A
SSOCIATED
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EWSPAPERS OF
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ICHIGAN
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AGE
5
February 11, 2016
W
AYNE
- W
ESTLAND
Most police departments lack the tools
to determine if their training, equipment,
techniques and policies are effective. Soon
this will no longer be the case for both the
Wayne andWestlandpolice departments.
Both departments are implementing
Force LMS (Liability Management
Solution), a new software program that will
allow them to make informed decisions to
increase citizen and officer safety and
decrease liability.
Force Liability Management Solution
was developed by AM Data Service, a soft-
ware development and IT managed serv-
ice company, in concert with Center Mass,
a law enforcement training organization
owned by Jeff Felts, a retiredWayne police
officer. Both companies are located in
Livonia.
The developers recently donated Force
LMS to the Wayne Police Department,
which includes installation and configura-
tion in addition to maintenance for five
years. Police Chief Alan Maciag invited
them to present a system overview at a
Police Community Meeting earlier this
monthat theWaynePoliceDepartment.
“I believe in transparency and this is
part of that,” Maciag said. “We need to
show the public what's going on. In these
tough times we're productive and getting
things done but we need to do things differ-
ently.”
Currently the department uses paper
forms to document and report training,
uses of force and pursuits. With Force
LMS, they will enter this information into
an automated system. Supervisors can
review and approve information in this
same system instead of moving paper
around the precinct.
“So here's part of the problem,” Felts, a
Canton Township resident, said. “In most
police departments, it goes like this. We've
got three boxes. These are where all our
training files are kept. One box is for use-
of-force incidents, one box is for training,
one box is for pursuits. Howmany pursuits
do you think don't end in some sort of use
of force? The bad guy is running because
he doesn't want to go to jail! They generally
just don't give up and say, 'OK, you got me.'
Either they're going to keep running and
fight when they get out or they're going to
fight when you chase them down. They
don't want to go to jail.
“But use of force generally is not associ-
ated with driving and pursuits. This train-
ing officer over here isn't talking to this
training officer over here. None of them
really communicate or share the informa-
tion, even in a small police department.
And that's one of themajor problems. We're
going to change that…with this program.”
Felts guarantees Force LMS will lead to
changes in the way the department polices
theCity ofWayne.
“They're going to see the things they're
doing aren't actually the best things to be
doing and they'll be able to make the
changes they need to make for all the rea-
sons we're talking about: the officers' safety,
your safety, community support and, most
of all, transparency,” he said.
Police agencies are generally slow to
change or evolve their training, equipment
and policies simply because they don't
have the information required to validate
what isworking andwhat isn't.
“The only time training really changes
mandatorily in police work is when an
employee does such an egregious act that
you have to change it because it cannot
happen again,” Felts said. “That's one way
training changes, that's one way policy
changes. The other time that happens is
when the laws actually change and the law
forces us. The other time it happens is
through lawsuits, whether it's directly
against us or if it's case law established out
there that sayswe need to do this or that.
“A lot of places don't listen to the case
law until it rears up and bites them in the
rear end. So we repeat. This is the prob-
lem, folks. And we repeat it because we
assume that what we're doing -- our train-
ing, our policy and our equipment - are the
absolute best means to an end or we
wouldn't have that. Nobody's trying to be sly
or anything like that, we just haven't taken
the time to see what actually works and
what really doesn't work. And the only way
you can do that is through reviewing effec-
tiveness to every use of force officers
deploy.”
Force LMS tracks every use of force,
including suspects' demographics; where it
happened and under which conditions;
which technique departments are using
most and how effective each technique is;
Computer crime fighter
Wayne-Westland police using
new software to report incidents
Audience members packed the meeting room to hear the presentation by officials from
AM Data Solutions about the new police software being donated to the Wayne Police
Department.
Wayne resident Nancy Pride discusses use of force with Rich Miller, owner of AM Data
Service, and Jeff Felts, owner of Center Mass.
See
Software,
page 6
