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HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 09g - Grant Award from the U.S. Department of Justice for Police Records Management SystemDATE: December 3, 2019 TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council FROM: Robert Guthrie, Chief of Police By: Jennifer Brutus, Senior Management Analyst SUBJECT: GRANT AWARD FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF COSTS RELATED TO POLICE RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM UPGRADES IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $100,000 Recommendation: Accept SUMMARY The Arcadia Police Department has applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) for an Implementation Assistance Program, which will reimburse expenses related to Police Records Management System (“RMS”) improvements made during the period of January 1, 2020, through January 1, 2021. The DOJ has approved the funding request of $100,000. With City Council approval, the Grant Agreement will be fully executed on or before December 31, 2019. BACKGROUND Records bureaus across the nation are tasked with reporting crime data to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (a division of DOJ) and the FBI. In 2018, the FBI formally announced its intention to retire their old Uniform Crime Reporting System (a summary-based reporting system) and transition to an Incident-based Reporting System, called NIBRS. While law enforcement agencies are aware of the reporting requirements, some databases are not capable of fulfilling the data requests and they lack funding to make it happen. To ensure crime data meets state crime reporting requirements, local agencies have been strongly encouraged to transition to the new reporting requirements by January 1, 2021. This DOJ grant is an initiative to expand the number of law enforcement agencies reporting crime data to the FBI’s new NIBRS standard. The Initiative will support a sample of 400 law enforcement agencies in reporting incident-based crime data to NIBRS – in order to produce statistically sound, detailed national estimates of crime. DOJ Grant for Police Records Management System Updates December 3, 2019 Page 2 of 3 DISCUSSION The Arcadia Police Department has been designated as one of the grant’s participating agencies and the Program will support Arcadia’s costs associated with reporting incident- based crime data that are compliant with the new standard. Costs associated with the transition include software and hardware that directly support or enhance the Department’s technical capacity for collecting and processing data. It will also cover the costs to submit the data to the respective agencies in the appropriate format. This includes acquiring software to enable reporting of compliant data, costs for improving the automation of processes associated with data collection and management, and costs for validation testing to ensure conformance with state and NIBRS standards. Other costs include contract support costs to obtain technical assistance so that personnel can learn how to collect, input, and process incident-based data, especially if the existing system undergoes substantial modification to become NIBRS compliant. The Department’s current records management/computer-aided dispatch system is operated by Executive Information Services, Inc. (“EIS”). The system will need various software and programming improvements. In addition, the Department’s crime analysis software (CrimeView and Crimemapping by TriTech Software Systems) will also require various updates in order to ensure accurate data connection, communication and retention. It should be noted that although the City has a Professional Services Agreement with EIS for monthly support services, updates to support the transition to NIBRS is not included. The grant award will also cover the costs to update the crime analysis tools impacted by the changes made to the RMS system. The grant award will be distributed on a reimbursement basis. The DOJ will reimburse the City for all pre-approved costs upon receipt of the Department’s quarterly claims. The City will be required to comply with the terms and conditions of the grant, including expense reporting and auditing. The Department will be required to obtain certification to report incident-based data that conforms to the NIBRS standard within the project period and submit compliant data by the NIBRS transition deadline of January 1, 2021. ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS The proposed action does not constitute a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), and it can be seen with certainty that it will have no impact on the environment. Thus, this matter is exempt under CEQA. DOJ Grant for Police Records Management System Updates December 3, 2019 Page 3 of 3 FISCAL IMPACT The Department will use approximately $63,000 in FY 2018-19 Equipment Replacement Funds, which is available for records management software upgrades. Staff will budget the remaining $37,000 in the FY 2019-20 Operating Budget. All costs related to the Program will be offset by reimbursement at the end of the grant period, in an amount not to exceed $100,000. RECOMMENDATION It is recommended that the City Council determines that this project is exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”); and accept a grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice for reimbursement of costs related to Police Records Management System Upgrades in an amount not to exceed $100,000. Attachment: Approval Notification from the U.S. Department of Justice From:donot-reply@ojp.usdoj.gov To:Guthrie, Bob; Brutus, Jennifer Subject:GMS Award 2019-FU-CX-K005 Date:Monday, September 16, 2019 6:48:16 PM Congratulations. You have been awarded a grant by the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice. Accepting your award is a two step process. The first step is to designate a Financial Point of Contact (FPOC) for your award. To designate a FPOC please follow these steps: 1. Log into GMS. 2. Click the "Awards" link on the navigation bar on the left hand side. 3. Click the "View Award Instructions" link to the right of the award you want to accept. 