Law, Order, and Listening

Business is our bailiwick at The Radical Ear, but our listening approach applies to any human activity that depends on innovation to thrive. I’ve been working with the Portland Police Bureau to help solve a persistent problem: they spend 80% of their resources on a small number of chronic offenders.

We found that the Bureau’s communication system hadn’t changed much in decades – it was a typical one-way system that got information into the field but didn’t take in much. Developing new channels for communication will help the Bureau innovate.

You can read about the initiative here. Briefly, we designed a listening infrastructure to help the police listen cost-effectively to both their officers and their community, to find areas of disconnect and opportunities for improvement. They will also be using Jive’s social networking tools to interact with community members.

The immediate target: reduce service calls from that area by 20 percent in a particularly difficult district. The ultimate goal: a more informed, connected, and effective police force for Portland.