Council approves police data-software subscription despite city legal concerns about liability cap

Powell City Council on Monday authorized signatures for a subscription agreement with Blue Line Logic (offered by SimplyWorks LLC) to provide the police department a consolidated records-management and scheduling platform.

The council voted to approve the contract after a discussion about a limitation-of-liability clause in the provider’s standard agreement. Scott, the city’s legal counsel, said the clause limits the company’s liability to the amount the city paid in the past 12 months and advised that clause is risk-prone because it could shift costs to taxpayers in the event of provider negligence.

“The biggest concern that Legal has is the limitation of liability clause,” Scott said, noting the provision appears on page 13 of the vendor agreement. He told the council the clause would cap recoverable damages to the city at the subscription fees paid in the previous 12 months, which may not cover losses if the provider’s negligence caused data loss.

Police Chief (title: Police Chief) told the council the department wants the platform because it consolidates two systems and would centralize training records, scheduling, policy management and equipment tracking. Chief said the software would replace separate scheduling and records platforms used now and that it is more user-friendly.

“If an employee goes through our field training and that is where the records are housed … and somewhere down the road in that officer’s career they were to have a use-of-force issue… and for some chance this company, through negligence … had a loss of records, then that could prove to be a situation that would be hard to substantiate,” the chief said, describing the chief’s view of the possible risk where historical training records would be critical evidence.

Ben (staff member) and the chief said they had asked the vendor about technical redundancy; the vendor tech replied that the platform maintains seven-day backups and stores copies in geographically separate locations. Scott said the city tried revisions with the vendor’s attorneys but the vendor would not remove the liability cap.

Despite the legal concern, council members said the operational benefits and cost savings from consolidating two existing platforms counseled approval. The council authorized signatures to execute the agreement and directed staff to proceed.

The council’s approval authorizes the city to enter the subscription agreement and to sign all necessary documents to implement the software; the vendor will begin onboarding after signatures and internal setup.

Ending: Council members asked staff to track implementation and report back if technical or contractual problems arise so the city can assess whether further contract changes or additional safeguards are needed.