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“We previously had no notification if an employee was about to miss a deadline. Now, with TargetSolutions pushing everything, we’re much better off. That’s a huge factor for us. This system really helps us stay on track and notified, rather than our old way of doing everything manually. The automated e-mail alerts help us tremendously.”

Dennis Reglen, Strategic Planning Lieutenant 

El Paso Fire Department, Texas

“With TargetSolutions we know who is expiring and we can plan more efficiently. We now know who is coming up and when their expiration dates are. The reporting functionality really helps us do our jobs better.”

Dan Collins, Fire Captain

Cal Fire San Diego, Calif.

Is your police agency struggling with how to effectively train its personnel? A recent news report by 19 KYTX in Texas analyzed the issues with compliance and risk many law enforcement agencies in the Lone Star State are facing.

Lonny Wilder, who is TargetSolutions’ VP of Public Safety, was interviewed for the special feature to discuss several incidents that have brought scrutiny to various departments and how online training helps achieve better results. Investigations into the departments’ training have been conducted as a result of these incidents.

“It only takes one incident for the public to rise up and say, ‘gee, we need more training for these guys,’ ” Wilder said. “And I think that is happening with more frequency.”

Law Enforcement Requirements for Continuing Education

Every two years, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement requires officers to complete 40 hours of law enforcement continuing education. It is left to the department to determine what type of training is completed. With TargetSolutions, law enforcement departments can access more than 240 training courses that are accepted by TCOLE.

Another key benefit of the online training management platform is the ability to start and stop training on your schedule with 24/7 access to law enforcement courses and training materials.

“Every decision they (police) make from moment they get out of that car, is absolutely critical,” Wilder said. “The training of law enforcement officers is critical and vital, not just for their continuing education and certification, but also for their safety and for well-being of the community at large that they serve.”

Save resources with TargetSolutions’ web-based file-storing application.

“CAJPA is an opportunity for our team to interact with our clients and answer questions they might have about TargetSolutions. It’s also productive for the team to engage with risk managers and safety officers who are looking to learn more about the industry’s most comprehensive web-based catalog of online health and safety training.”

Kelly Zielinski

Manager of Strategic Risk Management Business Unit 

The Denver Drill – Part 2 firefighter training video has been viewed more than 1,300 times by TargetSolutions’ users and has a five-star rating.

Firefighters know the story of Mark Langvardt. He is the Denver firefighter who lost his life during a three-alarm fire after being trapped inside a storage room.

The tragic incident led to an increased level of preparation for managing confined spaces. Specifically, the Denver Drill was developed and the result is better strategy for extracting an unconscious firefighter in tight quarters.

If you’re looking for some firefighter training on the Denver Drill, TargetSolutions’ Community Resources is a great place to start. This month’s top video inside the file-sharing application is the “The Denver Drill – Part 2,” which shows procedures for removing a downed firefighter in a constricted area from feet-first and head-first positions.

“Never seen this part, very good info, I will be passing this on,” wrote George Gardiner of the City of Charleston Fire Department’s (S.C.) in the video’s comments section. And “good training,” Sheila Bennett of Margate-Coconut Creek Fire Department (Fla.) wrote of the video, which is currently stored in 32 different organizations’ File Center.

If you’re interested in learning more about the tragedy that took Langvardt’s life, you can also find the “The Denver Drill – Part 1” video inside Community Resources, which gives a report from individuals who were on the ground Sept. 28, 1992, when the 39-year-old became separated from his crew and lost his life in intense heat and heavy smoke.

There are several other training resources devoted to the Denver Drill in Community Resources, including a PowerPoint overview. If you would like more information, please contact us at (800) 840-8048.

It doesn’t matter which fire department you analyze, how many personnel it employs, or how many citizens it serves – chances are the chiefs, captains and officers at that department are struggling to make sure personnel are completing mandatory training and compliance tasks on time. At least that is the case for departments doing things the old-fashioned way.

North Shore Fire Rescue (Wis.) was one of those departments until it found TargetSolutions, the industry’s leader in online training and records management, in January of 2012. Ever since, training management has become more efficient, according to Battalion Chief of Administration and Training Toby Carlson.

“Prior to launching TargetSolutions, we found it extremely challenging to effectively train 100 percent of our members, whether it was through practical drill, policy review or operational practices,” Carlson said. “Due to the staffing needs of our organization, some members rotate to multiple stations, which makes it even more difficult to connect with everyone from a training perspective. What TargetSolutions has allowed us to do is assign training to the entire department with the ability to electronically record when it has been completed.”

Not only has TargetSolutions helped North Shore effectively schedule and deliver assignments to members serving seven different communities across Northeast Milwaukee, but the department is maximizing the platform’s ability to track items and ensure accountability. One such area Carlson has seen drastic improvements, is in the tracking and reporting of ISO training.

“In the past, meeting ISO training hours was challenging – now, it is easier,” Carlson said. “It is still a significant amount of work, but we’re in a much better position to meet our goals. The training tracker application has become very valuable for us.”

With TargetSolutions’ pre-built fire department ISO compliance training solution – as well as the online system’s ready-to-go EMS recertification solution for the state of Wisconsin – Carlson’s department is operating at maximum efficiency. Carlson uses Target – Solutions’ LMS to deliver online EMS continuing education and “custom activities,” which are electronic tracking forms, to meet requirements for Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Life Support (ALS).

By recording live training sessions and delivering them with custom activities – plus the ability to store documents and policies and assign them requiring an e-signature – training management is simplified.

“Before TargetSolutions we had to do quite a bit of work manually documenting on a monthly training sheet who completed what training, then send in to the person managing the training bureau. They would manually compile and enter all the data – but that was archaic. Now, it’s almost effortless to not only record training, but to run the reports that confirm what has been done and what still needs to be done. That has been the biggest benefit, electronic storage and ease of compiling those records.”

Toby Carlson, Battalion Chief of Administration and Training

When Carlson looks at the overall benefits of the system, however, it comes back to effectively delivering and tracking training and other compliance items.

“North Shore Fire Rescue was doing a significant amount of training before, but unfortunately a lot of it fell through the cracks on the recording end,” Carlson said. “Now, with TargetSolutions, we have an accurate account of the hours our members devote to training, which is extremely important.”

About TargetSolutions
TargetSolutions delivers cutting-edge software applications, engaging online training courses, and world-class customer service. The company was founded in 1999 and today there are more than 2,000 organizations across the country using TargetSolutions’ innovative technology to solve their training challenges.