Response to the Grand Jury City Cops Sharing Information - Why Not the County?*

1: "County agencies have not signed an Integrated Law & Justice Joint Powers Agreement". The Sheriff agrees with the finding. While it is true that County agencies have not signed an Integrated Law & Justice (ILJ) Joint Agreement, there are reasons why this is the case. First, For almost five years, the County Executive Office as well as other County agencies requested a budget for ILJ. However, not until the Grand Jury began to review the ILJ, did the County receive a budget for what it will cost the County and OCSD to participate in ILJ. Second, It is questionable whether the County and OCSD actually need to sign the ILJ Joint Agreement to participate in the ILJ programs such as COPLINK®, which the OCSD, the Probation Department, and District Attorney are currently in the process of evaluating. Third, There are Information Technology (IT) security matters that still need to be addressed as far as how County agencies can participate and share data. It should be understood that the County IT system receives approximately 150,000 cyber-terrorism hits per day, and 1,000 - 2,000 new types of viruses and "worms" per month, and must be absolutely confident that the methodology used to access data under the ILJ programs does not compromise the County's IT security. Fourth, County Counsel has had concerns about the ILJ, JPA and COPLINK® documents and processes, including concerns about the enforceability of contract documents already executed without prior governing body approvals, the lack of an executed security agreement for the system, the failure to make the COPLINK vendor a party to the security agreement, the need to address the County's security needs in the agreement, and the lack of an adequate audit trail for release of COPLINK data that existing case law indicates is restricted criminal history information. Until these and all of the other concerns are addressed to the Sheriff and County Counsel's satisfaction, the Sheriff will not recommend participation in ILJ or COPLINK