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County weighs $1.5M RMS and integrated records plan to replace aging software; sheriff and dispatch outline timeline
Summary
Sheriff, dispatch and IT staff asked supervisors to approve phase‑one funding for a new, integrated records-management/911 system (Motorola/LEHI Flex), estimating a roughly $475k–$500k first-year implementation and lower ongoing subscription costs than the county’s current combined vendors.
Warren County public-safety leaders and IT staff presented a multi-year plan to replace aging records and 911 software with a Motorola/LEHI Flex records-management suite (RMS) designed to integrate dispatch, evidence, in-car and body‑worn cameras and to provide judicial sharing.
The sheriff said the current systems (Southern Software and Rave) are outdated, cause staff inefficiency, and generate a heavy labor burden to produce usable reports and share evidence files. He proposed a subscription‑based move to Flex that staff say will consolidate services, eliminate duplicate vendor fees and integrate body-worn-camera and in‑car-camera feeds into case files.
Cost and timeline: the sheriff and IT presented a five‑year payment and subscription schedule. Year 1 (FY26) is estimated at about $475,000 to $500,000 for implementation and data migration (payment milestones and scope to be finalized); follow‑on years would be recurring subscription/maintenance fees estimated at roughly $200k per year (the presenters argued that recurring costs would be less than the county currently pays for the two legacy systems combined, about $255k annually).
Operational benefits described: instant evidence sharing with the Commonwealth’s Attorney, automated downloads from cameras and phones directly into cases, improved CAD integration with Front Royal Police Department and Warren County Fire & Rescue, and reduced manual upload tasks that now consume staff time.
Questions, risk and governance: supervisors asked for a clear cash-flow and milestone plan. The sheriff’s office requested a FY26 discretionary amount (around $300k–$500k depending on chosen payment milestones) and said follow-on annual subscriptions should be included in the departmental budget rather than in capital. The sheriff and IT flagged that some current maintenance contracts (Southern, Rave) would be retired if Flex is implemented, producing future recurring savings, but that the first-year capital outlay is the largest near-term need.
Why it matters: records management is central to prosecution, dispatch, public records law and evidence handling. The move would affect multiple departments (sheriff, Commonwealth’s Attorney, IT, E‑911 and FRPD) and could produce operational efficiencies but requires a clear plan for data migration, training, and ongoing hosting costs.
Next steps: staff committed to provide the board with a payment milestone schedule, confirm what modules are mission‑critical to Fire & Rescue and determine the subscription-vs-capital split for FY26 appropriations. Supervisors asked that projected savings from retiring legacy contracts be shown side‑by‑side with the proposed costs.
