MANSFIELD — The transition to a new $1.4 million public safety technology system for Richland County law enforcement and emergency response services is nearly complete, according to sheriff’s office Capt. Jim Sweat.
So much so that county commissioners on Thursday voted to end the support contract with the RCSO’s previous technology provider, Central Square, providing a 30-day notice to the company to end the contract that cost $100,000 annually.
The county had maintained the deal with the previous provider in case there was information that needed to be accessed during the transition, officials said.
Commissioners in December 2022 approved spending $1,085,821 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to upgrade the technology through a contract with Tyler Technologies from Plano, Texas.
It includes a comprehensive overhaul of the county’s aging current technology with a system that will provide computer-aided dispatch, records management and jail management.
Sheriff Steve Sheldon also committed $250,000 from the sheriff’s Phase Two funding, which is revenue the department receives for its 911 system through the wireless surcharge customers pay.
“We’re extremely excited,” Sweat said Thursday. “Things are going well. We’re about 99 percent done with the project.”
He said the computer-assisted dispatch and records-management modules are up and running and that the jail management system will go live during the first week in August.
When commissioners approved the ARPA expenditure, Sweat said it would not benefit just the sheriff’s office.
“It’s 911, it’s all the county fire departments that have been included in that. It’s all of the fire departments in Richland County, with the exception of the City of Mansfield, that will be included in this project. As most of you know, we dispatch for all of those agencies through our county 911,” Sweat said at the time.
On Thursday, Sweat said Tyler Technology officials have been “extremely responsive” during the transition and installation.
“With any project the scale of this, you will have hiccups and things you will need to go back and forth to fix.
“The great thing about being part of the Tyler community now, is that as the program that we’re using evolves and they make additions and improvements to it, we will get those automatically as part of our annual maintenance fees. We will not incur additional costs,” Sweat said.
“That’s huge for us. In the past, depending on what was being changed (under previous providers), we may have to pay extra for those improvements,” Sweat said.
He said the annual maintenance fee with Tyler Technologies was still being worked out, but he estimated between $75,000 to $90,000.
The RCSO first used an automated computer-aided dispatch system in 1989, according to Sweat. That platform was upgraded in 2014 and it beame increasingly unreliable, he said, largely due to a lack of support from the vendor through a series of new owners.
He said the product line offered by Tyler Technology, which also handles the county’s MUNIS payroll system, best suited the county’s operational needs.
Also on Thursday, commissioners approved the hire of Heather Thoman as a new assistant county clerk. She will be paid $19 per hour and will have a one-year probationary period.
Commissioners said Thoman previously worked for the county’s Child Support Enforcement Agency. She left that job when her family relocated and they have recently returned to the community.
