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Probation office testing new daily call-in drug-screening software to increase monitoring
Summary
Probation staff told the Public Safety Committee they moved to the criminal-justice side of their lab vendorand are piloting new software that requires enrolled clients to call in daily for possible random drug tests; the system is in early testing with one client and staff reported some initial bugs now resolved
The county probation office told the Public Safety Committee it has gained access to a new drug-screening scheduling tool from its existing lab vendor and is piloting the software to increase the frequency and unpredictability of random testing for supervised clients.
Probation staff said the office was originally set up on that vendor's employment-lab platform but has been moved to the vendor's criminal-justice platform, which enables a call-in system. Under the new system, supervised clients must call a designated line each day to find out whether they are required to report for a random screen that day; staff said the change is intended to reduce the opportunity for clients to plan around predictable appointments and to increase accountability.
The probation office is in a testing phase: one client was enrolled in the pilot, staff reported some technical bugs that were being resolved and additional clients will be added after further testing. Committee members had no substantive objections and the probation representative said the office will monitor results before broader rollout.
No formal action was taken at the meeting specific to the probation software; committee members asked for updates as the pilot proceeds.
