Nearly two years after the city of New Orleans entered into a contract to upgrade its 911 records management system, the city has canceled the contract citing “serious shortcomings.”
In 2021, the city of New Orleans and the Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) entered into a contract with Hexagon for the development and implementation of a Records Management System (RMS). However, earlier this month, New Orleans and OPCD said they jointly decided to terminate the agreement and will instead “redirect their efforts toward seeking an alternative solution to fulfill the New Orleans Police Department’s records management requirements.”
In a press release, the city and OPCD said the decision to terminate comes after their joint attempts to continue the project “following serious shortcomings identified during the ‘train-the-trainer’ sessions, as well as the documented open technical issues that have not been addressed.”
Specifically, the city and OPCD said issues including delays in providing a functional crime analytics environment, having no workable plan to provide for data access by existing NOPD and city systems, an inability to generate reports compliant with state and Federal requirements, and a system that risks increasing the time required to write basic police reports.
The city and OPCD said they have “made good faith efforts” to evaluate system readiness, troubleshoot issue areas, and complete implementation. However, they said in a statement that “it has become increasingly clear, however, that a satisfactory resolution is not forthcoming and that it is in the best interest of the NOPD, our public safety and justice system agencies, and, most importantly, the residents of New Orleans, to seek an alternative solution.”
In their decision to pivot to a new solution, the city and OPCD said they have begun evaluating records management systems that “have a proven track record of successful implementation” in both local and national law enforcement jurisdictions and a demonstrated ability to meet the NOPD’s requirements.
“We are eager to move forward in selecting a new partner to develop a modern RMS to enhance records management, data sharing, and reporting capabilities to benefit our public safety agencies and justice system,” the city and OPCD said in a statement.
