Following the recommendations of an audit of the Vacaville Police Department, the City Council this week authorized the police chief to buy three pieces of software to increase transparency and streamline engagement.
In 2021, amid high tensions between police departments nationally and locally, the city of Vacaville announced an audit of the Police Department and selected the OIR Group, a firm based in Playa Del Rey that has worked with local governments and law enforcement agencies to address issues in policing and make recommendations toward reform.
The results of the audit were positive but included 40 recommendations for improvement, primarily in the areas of its internal investigative processes, transparency and compliance. One recommendation in particular called for the department to “invest in a software program that would standardize and facilitate its administrative investigation process and allow for the convenient collection and storage of investigative materials.”
To move closer to that goal, the department allotted $155,000 from the General Fund for the current fiscal year and approximately $60,000 annually to purchase new software. Capt. Chris Polen said the recommendation highlighted a current need within the department.
“Our current technology possessed by … Internal Affairs needed to accommodate increased transparency, efficiency, responsiveness to the public and meet legislative mandates is either nonexistent, outdated or labor-intensive,” Polen said. “Essentially, we’re not able to keep up with the demand with our current systems.”
After meeting with other law enforcement agencies, talking about their technology and viewing demonstrations of different software companies, the department identified three programs that would be a good fit for the Vacaville PD: Veritone’s redaction software, Frontline Public Safety Solutions’ internal review software and Granicus’ public records request software.
During reviews of body-worn camera and in-car camera footage, Veritone would be used to redact faces and anything else identifying personal or case-sensitive information in a more expedient way. Currently, Polen said, it takes five employee hours for the department to go through this footage for every one hour of video needing redaction. The department typically handles about 250 hours of video and audio redaction each year.
“This software will reduce our staff time by 75 percent,” he said. “Currently we have about 200 hours, up to 250 hours of backlogged digital evidence that needs to be processed.”
Frontline’s Pro Standards software would be used to improve intake of citizen complaints and compliments, provide an early warning system for potential officer misconduct, allow the public to share feedback on positive and negative interactions with officers, and track and monitor use of force, vehicle pursuits and officer accountability.
Polen said it would also allow PD staff to track claims through the City Attorney’s Office and would provide real-time information and data graphs to the council upon request.
Granicus, specifically its GovQA software, would be used to help the PD in facilitating California Public Records Act requests.
Polen said the PD is planning to purchase 10 licenses so the City Manager’s Office, City Attorney’s Office and City Clerk’s Office can assist tracking and executing PRA requests. The contract with Granicus would be for three years, with a cost of $23,500 for the first year, $25,145 for the second year and $26,905 for the third year.
Polen said the department viewed the requested software at the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the Fairfield Police Department and the Sacramento Police Department.
“What we liked about all of these particular programs is that they’re customizable to Vacaville PD,” he said.
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