4. A new page displays with this message near the top: "The FPOC designation must be submitted before the Award Package can be accessed." The page contains text boxes highlighted in light yellow to capture the FPOC registration information. a. If information for the FPOC of this award already exists in GMS, the first table entry will contain a box with the text "Available Financial Points of Contact." There is a box with a dropdown arrow to allow the selection of the FPOC. Select the name and click the "Load POC" box. GMS will populate the data entry fields with information from the user Profile. Click the button near the bottom of the page labeled "Submit." b. If the name of the FPOC is not one of the choices using the dropdown arrow, type the appropriate information in each of the fields. Fields with an asterisk (*) are required. Click the button near the bottom of the page labeled "Submit." The FPOC will receive an email requesting them to complete the FPOC registration. 5. Click "Yes" on the confirmation page. 6. You are allowed to assign more than one FPOC to each award. You are able to change the FPOC under the "Manage Users" link on the GMS home page. NOTE: If you come to the Financial Point of Contact designation screen and the information in the fields are already grayed out and no "Submit" button is available, then the Financial Point of Contact has already been chosen. You will have to accept your award and await confirmation before you can change this designation. If, at that time, you need instructions on how to proceed, you can review the "Creating a Financial Point of Contact instructions" or contact the GMS Helpdesk for assistance. The second step is to click on the "Award Document" link and download the award documents. If you choose to accept the award and ALL the special conditions, please: 1. Print the Award Document and Special Conditions. 2. Have the Award Document signed by the Authorized Grantee Official (Note: In Box 18 of the Award Document, the name and the title of the authorized grantee official are preprinted. The person named as the official in Box 18 should sign the Award Document in Box 19 and enter the signature date in Box 19A). 3. Have the Authorized Grantee Official initial the bottom right corner of each page listing any Special Conditions of the Award Document. 4. Return BOTH the Award Document and the Special Conditions pages to the Office of Justice Programs, Control Desk by email to acceptance@usdoj.gov. If you choose not to accept the award, or if you do not agree with the terms/conditions of the award and would like to discuss options, then please contact your OJP program manager, Alexia D Cooper at (202) 307-0582. If the Authorized Grantee Official named on the Award Document is no longer authorized to accept this award on behalf of your organization, do not alter the pre-printed name in box 18. Please go to the Grant Adjustment Notice (GAN) link and request an adjustment to the name of the authorized official. This GAN must be approved before you can accept the award. Once the GAN to change the name of the authorizing official has been approved, you should: 1. Print the approved GAN; 2. Print the original award document; 3. Have the new approving official sign the acceptance next to the former official's name and initial the special conditions page(s); 4. Email or fax the signed acceptance, special conditions, and the approved GAN to the Control Desk as noted above in #4; If you have programmatic questions, contact Alexia D Cooper at (202) 307-0582. For financial questions, contact OCFO Customer Service at 1- 800-458-0786. For questions about retrieving or printing these documents, designating a Financial Point of Contact, or creating a Grant Adjustment, please contact the GMS Help Desk at 1-888-549-9901 option #3 or email them at gms.helpdesk@usdoj.gov. Web link to GMS: https://grants.ojp.usdoj.gov/gmsexternal Please follow these links to access important OJP instructions: Creating a financial point of contact instructions: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url? a=https%3a%2f%2fojp.gov%2ffunding%2fpdfs%2ffsr_user_manual.pdf&c=E,1,tTVwOd- m3v3iPvKznDUYitZ2AtouVv8FfbxPMQu0XG9p2BPcZfiobkTtkL0zi4f3lVQys_z47a6us9042lVixbW5qPxtWaUxLbpScxPET4- h_iRrVkKJOLz80Q,,&typo=1 Post Award Instructions: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url? a=https%3a%2f%2fojp.gov%2ffunding%2fpdfs%2fpost_award_instructions.pdf&c=E,1,y5azBUB45RI9F9fJa62mRQTyjm0EKvR7YK6tbcSXo- WDHpPfrCENh5r1zXIL3EVUS99CtsPtbqF2zY2d3deORq-3dlUNPBGY_l2kcwhzyTlMrrEL3nYdDPs,&typo=1 OJP Financial Guide: https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fojp.gov%2ffinancialguide%2f&c=E,1,X-ojlXm- DXOcKKK55GMxKiKEJVzaRAwdqCkexgwiC1WhfXpNUc5xH_92sQ6YhpAnthbyiWaGu8aBWk2ra9qFIYtqEWooXEE2S0tYIU1ohfc,&typo=1 Please do not reply to this message. You can contact your program manager Alexia D Cooper at (202) 307-0582.