To: Board of County Commissioners
Through: Michael Mauro, Senior Chief District Attorney, 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office
Prepared By:
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Michael Mauro, Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney, 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office end
presenter
Presenters: Michael Mauro, Senior Chief Deputy District Attorney; Joel Zink Chief Deputy District Attorney & Director of Technology and Innovation, 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office
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Subject:
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1:15 PM *Drop-in: Evidence.com Revised Contract; Need for In-House Programmers
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Purpose and Request:
recommended action
The purpose of this request is for the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to consider approving a necessary contract modification to the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office Evidence.com contract from the "Justice" to "Justice+" tier. This critical upgrade will deploy advanced features allowing our staff to immediately identify key moments within the nearly 200 hours of video evidence received each workday, ensuring effective case evaluation and preparation for motions hearings and jury trials. Additionally, this request serves to introduce the immediate need for dedicated technological development/programming assistance - specifically evaluating a future Senior Solutions Architect role - to rapidly identify and implement modern workflow solutions as our office continues to be inundated with digital evidence and other technological issues.
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Alignment with Strategic Plan: Safe and Healthy Communities - Advance public safety by strengthening partnerships across law enforcement, emergency response, and community stakeholders.
Background and Discussion: The 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office is experiencing an unprecedented and unsustainable inundation of digital evidence. In calendar year 2025 alone, our office received nearly 200 hours of video through Evidence.com every single workday. Managing this volume under our current Evidence.com "Justice" tier requires a prohibitive amount of manual review, creating bottlenecks in initial case evaluation and preparation for motions hearings and jury trials.
To address this, an upgrade to the Evidence.com "Justice+" tier is an absolute must-have. The Justice+ tier includes advanced features that allow prosecutors and staff to immediately identify key moments in video across any case. By isolating the most critical segments of footage, our team can efficiently and effectively prepare cases for motions hearings and jury trials. Without this upgrade, the sheer volume of daily video has already outpaced our operational capacity.
While the Justice+ upgrade is the immediate solution to our digital evidence crisis, this inundation highlights a broader need for dedicated in-house technological leadership. To ensure long-term operational efficiency, the DA's Office must begin evaluating the addition of specialized tech assistance, such as a potential future Senior Solutions Architect. A Senior Solutions Architect would be dedicated to identifying additional ways to immediately improve our workflow and implementing those custom solutions on a rapid timeline, ensuring we stay ahead of evolving digital demands.
Alternatives: The Board could decline to move forward with the contract upgrade and personnel evaluation as presented or determine another funding amount or implementation timeline. However, declining the request would leave the DA's Office on the current "Justice" tier, requiring staff to continue evaluating nearly 200 hours of daily video evidence, which is impossible at current staffing levels and results in reduced service levels to crime victims and the community.
Fiscal Impact: We are in the second year of the existing 10-year Evidence.com contract. The existing contract is for $2.17M over the life of the contract (avg. $217K/year). The proposed new contract would replace the existing contract and be for the remainder of 2026 plus 10 years. The total cost over the life of the new contract would be $3.86M (avg. $386K/year-avg. increase of $169K/year), which includes no charge for the upgrade until July 2027.
The existing contract payment schedule calls for the next payment to occur in December 2026 for $222,820. The proposed new contract instead calls for the next payment to occur in January 2027 for $321,973. The difference - $99,153 - reflects the upgrade cost for the second half of 2027.
CDAC is negotiating a statewide contract for Justice+. If/when that occurs (expected within the next 1-2 years), the DA’s Office would be covered by that contract and would terminate their existing contract.
The fiscal impact of hiring in-house programmers (ideally a CTO and a junior programmer) is estimated to be $300-400K/year.
Alignment with Strategic Implementation Strategies: N/A
Staff Recommendation: N/A
Concurrence: N/A