Why NueGov for Public Safety?

If you’ve found yourself here, you’ve probably come with the intention of figuring out what exactly NueGov can do for you. Rather than tell you what, let me tell you why NueGov exists. 

I retired from a 30-year career in law enforcement in 2020.  I began in 1990 as a young police officer and finished as an old Captain in the Colorado State Patrol.  30 years taught me a lot about the profession. 

I spent the last 14 years of my career with the CSP as a captain. During this time, I was tasked with multiple administrative tasks – many of which were difficult and time consuming. Unfortunately, some of them had absolutely nothing to do with public safety – the role for which police officers are employed.  With a troop under my care that varied from 15-25% of the State of Colorado, there were a lot of moving pieces I had responsibility for – people, vehicles, offices, training, weapons, equipment and others. 

In fact, during my years in this position, I saw numerous issues related to tracking these issues. I watched officers retire with sidearms that were not issued to them.  The numbers on their guns did not match the paperwork, leading to a goose chase finding correcting things. I saw other pieces of equipment go missing. I lived through officers missing required training or recertifications, facilities that needed work without adequate information about building age, composition or other info, and saw that certain vehicles were under or overutilized depending on where they were assigned. 

Compound these issues with having six separate offices, multiple pieces of equipment and having to manage officer training, and it’s a lot to track.  I had no way to quickly determine who had received a type of required training, or whom I could quickly put into an assignment for which they were trained.   

We had data silos – a written note about a particular item or officer, a computer spreadsheet saved somewhere on a computer, an in-house expert that knew the answers to some of these questions.  And of course, I still had a person to whom I answered and wanted the answers to these questions quickly, not to mention the public and their trust that we are protecting.  

This system was not working. My father taught me that if anything was worth doing, it was worth doing right. We needed a new way to do things – to do them right. I contacted a software developer, functioning in the arena of government agencies.  I expressed my concerns with these issues and the serious downsides that come from mismanagement of any of these items.  We worked out a solution that addresses these problems.  It’s Nuegov for Public Safety. 

All agencies deal with these same problems.  Maybe it's a specialized piece of equipment that was borrowed by an officer, but 3 weeks later, nobody can recall who took it or the officer doesn’t remember where he left it.  Perhaps officers miss a scheduled training class, at least one of which is required, or there’s out of date body armor running around. Maybe there’s a vehicle or two that are well past their shelf life and cost more in maintenance fees than it would take to replace them.   

Some of the same data silos I had are being used – the combination of sticky notes, computer files or resident experts to manage some of this.  God forbid the note blows away, the hard drive crashes or the expert retires.   

We all want to avoid this scenario - for many reasons.  Lost weapons create a serious public safety threat that puts all of us in a bad situation, both in terms of officer and public safety and because of the backlash against law enforcement. At a time like this when we’re struggling to overcome some of the perceptions the public has, the last thing we need is to risk the rest of their trust.  Finally, how much time do we spend chasing our tails and this information? This is not what the public wants us to be doing.  

I’m proud to say that the Colorado Department of Public Safety has made the transition to NueGov.  They can manage all of their equipment, fleet, staff, and all of their training and facilities in one system, from all over the state.  That’s a heavy lift, but in doing this, they’ve made a step in the right direction toward keeping their focus on public safety and maintaining the public trust that’s so vital to this profession.   

When you find yourself facing these same concerns, reach out to NueGov. We’d love to help you reduce your risk and safeguard your assets the way the CDPS did.   Let’s put a smart system to work for you and allow you to put our eyes back on the things that matter.  Keeping our communities safe. 

Gaylon retired as a Captain from the Colorado State Patrol in 2020 after 30 years in the profession. He worked throughout the State of Colorado in all functions of patrol. He has his Master of Science in Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Administration, with a specialization in Organizational Leadership. He now works as a public safety consultant with NueGOV.