Community Police Review Commission

One of my proudest professional achievements is supporting the Office of Police Oversight through the summer of 2020, as they received hundreds of reports of police violence from protesters and bystanders. I became invested in the success of this department’s content when I led the content development for the Community Police Review Commission web content and application.

The City was seeking 10 volunteer commissioners to make policy-level recommendations, review patterns of the Austin Police Department, and more. I wanted to achieve the following with the content:

• Narrow down the content and application questions to include only the necessary information

• Simplify legal jargon and use plain language wherever possible

• Remain inclusive to all races, ethnicities, cultures, genders, and sexualities

• Provide necessary requirements upfront, and include logic within the form that disqualifies applicants rather than letting them submit when they don’t meet minimum qualifications.

• Gather enough applicant information to make educated hiring decisions

Users

When writing content for a government website, the Office of Design and Delivery tends to focus primarily on residents. For this project, we needed to focus on both residents and the city employees managing applications. We needed to make sure that the content was accessible and equitable for residents, but we also needed to be able to gather all the necessary information for stakeholders to select the best commissioners.

Workshopping

I conducted paper prototype workshops with department stakeholders and users. This method was quick and agile, allowing us to cover lots of ground with large groups. It also allowed us to think more deeply about the needs of both residents and application managers. We were able to pinpoint both physical and emotional blockers that might hinder the recruitment process.

Creating the web page and form

I collaborated with stakeholders to come up with some language conventions that struck a balance between readability and web content best practices and institutional requirements.

We utilized city vendor, Formstack to build the form. Because the form is so complex and includes a lot of logic, I worked closely with a QA engineer to ensure that everything was working perfectly before launch.

Launch

The web page and form were launched and the Office of Police Oversight received many high quality applications. They have since selected 10, and are conducting regular meetings. The form remains on Formstack and can be easily published whenever they need new commissioners.