Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, February 22, 2011,
Item 28
Let's try to get one quick item here before we go to 28.
that -- before we go to 18.
that quick item is 28, consider and take appropriate action on agreement and contract with overwatch textron systems limited.
and we'll call up 18 next, y'all.
>> major claire, I've dragged you all the way here because I didn't quite understand the backup and just wanted it laid out.
it doesn't look controversial, I just wanted to understand what it is.
>> absolutely, I understand that.
fundamentally overwatch will provide us with a laptop that's loaded with software that will help us analyze our records better than we currently do.
our records management system as it is right now is difficult at best for our detectives to link information.
so in the category let's say of burglary of vehicles, we know in law enforcement that we have groups of people that do that crime repeatedly.
owe even when we catch them and they gets out, that tends to be their source of income again.
so linking those pieces of information requires a detective to literally not just run a person search, but maybe even pull up all the reports and read them in detail.
this software could possibly -- because this is a beta test.
could possibly shorten our investigative time for lots of different types of crimes.
it's my intention that we'll probably start out with this test to look at burglaries of vehicles because we do know that there are a lot of people linked in to that type of crime.
>> so this is -- this is a way for the private sector to work with us to beta test the product, but we have no obligation to purchasing the product or anything like that.
>> right.
there's no information going back to this company.
when we're done with this testing process, that computer will be wiped clean of our information and sent back to them.
so there isn't information going out to this private company that we wouldn't release as a regular course of work.
>> one thing that gave me just a smidge of pause was the -- this was in the overview documents, was with regard to testimonials.
and I don't know how deeply it goes in.
they will be used to allow any testimonials for marketing purposes collectively hereinafter referred to as the purpose.
that may actually be more of a lawyer question with regard to the agreement.
>> that is just a question of whether or not you're willing to let comments that the sheriff's office makes about the usefulness of the software be used by them in their marketing.
and that's a management question, that's not a legal question.
if you think that our sheriff's office shouldn't be -- their comments that they make shouldn't be used in marketing by a private entity that helped out with the beta testing, then you would need to ask that that be changed.
what has happened in the past is that other departments have given those without it being in an agreement and they've been used and the court has never objected to them.
so when it was put on the face of the document, I didn't see an objection from past experience.
if there is an objection, now that it's brought to your attention, then that could be changed.
>> it gives me a moment of pause.
I'm 100 percent in favor of us helping the private sector build a better mouse trap.
it makes me a little queasy at the idea of the private sector using us as a source of testials for marketing purposes, but I leave that to the various elected to make that call.
>> I appreciate that.
and I will let you know there are other law enforcement agencies doing this same thing.
we did meet and we have been trying to decide whether we wanted to do this for some time.
and we sent a detective to a bit of a training to see if it's even something we wanted to be involved in.
I think it will be a good experience for us too as well as this private sector.
>> I appreciate you coming by and explain -- giving me a tutorial on it.
with that I move approval.
>> second.
>> we get to use it free of charge but if we lose it or misplace it, we owe them 1300 bucks.
>> and I have already decided that if that was to happen, we'll find it within the sheriff's department budget.
>> thank you very much.
>> [ laughter ]
>> let's not let it happen.
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
thank you very much.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, February, 2011 2:19 PM
