Much of my work has involved helping public organizations make better use of their people, systems, processes, and technology.
The examples below are representative of the kinds of problems I enjoy working on.
Complex investigation: organizing evidence for prosecution
A major homicide investigation involved multiple crime scenes in several jurisdictions, more than 200 pieces of evidence, thousands of photographs, and dozens of reports and witness statements.
The traditional approach would have been to assemble the material in boxes, binders, and paper files.
Instead, I created a searchable digital case system that organized the evidence, reports, photographs, audio, and video in one place. Related materials could be accessed directly from the sections where they were relevant, and the entire searchable case package could be provided electronically to prosecutors.
The result was a system that made a very large case easier to understand, search, review, and present.
Accreditation: replacing paper with a digital process
A county sheriff’s office relied solely on paper documentation to support its accreditation process.
I created the first digital accreditation process used by a law enforcement agency for accreditation with the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation. The system simplified record keeping and allowed assessors to review all proof documents on screen rather than working through boxes of paper records.
The change reduced paper handling, simplified organization, and made the accreditation maintenance and review processes much easier to manage.
Legal operations: reducing repetitive work
A statewide legal office where I served as general counsel handled large numbers of recurring issues in a high volume of cases.
Agency attorneys were often researching the same legal questions repeatedly and preparing similar documents from scratch or from their own records. This meant that we risked using disparate arguments on similar issues in different cases.
To help our attorneys and paralegals and create greater consistency in the agency’s legal arguments statewide, I created a digital brief bank that gave attorneys access to prior research and arguments on frequently litigated issues. I also developed standardized templates for commonly used forms.
The result was faster, more consistent legal work and a substantial reduction in the time required to handle repetitive cases.
Call-center operations: comparing in-house and contracted work
A statewide agency was using both its own employees and outside contractors to handle customer-service and appointment calls.
I compared call volume, staffing, call-handling time, and cost per call across the different operations. The analysis showed that the agency could consolidate much of the contracted work internally, expand the role of its existing call center, improve customer service, and significantly reduce annual costs.
The recommendation also included broader operator training, improved performance measures, callback capability, better use of call data, and additional bilingual staffing where needed.
The common thread
These projects involved different organizations and different kinds of work, but the approach was similar in each case.
Start with the outcome. Understand how the work is currently being done. Identify what is slowing it down, making it more expensive, or making it harder to use. Then find the simplest practical way to improve it.
That is the kind of work I most enjoy.