value-added activities) and solutions.

The police force has embraced this process by providing the city’s Innovation and Improvement Team with a staff sergeant for a two-year secondment and a constable on a part-time basis. The Staff Sergeant is one of five full-time city team members and the Constable is one of 10 part-time members. These members are training to obtain their Black Belts and Green Belts, respectively. Many other members of the senior management team have received Waste Walk training, which includes the completion of a full Waste Walk and presentation of the findings to the Improvements and Innovation Committee.

Lean Six Sigma training and certification requirements are rigorous. Candidates are required to participate in a four-month training program, successfully complete a competency exam, lead an I&I project and obtain results to receive their Black or Green Belt certification.

For example, the S/Sgt in this case has achieved her Black Belt certification by completing a project on Reporting Crime (Online Reporting). The project problem statement was "The FPF answers, responds to and processes low-priority calls for service that are concluded without further investigation and submits Record Management System reports when required, consuming Communications Center, Police Officer and Administrative staff time. The problem is the absence of an alternate reporting option for the public to file complaints or information at their convenience on those calls that do not require the presence of a police officer." The project goal was "to provide a secure electronic means for the public to report low priority crimes, 24/7, at a time and location convenient for them."

By having FPF members trained in this improvement process, the FPF can utilize its knowledge to identify and improve processes within the Force. Policing is a complex 24/7 operation and these members can participate on project teams to facilitate or assist in understanding the complex nature of the policing business to provide viable improvements.

Initiative Key Objectives:

Lean Six Sigma is one of the tools the City of Fredericton will use to achieve improvement and innovation. It provides tools proven to reduce operating costs and increase customer satisfaction. There are many successful examples of its use in business and government.

It works well with our existing quality management system. The focus is on redesigning work to remove unnecessary steps and keeping the value-added parts that the customer really wants. Lean Six Sigma is not about layoffs, or projects, or titles, and it is not easy to do.

The FPF has identified the following initiatives:

• Police Collection, Analysis and Reporting of Business Information (Black Belt) (currently underway)

Goal Statement—Provide a more efficient process for collecting and disseminating Motor Vehicle Accident reports; reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the reduction of paper and photocopies required for court purposes; expedite Right to Information and Protection of Privacy Act requests in terms of data gathering, vetting and dissemination; and reduce administrative support time, freeing up resources to be reallocated to other tasks.

• Reporting Crime (Black Belt) (2014)

Goal Statement—Provide members of the public with a 24/7 avenue for reporting low-priority crimes at a time and place convenient for the citizen; reduce the demand on frontline officers; and reduce costs.

• Crime Mapping I&I Project (Green Belt) (Implemented)

Goal Statement—Improve the crime mapping process through the introduction of new procedures and technologies to greatly improve the time it takes to create a map. In doing so, it is hoped that current demand (and possible increased future demand) can be met while still providing the Crime Analyst with enough time to carry out other police-related services.

• Booking Process (Green Belt) (ongoing)

Goal Statement—Improve the current booking process at the FPF.

• Waste Walks:

- Court overtime reduction (completed)
- Department of Social Development requests (completed)
- Criminal record checks (completed)
- Department of Public Safety (DPS) media (completed)
- DPS stores and purchasing (ongoing)
- DPS fleet and building coordination (2014)

Section Responsible for Implementation:

City of Fredericton Department of Public Safety

Key Contact:

Michele Cronin
michele.cronin@fredericton.ca

Groups/ Agencies/ Key Partners Involved:

Level of Involvement (consultative - information sharing) and/or cooperative - direct involvement):

N/A

Amount of Time Initiative has been in Place:

The Lean Six Sigma initiatives began in late 2012 with an inspector appointed to the initial team who performed a 5S process (a process improvement method) on the police garage.

Reason for Undertaking the Initiative:

Like governments around the world, the City of Fredericton is facing financial challenges. The public’s expectations of the public sector are evolving. Work forces are aging and preparing to retire.

The City has an excellent track record to build upon. We have a long-term financial management plan and a quality management system. The recent reorganization will help increase focus on efficiencies, accelerate innovation and collaboration, and improve service delivery.

But we also must find ways to manage these new realities. Changes to our staffing practices have started. As employees retire, many positions will not be filled or will be filled from within. Work will be managed differently; employees’ duties will change.

The City has also begun the implementation of an I&I Plan. The plan uses tools like Lean Six Sigma and other continuous improvement strategies to achieve efficiencies within the corporation.

Resources Required to Implement this Initiative:

The costs associated with these projects are funded by the corporation. This includes training and technology funding. Each department, including the police force, provides resources and time to the initiative, including secondments.

Method of Implementation:

The initiative is ongoing, with several projects still underway. Changes have now been implemented as a result of Waste Walks in several areas, such as court overtime reduction, Department of Social Development requests, criminal record checks, and DPS media.

Key Outcomes of the Initiative:

Each project has a different outcome, with the main goal of finding efficiencies within our organization. For further information, please contact the individual identified above.

Availability of a Communication Strategy:

Yes

Key Messages used to Publicize the Initiative:

Projects are provided to the I&I team, which provides the communications plan for each project, either through the newsletter or through a medium open to the public (if presented to Council).

Forms of Evaluation by which the Initiative will be Assessed:

  • internal
  • quantitative
  • qualitative

Evaluation Completed or Community Feedback Received:

Yes

Summary of the Outcomes:

Each project must provide a presentation to the I&I Steering Committee.

Summary of the Performance Measure Data Collected:

Each project follows the Lean Six Sigma principles and must produce efficiencies and savings—either hard savings (resources) or soft savings (employee hours/time). These savings are scrutinized by the City's Finance Department as well as the I&I Steering Committee.

Economics of Policing Pillars:

Further Details:

N/A

Additional Comments or Suggestions:

N/A

Record Entry Date:

2015-03-01

Date modified: