DOWNTOWN TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — Leon County is still working to determine what went wrong during a computer upgrade that left thousands of court cases with incorrect information.
WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:
Leon County commissioners received an update on the computer failure during their September 15 meeting. The county now says 1,428 people across 2,289 court cases were affected after old records were altered during the ProPhoenix conversion. The county's system then read some of that information as new, creating incorrect arrest, booking, bond and release information.
County leaders say they will wait for an after-action report and technical review before deciding what to do with the contract. ProPhoenix has been disconnected from every live county system since Aug. 30.
Pastor Gregory James, who advocates for people returning home after incarceration, says the number of affected cases concerns him. He knows firsthand what can happen when a court record is wrong.
"For me it's about the computer system, but it's also about the men and women who are behind it. I think we need to be out of place with somebody takes full responsibility of these actions and a level of transparency. Need to be heard so that our community can know that accountability is in place and transparency is in place," James said.
In a statement, Leon County wrote in part:
"ProPhoenix has been disconnected from every live County system since Aug. 30, and the correction work does not depend on it."
I also found another Florida city raised concerns involving the company earlier this year. In North Port, city records show the Florida Department of Law Enforcement identified a CJIS compliance issue involving the city's security agreement with ProPhoenix. North Port later approved an FBI security addendum to address it. That issue is separate from the computer failure in Leon County.
I asked Leon County whether it knew about the North Port issue or other concerns involving ProPhoenix before the upgrade. The county says that will be part of its after-action report in November.
I also reached out to ProPhoenix and asked what the company believes went wrong, about its role in the conversion and testing, and about the North Port records. ProPhoenix has not responded.
Leon County says its after-action report will look at how ProPhoenix performed and how the county prepared for the upgrade. Commissioners expect to receive that report in November.
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