Oregon DPSST Simplifies Complex Training and Academy Processes with Acadis

The Challenge

Unlike other similar state entities, the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) does not focus only on one area of public safety, like law enforcement or firefighting. Instead, Oregon DPSST is responsible for managing certifications for nearly all areas of public safety professions within the state, including law enforcement, corrections, private security, private investigators, firefighting, and polygraph examiners. While not every discipline receives basic academy training from DPSST, DPSST provides training for approximately 2,200 trainees per biennium.

The breadth of disciplines managed by DPSST combined with the number of trainees creates a complex ecosystem for the agency to manage. To be successful, especially as the public safety landscape continues to rapidly evolve, DPSST requires a robust technology solution that is flexible enough to adapt to the unique needs of the agency.

Since 2005, that solution has been the Acadis^® Readiness Suite.

The Choice

When first considering Acadis as a technology partner, Oregon DPSST was looking for a solution to reduce their reliance on spreadsheets to centralize several aspects of their academy operations, including:

• Student housing
• Class scheduling
• Instructors, particularly part-time instructors
• Curriculum

“Acadis was willing and able to partner with DPSST eons ago to facilitate [these areas],” said the Chief Information Officer at DPSST.

The Change 

Through Acadis, Oregon DPSST has:

• Minimized the need for on-campus computer labs for test taking by providing student portal access to Acadis via personal devices or those provided by the agency, further reducing scheduling complexity.
• Utilized Acadis’ online testing functionality to create multiple versions of each test, with randomized questions for each student, to support academic integrity.
• Reduced reliance on manual, spreadsheet-based processes to manage many aspects of academy operations, including housing, class scheduling, testing, and managing instructors, saving administrative time.
• Utilized exported data and analytics from Acadis to track hiring trends and maintain personnel records.

“Acadis has very successfully helped us manage our academy for 19 years,” a User Support Analyst at Oregon DPSST said. “It really does help streamline things.”

In addition to improving processes across their academy, Acadis has also helped DPSST mitigate the impact of increased turnover rates. Like other areas of the country, Oregon is experiencing a much higher rate of turnover than in years past, which then necessitates getting more recruits through the academy to keep up with that turnover.

In 2024, the academy experienced a backlog of academy applicants and needed to increase class sizes to compensate. Despite the increased complexity, DPSST was able to successfully deplete the backlog.

“Without Acadis, we would have had a more difficult time with that than it turned out to be,” the User Support Analyst said.

In the time since first implementing Acadis, DPSST has evolved how they use the system to best suit their needs. Looking ahead, the agency will continue to look for ways to further streamline and improve processes through Acadis.

Customer Profile

• Acadis® 2005
• ~2,200 trainees per biennium
• 98,000 mi² area
• ~4.272,000 population