SR-701-001-02 (3)
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Council Meeting: July 25, 1989
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Santa Monica, California
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TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: city staff
SUBJECT: Recommendation to Authorize the city Manager to
Negotiate and Execute a 5 Year Lease/Purchase Agreement
with FileNet corporation
INTRODUCTION
In 1988, the Los Angeles County Courts implemented a new countywide
Warrant System. The new system adversely impacts the Santa Monica
Pol ice Department I s abil i ty to serve warrants, because of slow
document retrieval time from existing record storage media. This
report summarizes alternatives and recommends that city council
authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute a 5 year
lease/purchase agreement with FileNet corporation for an optical
disk record storage and retrieval system for the Police Department.
;BACKGROUND
state and federal laws require that original source documents be
immediately available for warrants stored in interagency systems.
Law enforcement agencies are prohibited from serving warrants which
have insufficient personal data to ensure positive suspect
identification.
Formerly, Police Department warrant staff had custody and control
of warrants. Staff matched source documents with warrants prior
to submitting them to the Los Angeles Police Department to be put
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"on line" in the Automated Wants and Warrants System, "A.W.W.S.u
This ensured that, upon arrest, enough suspect identification was
present to minimize liability for false arrest. The new Countywide
Warrant System, which replaced the Automated Wants and Warrants
System, took away the Police Department's custody and control of
warrants. Court staff puts warrants containing minimal suspect
identification "on line" immediately upon issuance. Retrieval and
matching of source documents is delayed until an arrest is made on
a warrant "hit. IJ Stringent system rules allow only ten minutes
after a "hit" is made to confirm a warrant, or it cannot be served.
Repeated failure to confirm warrants jeopardizes an agency t s
continued access to, and participation in, the warrant networks.
The storage media now in use obstruct warrant staff's ability to
complete document retrieval and confirm warrants to Countywide
Warrant System within the prescribed ten minutes.
The Santa Monica Police Department is the highest volume user of
the 14 local agencies involved in systems accessed through the
County's automated interface, called JDIC. The Police Department
issues 50,000 citations per year for moving violations and other
misdemeanors and infractions. Court records reveal that 30 to 45
percent of citations convert to warrant, with minimum bail amounts
of $175. The Department also averages 700 felony and 7,860
misdemeanor filings per year, arising from its 35,000 crime
reports. Court records reveal that 30 percent of these convert to
warrant, with bail amounts starting at $250. The City of santa
Monica receives 85 percent of warrant bail fines collected.
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DISCUSSION OF ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
six local law enforcement agencies were contacted to learn how they
had reconciled the immediate demand for documents. All plan or
have implemented some modifications, although none reported the
degree of difficulty encountered by Santa Monica, primarily because
of its demographics and a much higher level of activity. Two
agencies have reverted to deferred archiving. They send old files
to a service bureau who completes the work for a substantial fee.
This solution was found to be costly and not acceptable for Santa
Monica. One agency types its own complaints. The Santa Monica
Police Department would be required to hire an additional
Transcriber Typist to type complaints. Since both the City
Attorney and the District Attorney have automated systems to
generate their complaints, there would be a partial duplication of
effort and an unnecessary annual personnel cost for the city of
$38,856.
The Anaheim Police Department has instal1ed an optical disk system
to archive work on site for immediate retrieval. Additionally,
Redondo Beach Police Department, the Los Angeles Sheriff's
Department and the California Department of Justice are acquiring
similar systems. The California Department of Justice plans to
store criminal records on optical disk, and was instrumental in the
passage of legislation to permit the use of optical disk technology
for State government records.
Police Department and Informations Systems staff examined these and
other alternative record storage systems to find an effective
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solution. They concluded that an optical disk imaging system meets
all requirements for immediate on-line access to documents for the
purpose of warrant research. Their recommendation was reviewed by
Finance Department staff, who concurred with the findings after a
thorough cost analysis.
A request for proposal was prepared.
Three responses were received in reply to the request for proposal.
Of the three, only the one submitted by FileNet corporation was
found to be acceptable.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Funds are currently budgeted in the Police Department operating
budget for the purpose of supporting the now non-existent Los
Angeles Police Department's A.W.W.S. program. These funds can be
utilized to lease the optical disk imaging system equipment as
recommended in this report.
RECOMMENDATION
staff recommends that city council authorize the City Manager to
negotiate and execute a five year lease/purchase agreement with
FileNet Corporation for equipment and services necessary to
implement the proposed system.
Prepared by:
James F. Keane, Chief of Police
Marla McCullough, Police Records Manager