FROM THE NET WORKS NEWSLETTER, FALL 2010, VOL. 26, NO. 3
The St. Johns County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office has a straightforward vision statement: “Be the best we can be, in all that we do.”
David Shoar, Sheriff of St. Johns County since 2004, works hard to live up to this vision. A leader in his department and his community Shoar has won many awards and letters of recommendation from both colleagues and civilians in his 29-year career.
Add Flexibility During Tough Budget Years
Part of doing what’s best for the residents is utilizing the county’s monetary resources as efficiently as possible. The most important issues St. Johns County faces today are budgetary — dealing with constraints on resources while still staying on the leading edge of technology and training. “Like everyone else in the United States right now, we’re trying to do more with less,” said Shoar. Fortunately, the sheriff has IACP Net to help overcome these challenges. Helping departments accomplish more with fewer resources is what IACP Net is all about. Sheriff Shoar was originally introduced to the service at a previous agency, and made sure to take out a membership for St. Johns County upon becoming sheriff. Despite budgetary limitations, he has no problem justifying IACP Net — citing significant cost savings over time.
“IACP Net’s annual cost of membership is easily outweighed by the sayings realized in time saved by myself and my staff when we have to research an issue,” noted Sheriff Shoar. “Another cost savings is having subject matter experts just a click away, rather than paying them through costly retainers and hourly billings.”
Dynamic Problem-Solving Tools at Your Fingertips
The sheriff has used IACP Net’s Quest-ResponseSM service to query other departments on TASER® usage, policy development, and radio systems. “IACP Net is a great place to go,” noted Sheriff Shoar. “We’ve found it to be a great resource; staff can do research and query people in the field. It’s a great tool — a police library at your fingertips.”
For Shoar, IACP Net is the ultimate tool for researching issues due to its exclusive focus on the law enforcement market. “IACP Net articles focus narrowly on law enforcement issues and are written by law enforcement personnel or those directly connected to the profession — which makes them invaluable,” emphasized the sheriff. “My staff and I are able to find concise information, rather than general articles written for public consumption by those who don’t understand the dynamics law enforcement agencies must deal with.”
IACP Net is also a dynamic tool for learning and quick online precedent-gathering when departments need extra support for their actions. “A staff member reviews IACP Net several times a week looking for articles in the Core and Policies Databases that support what we are doing and that we can learn from. We forward those articles to the folks doing the hands-on job for review and consideration.”
Shoar is enthusiastic about IACP Net’s capabilities. “For anyone considering joining IACP Net, I can confirm that this is ‘the’ online source for law enforcement professionals,” said Shoar. “It gives the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office the ability to directly ask questions of colleagues, as well as providing direct access to a vast number of best practices within the industry.”
For these reasons and more, Sheriff Shoar endorses IACP Net: “I recommend IACP Net to all sheriffs and chiefs in the country — it’s a wonderful tool.”
