A Fresh Way To Schedule Officers in 2024
Law enforcement supervisors often have the unenviable task of shift scheduling. Software companies have developed both simple and elaborate solutions to replace the old pen-and-paper of yesteryear. This year, the new kid on the block is the law enforcement scheduling software company Hero Schedule. We will take a look at who they are, what they offer, and who they are up against.
What things are they working on in 2024?
We reached out to the Hero Schedule team to see what they are working on this year for the platform.
Isaac Wiinanen, Marketing Director at Hero Schedule, said, “Our development team has been working hard to make key improvements to the user interface and add features. Many of these features are built from community feedback…which was one of our goals. We want our company to always be built on what is needed in the first responder arena.”
We asked what feature was most requested from the user base.
“Hands down, users wanted a way to bid on shifts, especially by seniority. So, we launched our shift bidding tool late in Q4 of 2023 — fully available to all users in 2024. The initial feedback we’ve received has been very positive.”
What is Hero Schedule?
Hero Schedule is a shift scheduling software. According to their website, their software is aimed at “police departments, fire departments, and EMS professionals”.
The Hero Schedule developers place an emphasis on their product customization, simple interface, and secure platform.
As of March 2024, pricing starts at $4 per user. This seems to be in the ballpark of the industry-standard across several scheduling companies with comparable offerings.
Who are they up against?
Other companies have offered similar products to the law enforcement market. These pieces of software are used by many departments and agencies around the nation.
Schedule Anywhere offers services to first responders, stating their intention to help departments “save time and money, streamline scheduling and improve team communications”.
Vector Solutions says they design software for law enforcement to “simplify your workforce management and employee resourcing with a scheduling solution developed for mission-critical industries”.
ConnectTeam offers scheduling services, but to a broader range of industries, including healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, to name a few.
What services are usually offered with scheduling software?
Departments tend to look for on-the-go time management, provides management with more accurate information, automates communication, and tracking of payroll hours. Captains and sergeants want to have solid control over the processing of permit requests, overtime, duty teams, training sessions, detailed reports, robust timesheets, and more. We’ve tried to look at most of the offerings available on the market in this analysis.
Standard scheduling software tries to offer law enforcement the benefit of lower overtime costs, better communication, labor law compliance, and employee access to last hours of work.
Departmental efficiency is often a metric looked at by LEO superiors. Tools that make it easy to manage, share, and analyze survey data are always welcomed. Often this comes in the form of cloud solutions.
Police publications like Police1 have curated lists of companies that offer scheduling software. This publication is considered a thought leader in the LEO community. They publish news stories, gear reviews, and training articles.
