Redesigning Police Reporting • 2020
OpenLattice is a secure data-sharing platform that supports apps for state and local governments. Care is a police reporting tool acquired by OpenLattice to build out the app library. Care is used by over 1,100 law enforcement officers in 3 states to collaborate with healthcare professionals on crisis calls for those with mental illness. By enabling health and law departments to share their reports and data, small governments are able to better intercept a troubled individual falling through cracks in the system.
When Care became increasingly popular as a means of selling our data platform, we decided to improve the user experience to make Care the app that would grow and scale with our data platform. As sole product designer, I led the effort to identify ways to improve the way officers were using our tool.
process
I used a design audit to kick-off this project and discuss immediate areas of opportunity with internal stakeholders.
The first problem was that all workflows were nested under report creation. More specifically, the “Create New Person” button was hidden behind the “New Report” button. That meant that if an officer searched for a person who’s profile did not exist in the database yet, they had no way of knowing how to go about creating that person.
Hazards of form submission on-the-go
The design audit also showed poor mobile optimization. The profile loaded with the profile photo centered in a somewhat balanced manner, but was in a 3-column format that was difficult to navigate. And the report progression bar took up so much space that it caused excess line breaks and displaced the checkbox inputs. Since some officers only used mobile devices to complete forms, this desperately needed a fix.
Fragmented storytelling
My third concern was that the person profile created about non-linear narrative. It jumped from person information to officer-recommended actions to data analytics in a pattern that seemed random. How could this amount of information be digested quickly and comprehensively? My hypothesis was that this layout was prohibitively congested, but I needed validation. With this question in mind, I went into my user research.
research
My goal was to learn what police officers needed to know about a person in order to understand and engage with them in a meaningful way.
I interviewed police leadership from 3 departments, then followed up with a survey and questionnaire. I came away with a list of numbers used to contextualize an individual, how they used safety information to prepare, and learned that warnings of threat of violence or use of weapons was essential to having safe encounters, even though it may bias them:
“If I’m dispatched to a crisis call, the first thing I wanna know is: ‘Is this person gonna pull a knife on me?’”
Development
I used a wireframe to communicate key structures to the project manager and developer and then started refining the officer safety section.
I tried banners, badges, and segments to find something that was quick to spot on the profile and easy to digest. A second round of user interviews taught me that a concise step-by-step approach worked best.
Solutions
We updated the workflow to start with a search, then move on to reporting. In the new flow, officers are able to start with a search for a person, and then move straight to creating one if they don’t find who they’re looking for.
Responsive and scalable forms
Instead of having multiple input methods for no reason, we defaulted to a mobile-friendly input for all questions. This chunked-out format enables a single-column view on mobile devices, and doesn’t compete with the progress bar for space.
Contextualized action plans
The number of reports was kept at the top of the profile because it helps the officer determine how much of a “frequent flier” they are, and contextualizes how many experiences are informing the practices recommended.
The triggers, officer safety, and de-escalation techniques were consolidated into a single section that walks an officer step-by-step through the encounter to a safe resolution.
Separation between in-the-field and off-the-field information
Officers and clinicians can now use the “History” tab to construct a person’s profile off-the-field and assess the need for a follow-up or wellness check. This protects the actionable items on the “Response” tab from being crowded by useful, but less urgent information.
Conclusion
While internal stakeholders were hesitant to pare down the profile, the decision got a strong response from police leadership: “It’s fast and concise, it instantly thrusts an officer into the crisis intervention mindset.” Officers also reported that it took way less time to complete the form submission process with the updated input method. The investment in the redesign was returned in a scalable model that we were able to apply to other people-based reporting tools.
Find out more about Care and other government agency tools at www.openlattice.com.