Case Study: Kane County Sheriff's Office

Off-duty “the ancient way”

Ashley Hain works as the office manager in the records office of the Kane County Sheriff, overseeing most of the administrative functions of the sheriff’s office. Hain took on the responsibility of managing off-duty details for the deputies after the employee that was previously managing it took an extended leave of absence. When she took on off-duty management, the program was coordinated in what she calls “the ancient way.”

All off-duty details were scheduled a month ahead of time and manually recorded and printed on word documents. The process also required the deputies and Hain to be in the record room in person and draw names out of a hat to determine who got what detail.

In addition to the arduous sign-up process, officers working off-duty had to fill out, sign and submit a PDF within 48 hours in order to get paid for the job. The entire process discouraged deputy participation. “We have a lot of younger deputies that didn’t want to physically come up to the record room to sign up. Half of them didn’t even know about off-duty.”

Once Hain learned about RollKall, she jumped at the chance to bring more ease and organization to the off-duty process. In seeking out a better solution, her main concerns were having easier scheduling, maintaining proper documentation of money transfers and making sure the solution was amenable to their union.

An easy solution for all involved

One of the unique challenges of Kane County’s transition to RollKall was getting the officer’s union on board and willing to update the current off-duty policy they had in place. Maintaining an element of fairness in assigning off-duty jobs was the main area of concern for the union. This concern was an easy hurdle for RollKall as the platform’s flexible assignment options aligned to the union’s rules for setting job assignments, including being able to specify which officers could bid on jobs and when.

Hain also consulted the deputies that regularly worked off-duty. She wanted to make sure RollKall would be a valuable solution for the officers, and if so, they could help her case with the officer’s union. She was met with enthusiasm. “The regulars love it; they’ve talked about doing something like this for years.”

Once they established that the off-duty process using RollKall was compatible with their union contract and met all of the requirements and concerns for Hain, it was a simple matter of process.

A speedy transition

When the union approved the move, Kane County Sheriff’s Office quickly and easily transitioned to RollKall. Initially, there were only a few consistent clients and 4-5 officers working off-duty, so getting everybody onto the app and platform was lightning fast. Even officers that weren’t particularly technology-savvy had an easy time using the mobile app. The longest part of the transition was waiting for their next billing cycle so they could begin their new invoicing and payment process using RollKall.

RollKall helps foster a growing off-duty program

Since implementing RollKall, the difference in managing off-duty has been night and day. No more names out of a hat and no more PDFs. The ease of the mobile app has increased officer participation. Before RollKall, only a handful of officers were regularly working off-duty. Now, roughly one-third of the officers are signed up through the RollKall mobile app and working off-duty details.

Hain is now managing a much higher volume of off-duty with no increase in time. Kane County has gone from 19 detail requests a month to an average of 65-70.

“With the volume that we’re getting and the fact that I can input everything right away, I am spending the same amount of time as before but our volume has grown,” she said. “I get a call and I can just add-add-add. I can create a client, create a job and post it out in 7 minutes. I can just get it done.”

Lieutenant Corey Hunger, who manages the monthly invoicing for all off-duty jobs, has also benefited from using RollKall. Since they bill clients on a monthly basis, Lieutenant Hunger is able to combine all invoices so the client gets one simple invoice and makes one payment. Distributing the invoices is also much easier. “Sending out the invoices to the client is easier, “ he said. “It’s just a couple of clicks.”

The RollKall platform also maintains proper documentation of all hours worked, jobs invoiced and payments made through the platform, allowing the client and the County access to detailed reporting. This level of transparency has contributed to the sheriff’s office building a higher level of trust with their clients in the community and resulted in more requests coming into the department.

Kane County’s off-duty program sees a number of positive changes

The increased officer participation also means that community requests are getting filled. This has strengthened their reputation within the community, and they are now even getting referrals from other clients.

Off-duty wages for officers is another unanticipated benefit of switching to RollKall. While the platform has no influence on the amount of officer payment, it’s easy to set and change officer rates if the sheriff’s office wants to reevaluate off-duty wages, if different jobs pay different rates, or even if a client offers an increase.

“People are actually participating now, and it enhances our relationship with the community,” said Hain. “For example, one of our clients was having trouble getting a party filled and requested to pay the officers double because it was so easy on the platform.”

Kane County Sheriff’s Office is officially keeping up with the times

Before RollKall, Kane County Sheriff’s Office had an off-duty program that was antiquated, fussy, fragmented and usually fell short of filling community requests. After enlisting the help of RollKall, their off-duty management runs smoothly with higher officer participation, better community ties and every detail getting filled.