Photo By Christine Paul | Jason Smith, security specialist with the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of...... read more read more
Challenging the status quo isn’t easy for everyone. For some, being able to identify areas for improvement and finding solutions comes naturally. For Jason Smith, finding solutions to problems and inefficiencies in the workplace is something he learned early in his career and is now part of his work philosophy.
“I started as a civil servant 20 years ago and even when I was in the [National Guard], you have people with a mission,” said Smith, security specialist at the Kansas City District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “If you make it easier for people to do their job by helping them out with their processes, it makes the mission easier and that makes people happier.”
Luckily for both USACE and the Army, Smith’s ability to identify process inefficiencies has resulted in the development of an app to improve the Army Protection Program—and is making the mission easier for everyone, which in turn, is making them happier.
The problem
The Army Protection Program is an Army-wide program for all things security. There are 19 different security programs in the Army and include personnel security, physical security, industrial security and cybersecurity, among others. Each command in the Army is subject to assessments of their security programs, which are conducted by Headquarters Department of the Army.
These assessments measure a command’s security program on a series of benchmarks. The benchmarks are determined by policy, regulation and law. According to Smith, the assessments ensure commands are compliant when it comes to implementation and enforcement of the Army Protection Program.
“They look at those benchmarks to make sure [the command] is doing what they are supposed to be doing,” said Smith. “For [USACE Headquarters], there are more than 500 benchmarks that they get assessed on between all of their security programs.”
In between assessments, USACE Headquarters administers protection program reviews at the district level, which is how Smith became aware of inefficiencies in the assessment process. According to Smith, district level protection program reviews have historically been completed in a spreadsheet, resulting in an inefficient assessment process.
“There’s a program manager for each security program and they would each have their own benchmarks,” said Smith. “So, they would go in and inspect their small section and then they would fill out the Excel spreadsheet.”
Once the spreadsheet is filled out, someone must extrapolate all the data, analyze the information and create a report based on the findings. This is an arduous task with many people involved. Thankfully, Smith saw an opportunity to find a more efficient way of completing the program review and assessment and decided to do something about it.
“Whenever I find something that seems like the process can be easier, I’ll try to do something,” said Smith.
The solution
At the Kansas City District, Smith has built a reputation as somewhat of a tech guru, often helping others outside of the district’s security office with various technological applications. When the district was preparing for its protection program review by USACE Headquarters this spring, Smith decided to try something new to help improve the process. Recognizing the tools were already available at the district, he developed an app to complete the review.
“Since we’re already paying for the Office 365 environment with Microsoft, which powers the platform, it allows us to use all those different tools with no additional costs,” said Smith.
The app allows a protection program review to be done in real time. There is no more waiting for individuals to update a single spreadsheet. Instead, assessors and security specialists can upload documents and other information directly in the app. According to Smith, this allows for historical data storage in one location.
“[The app] gives that whole timeline [of information] and it stores it,” he said. “It kind of automates the process as well. It sets reminders and it can send out automated alerts that say, ‘this is coming up due’ or ‘there is a new document for the assessor to review.’ Then [the assessor] can come in and take that off your action items list.”
The benefits of this are twofold. One, reviewers can access historical data to create a whole picture of a command’s protection program so trends in deficiencies are more easily identified. Second, the amount of in-person travel to conduct a review is reduced significantly.
“In some cases, you have up to 20 different people traveling for an assessment, and that means overseas because there are commands overseas,” said Smith. “They can now review it from their station without having to travel. The app cuts back on the cost of that [travel.]”
Smith demonstrated his app for USACE Headquarters’ protection program assessment in May 2025, which is how Headquarters Department of the Army caught wind of it. Impressed with his innovation, the Army has decided to adopt Smith’s app across the entire branch for all command assessments and reviews.
Although happy the Army has decided to use his app for all future protection program assessments, Smith remains humble, saying he just wants to help improve how people work.
“We could improve a lot of our internal processes with not a lot of extra effort,” he said. “It’s just finding time to help people and figure out what’s actually available to us.”
| Date Taken: | 05.30.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.30.2025 14:23 |
| Story ID: | 499316 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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