IRPS committee seeks streamlined onboarding, unified constituent tracking and earlier briefings on police community service aids

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners’ IRPS (Employee Relations and Public Safety) Committee discussed establishing a countywide onboarding process for commissioners and staff, evaluating a centralized constituent relationship management (CRM) or case-management system, and prioritizing presentations on community service aides and other departmental updates.

Commissioner Ladina Bolton, chair of the IRPS Committee, said she requested a spreadsheet of prior committee topics and recommended a discussion on departmental onboarding processes. Bolton noted that three new commissioners recently joined the commission and said a formal onboarding process would help maintain service continuity. She described materials already provided to new commissioners, saying central staff "created a binder for us ... that had all the tools with respect to, committees, explanation of committees, what the board looks like. There were org charts as well as, just key information that we would need moving forward." Bolton said district staff also conducted a "2 to 3 hour meeting" with one incoming commissioner.

The committee discussed constituent tracking and CRM systems. Commissioners referenced different systems in use in commission offices — one commissioner said their office uses "Fireflies" while another said the office has been "looking at Salesforce." County staff told the committee there have been informal discussions about a centralized system, and that the committee could formalize requirements and recommendations.

Commissioners said a centralized or interoperable system could improve constituent service by allowing offices to transfer or share cases across districts and to close out requests from initiation to resolution. One commissioner said a uniform approach would help when a call reported in one district actually belongs to another: "Especially if I get a call in District 4 and I log in, but it really should be District 5 or District 3. Mhmm. And if there was a way to transfer that, yeah. That would be helpful."

Other committee topics mentioned as possible near-term briefings included updates on 311 performance and statistics, pension updates, wellness initiatives, EMS response times, e911, open enrollment, crime statistics and trends, the pay/class study, police recruitment, and comprehensive wellness strategies. Commissioners urged that community service aide presentations be scheduled sooner rather than later; one staff presenter described community service aides as a "force multiplier" that frees sworn officers from minor tasks.

The committee asked staff to track requested items and to follow up with administration for scheduling and budget implications, including whether a centrally provided CRM would come out of a central budget or individual district budgets. No formal votes on onboarding or CRM procurement were recorded at the meeting.

Ending: The committee will continue to refine priorities and asked staff to return with scheduling, estimated costs for requested briefings, and any budget implications for a centralized constituent tracking system.