To: Dale K. Weighill, Governmental Operations Committee Chairperson
From: Rochelle Brown, Operations Director
title
RE: Approval of an agreement between Genesee County and NICE Justice, in an amount not to exceed $311, 556.00 for three (3) years; this will be paid from account 2388-296.01-801.004
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
To authorize a three (3) year contract between Genesee County and NICE Justice for the purchase of a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS). The total cost for this project will be $311,556.00 over the 3-year period and taken from account 2388-296.01-801.004
BACKGROUND:
In 2022 the Board authorized the contract between Genesee County and Karpel for a Case Management System called Prosecutor by Karpel. This system replaced the outdated ACT records management system. Karpel is a document management system and workflow management as well as a records management system. The ability to house the contents of our case files in a central digital location has greatly enhanced our timely access to our information allowing us to be more responsive to our case dockets in court, efficiently and accurately share and track discovery requirements and move cases through the system more quickly as a result. As video evidence has increase exponentially over the last two years with more local departments deploying body cameras and dash cameras, the increased use of more and more powerful cell phones and their ability to be used as evidence in criminal cases, Crime-fighting tools that produce digital output and massive amounts of evidentiary social media output we have already exceeded our ability to manage such material within the Karpel system. Today, 9 out of 19 criminal cases handled by our office has at least one piece of video evidence. As robust an environment as Karpel is for our records management it lacks in the ability to manage the digital evidence and is extremely costly to store long term within the application. Speed of access is crucial to the efficiency of our office, and it is often the case that large videos take one-two hours at minimum to download and can take as many as 12 hours - EVERY time it is downloaded. If the initial download is stored outside the Karpel system so that it can be quickly accessed, that has a cost associated with it as well. This is in part due to the amount of data, insufficient download speeds as part of the IT infrastructure and he termination of Karpel’s relationship with Axon, who provided free access to their Digital Evidence Management application Evidence.com, leaving us to either pay for that previously free service or find another DEMS to replace it. An on-premises solution to store the CURRENT digital evidence load on physical servers was estimated by the IT Department to cost $90,000-$200,000 with a seven (7) year lifespan. This did not include the maintenance, personnel and up-keep costs.
DISCUSSION:
The cost to replace the Axon DEMS was quoted to be $120,000/ year and is based solely on the number of people in the office. NICE bases its pricing on the speed of required access and their three-year contract pricing is $90,000; $97,513 and $124,043. Not only does this address the massive storage cost for this evidence, it also permits speedy access to the evidence due to the robust environment of the application and the fact that you work WITHIN their application and are not required to download from it. These benefits of ease of use will also transfer to the defense bar when they receive a link for discovery and to the police departments when they are initially transferring the evidence to us. The $90,000-$200,000 option that was presented by IT addressed storage alone and provided no impact to increase efficiency or useability. We hope that this could also help us better reduce costs for having transcripts of witness interviews and other videos prepared as there is a transcription took available in the NICE environment. It transcribes in English and many other common languages.
IMPACT ON HUMAN RESOURCES:
No additional personnel costs associated with this project.
IMPACT ON BUDGET:
The funding for this purchase will be the High Crimes Community Support Grant and no general fund money is requested and is already included in our budget for FY 2024-25.
IMPACT ON FACILITIES:
No additional facility is needed for this project.
IMPACT ON TECHNOLOGY:
This is a Software as a Service and is accessed over the internet and the storage of the content is within the vendor’s system with no need for additional large server purchases to store data. Representatives from the IT department joined us during our demonstrations from both companies we vetted.
IMPACT ON INDIRECT COSTS:
The amount of time lost to APAs waiting for downloads to complete, or to fail requiring multiple attempts to be able to view evidence needed for prosecution is currently so costly that the ROI of this project is positive not negative.
IMPACT ON OTHER COUNTY DEPARTMENTS OR OUTSIDE AGENCIES:
In speaking with Purchasing Director Derrick Jones, we confirmed there is no need for an RFP in this case as we are able to purchase NICE justice through a purchasing cooperative. This provides the lowest price (same as purchasing direct) for the product and fasted implementation.
The Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC) is the largest of 24 Councils of Government (COG) in Texas and is a political subdivision of the State of Texas. It has been serving local governments for more than 40 years.
HGAC's Cooperative Purchasing Program, known as HGACBuy, was established pursuant to Texas Interlocal Cooperation Act [Texas Local Government Code, Title 7, Chapter 791]. The Act allows local governments and certain non-profits to contract or agree under the terms of the Act to make purchases or provide purchasing services and other administrative functions appropriately established by another government entity. The Interlocal Contract (ILC) is the required legal document that establishes a link between the Member (local governments and certain non-profits) and HGACBuy and gives the Member access to HGACBuy contracts.
There is great positive impact on time savings for police agencies who share information with the Prosecutor’s office.
Additionally, there is great benefit to the Defender’s Office in ease of access to the information that we share with them as discovery.
CONFORMITY TO COUNTY PRIORITIES:
The decision to purchase was based on data-based decision making and planning. The project will promote safe communities through more efficient prosecution of crimes.
TO THE HONORABLE CHAIRPERSON AND MEMBERS OF THE GENESEE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, GENESEE COUNTY, MICHIGAN
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
BE IT RESOLVED, by this Board of County Commissioners of Genesee County, Michigan, that the request by the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney to authorize entering into a three-year contract between Genesee County and NICE Systems, Inc., whereby the contractor will provide a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS), at a total cost not to exceed $311,556.00 over the three-year period ($90,000 for the first year; $97,513 for the second year; and $124,043 for the third year) to be paid out of account Service Contracts 2388-296.01-801.004, is approved (a copy of the memorandum request and supporting documentation being on file with the official records of the October 16, 2024 meeting of the Governmental Operations Committee of this Board), and the Chairperson of this Board is authorized to execute the contract on behalf of Genesee County.
res