Should the Commission authorize the Executive Director to enter into a contract with a qualified vendor to procure, configure, and implement a case management system in support of Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), in an amount not to exceed $2,000,000.

To comply with legislative mandates enacted 9/30/2021 in Senate Bill 2: “Peace officers: certification: civil rights,” POST proposes to implement a new case management system provided by an outside vendor. The system will allow staff to collect, store, route, and investigate complaints of law enforcement officer misconduct. Mandated data collection will be used to analyze and ultimately reduce instances of officer misconduct by enabling decertification and termination of officers in California. Mandated annual reports to the legislature and general public will also be extracted from the proposed system. System cost should not exceed $2,000,000 for the first year. Recurring costs after the first year should be approximately $1,800,000 per year, dependent on the final number of state agency licenses required.

Due to the extremely short timelines involved, as well as funding uncertainty related to the state budget, at the time of this agenda item, it is not known whether this procurement can be initiated in FY 21/22 or FY 22/23.

Senate Bill 2 (SB 2): “Peace officers: certification: civil rights” (https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220SB2), enacted 9/30/2021, mandates changes to POST’s oversight, training, and certification of California law enforcement officers.    

Prior to SB 2’s passage, California POST had no legal authority to revoke the professional certification of law enforcement officers’ eligibility for employment, or to terminate their existing employment. Due to this prior lack of authority, POST could not maintain statewide centralized records of alleged serious misconduct and unwarranted use of force, investigation of officers, or disposition of investigations by the officer’s employing agency. Additionally, California POST was one of only five national POSTs that did not have the authority to revoke the professional certification of, or cause to be terminated, law enforcement officers in California.

Due to this lack of legal authority, law enforcement officers accused of serious misconduct could potentially remain on the job, or move from one law enforcement agency to another without their alleged misconduct being known to hiring agencies or the public.  

A key SB 2 mandate requires each of California’s approximately 750 law enforcement agencies to report to POST any incident of alleged officer misconduct, any commencement of investigation, and investigative disposition. Additionally, materials generated during the investigation must be made available to authorized POST staff, Commissioners, and the newly formed civil Advisory Board for review, oversight, and potential follow-up and/or further investigation. Such materials include evidentiary records, collateral documents, audio, video, and other physical evidence. It is anticipated that there will be a high volume of agency reports of serious misconduct, possibly exceeding 3,400 per year. Receiving, routing, storing, and analyzing this volume of work cannot be accommodated using paper records or email processes.

POST staff propose to comply with SB 2 mandates and timeline by implementing a centralized statewide case management system. The system will allow each CA law enforcement agency to transmit the items summarized above, and will facilitate collection, routing, storage, and analysis by POST staff using a standard least-privilege security model. 

Since SB 2 greatly expands the scope of POST’s authority into new areas, compliance requires a new system procurement, rather than existing system upgrades or enhancements. SB 2 mandates that this data collection and analysis begin on January 1, 2023.

POST technical, law enforcement, and legislative liaison staff evaluated at a high level several case management solutions for both capability and feasibility of implementation within the required timeline. Staff received overviews from vendor representatives, traveled to other state POST agencies to analyze comparable business processes and systems, and met with several California state law enforcement agencies that have implemented a variety of case management systems.  

Following this extensive market research and communication with other California and other state agencies, staff have identified the Mark43 case management product as a possible product which meets data-collection and internal business requirements, and can accommodate the volume of records anticipated. The product is listed on the State Agency Software Licensing Program, a pre-negotiated licensing and resale structure that allows state agencies to accelerate procurement of specific approved systems. 

Due to the highly constrained 1/1/2023 required implementation date, staff are working closely with Department of Technology (CDT) and Department of Finance (DOF) to request expedited SLP acquisition approval and funding. 

A timeline of key requirements-gathering meetings and product analysis performed, leading to this proposal is provided below:

08/03/2021: Tennessee POST case management handling discussion: online demo and Q&A 

8/05/2021: Washington State POST case management handling review: in-person meet

08/10/2021: Utah POST case management handling discussion: online demo and Q&A

08/12/2021: New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services POST management handling discussion 

08/16/2021: Florida Department of Law Enforcement case management handling discussion

08/24/2021: Nevada POST case management handling review: in-person meet

10/05/2021: Vendor: eSoph records management system: online demo and Q&A

10/07/2021: Vendor: IAPro case management system: online demo and Q&A #1

10/07/2021: Vendor: Guardian Alliance case management system: online demo and Q&A

10/20/2021: Arizona POST case management handling review: in-person meet

10/27/2021: Sacramento Sheriff's Office of Internal Affairs: IAPro, Blue Team, evidence.com, eSoph product overviews, discussion: in-person meeting and Q&A

11/03/2021: Vendor: Peregrine case management/GIS system: online demo and Q&A

11/03/2021: Vendor: Mark43 records/case management system: online demo and Q&A

11/10/2021: Arizona POST case management handling review: online demo and Q&A

11/17/2021: Vendor: IAPro case management system: online demo and Q&A #2

12/02/2021: California Department of Justice: Mark43 records/case management system online review, meeting and Q&A

12/09/2021: California Highway Patrol: Mark43 records/case management system online review, meeting, Q&A

POST staff recommends that the Commission authorize the Executive Director to enter into a contract with a vendor to procure, configure, and implement a case management system in support of Senate Bill 2, in an initial amount not to exceed $2,000,000, with following yearly costs in the amount of approximately $1,800,000.