Careers

We have been serving the law enforcement community for over 40 years, with our focus firmly fixed on longevity. Before incorporating in 1989 as Computer Projects of Illinois, the founding members installed their first law enforcement message switch (The “Super Switch”) for the Maine State police in 1977 introducing core ideas and concepts that are still in use to this day. Since then, the footprint of the OpenFox® system has grown to well over half the states of the union, a market presence unmatched by any other single organization in the history of the industry.

We are a family owned business. Founded by Lorne Sawatzky, CPI has transitioned to the next generation. Lorne’s three sons, Steve, Kevin and Ryan, now form the corporate management board. All three of the Sawatzkys are engineers by education & trade and have each personally developed technology for CPI. The Sawatzky brothers continue to manage and lead CPI to new heights with their immense experience and knowledge in law enforcement, technology, and modern corporate values. Here at CPI, you will find a corporate management team who:

• Are passionate and engaged in corporate direction
• Understand technology and the issues involved
• Are united in our cause with focus on stability and long term success

We view CPI as an extension of our family. Our employees are part of our extended family as well. Perhaps this is why our average employee has been with us for over 8 years and why 68% of our workforce has been with us for 5 years or more. Perhaps it is because of our outstanding benefits package that they simply can’t find at other firms. Our employees enjoy:

• Competitive salaries
• Corporate wide financial performance bonus plan
• Up to 15% salary contribution to retirement
• Health insurance premiums for employee, spouse, and family 100% covered by the company – CPI will even contribute funds to your Health Savings Account!
• Work-life balance – our convenient location in the SW burbs allows our employees to spend more time with their families

We are an engineering firm at heart. We develop real-time mission-critical systems that are central to the success of law enforcement and public safety. Our focus is on developing systems that are reliable over the long-term and flexible to meet the needs and regulations of our customers. We do not build our products on top of unproven application platforms that won’t be supported 10 years down the road, or that will be dropped in favor of the next best thing. We build our own application platforms, and we build them with the most suitable combination of in-house development and open source initiatives to provide the best mixture of ease of development and robust, flexible software.

Our average customer has been a customer for over 16 years, and we have never lost an installed system through a competitive bid process. Not only do our customers love us, but they are also the best and the brightest from the law enforcement and public safety community!  A mix of past and present customers have included multiple Nlets Presidents and board members, as well as leaders on national councils and FBI NCIC Committees. Working on our team, you will get to speak to, interact with and collaborate with these dynamic leaders of the industry. You will see the tangible impact of delivering crucial software solutions and get to meet officers who benefit from the systems we develop. Most of all, you can experience the direct impact CPI has on the safety of citizens and officers all over the world.