SAN ANTONIO – Bexar County planned to reopen its new criminal case data public portal Thursday evening, one day after it was shut down due to complaints that some cases were missing information or had mistakes.
At a news conference on Thursday, Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said that teams are “working around the clock, 24-7, to resolve the issues ongoing.” He also wanted to “assure that the public is safe and there’s no danger to the community.”
Problems arose after the Odyssey Case Manager was rolled out on May 30 to replace the old system that hadn’t been updated in over 50 years.
The new software will allow all departments involved in a criminal case to access a case file and update and input information as it develops.
But, attorneys, judges and law enforcement agencies found that as the new system came online, there were issues with many cases.
The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office told KSAT that the computer change is responsible for recent delays in booking and releasing inmates. We talked to several inmates who spent days in jail after posting their bonds.
“I apologize to those individuals that have been affected unnecessarily with extended jail stays,” said Sakai, who likened the data migration process to that of “trying to use a flip cellphone to convert that information to the state of the art iPhone.”
The county judge asked the public to be patient as technology teams work to resolve issues.
Local Administrative Judge Ron Rangel said that he knew the process “was not going to be error-free,” but that courts are continuing to function.
Bexar County Chief Information Officer Mark Gager, who is overseeing the technology transition, said that the county did its due diligence to vet Tyler Technologies. Gagner said the company was the best-qualified vendor for the job in 2018 when the county made the decision on which company would provide the software for the transition. He said that Tyler Technologies provides similar services to over 80 counties in Texas and several major counties in the US.
Gagner also said he was “confident that expunged cases will not be made public.”
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