COBAN Training
Practices
Lee Richards
KCMOPD
Digital Technology Section
Kansas City Missouri Police Department
816-234-5581
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Initial BETA Test
• Outfitted 2 Wagons in Divisions (Prisoner Transports)
– Initially trained a handful of officers at the two
affected division and trained them individually.
• 1 Patrol Car Assigned to Our Unit to Test
We Were Clueless
We Had No Idea What We Were Getting Into
Lucky Red Tape = 2 Years to Prep
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Initial Training Assessment
Determine Who Needs Training
 Determine Types of Training
 Determine Who will be Trainers
 Determine What Training Resources Needed
 Determine How to Maintain Training
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To Get There
In order to know those answers, you have to
first start with your deployment plan.
• How Many Vehicles
• Type of Vehicles/Systems
• How is Data Getting to Server
• City/Server Structure
• End User
Initial Analysis…for our structure
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KCPD has 320 Cameras – TopCamII
7 Patrol Divisions & 1 Academy Division
915 of 1300 - Officers/Sergeants Use in Vehicle
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1 Division at a Time
70 Clerks that Upload Drives
10 Techs Installing/Maintaining Vehicles
1 Sgt, 2 Officers, 3 Civilians making copies
350 Commanders & Investigators using Back Office
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Training Guestimication
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What types of training?
 Basic Philosophies of In-Vehicle Systems
 COBAN Vehicle System Use
 Back Office Use
 Installation and Repair
 Uploaders (Civilian Desk Clerks)
Who would need training.
 About 90% of Sworn
 About 15% of Civilian
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In-Vehicle Training
• Initial Roll Out – 915 Employees – 7 Divisions
– Selected 2 Officers/Sergeants from Each Watch
at Each Division (Some Good – Some Bad)
– Train the Trainer Program
– Video – 25 Minute Step by Step
• New Employee Maintenance
– Regional Academy – 2 Hours
– Field Training Officers
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Desk Clerk
• Desk Clerks Upload Drives
• Initially responded to all 7 patrol divisions
and trained clerks on one watch, which
trained subsequent watch.
• Also had 5 minute video available
– Upload
– Diagnose and Label Problem Drives
– Workflow
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Install & Repair Shop
• COBAN came to our location
and trained our techs.
• Our techs trained 3rd party
vendor that would do ‘some’
of installations.
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Back Office
25 Minute Step by Step Video
• 50 Commanders – Back Office
– Gradual Method – Had Sergeants in Division
Train
• 300 Investigators/Detectives – Back Office
– As needed
– One Group at a Time
– Each Group had Different Needs
• 915 Officer
– Placing holds
– Entering Data
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Maintenance
• COBAN frequently make updates
– Short Videos Pushed to Cars
– Short Videos Pushed to COBAN
Workstations
– Daily Email Newsletter
– Annual In-Service Training
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The Video – Core of Our Training
Step by Step
 Chronological Step by Step Order
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Filmed Roll Call Where Officers Checked Out
Charging Rack
Where best to place Transmitter on Belt
How to Check Out Drive
Placing Drive in the Car
Signing in
End of Shift
Upload
Returning Equipment
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Video Tools Needed
Quality Handycam – SD
• Tripod
• Screen Capture Utility
• 321 Soft Screen Video Recorder
• Video Editing Software
• Adobe Premiere Pro (Expensive)
• Windows Movie Maker (Free)
• DVD Creation Tool
• Adobe Encore (Expensive)
• Windows Movie Maker (Free)
• Creative Employee
• Sense of Humor
• Good
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Initial Training DVD Chapters
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Introduction – About Conversion
Check Out – How To Check Out Drive at Station
Vehicle Prep – How to put drive in system
Sign On – Signing into the System
Transmitter 1 – Charger and Location on Belt
Console – Intro to Console Hardware in Vehicle
Transmitter 2 – Synchronization in Vehicle
Display – Basic Display Functions
Data Entry – Data Entry in the Car
More Menu – All function in the More Menu
End of Shift – Turning off and taking drive in for upload
BO Client
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Password – How to Change Password
Video Request & Playback – Basic search and play functions
Multi-View Playback – Playing up to 9 Videos Simultaneously
Snapshots – Creating and Exporting Snapshots
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Training Videos
Each Division Watch Trainer Received 1 DVD
 Each COBAN Workstation had individual
videos
 Network ‘Public’ Drive had Videos
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All Members Had Ready Access to
All Training Materials
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Updates
Updates Pushed Out to Same 3 Locations
 Updates Pushed with ‘Announcement
Video’ Feature
 Updates Emailed out in ‘Daily Informant’
 Updates in annual ‘In-Service Training’
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Lee Richards
1111 Locust
Kansas City, Missouri
64109
816-234-5589
lee.richards@kcpd.org
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