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County delays new law‑enforcement dispatch software over officer‑safety bugs
Summary
Officials postponed the county's dispatch software launch to May 27 after unresolved issues that could affect warrant/insurance data parsing, self‑initiate functionality and shared‑call handling with neighboring agencies and vendor Soma is working on fixes.
Johnson County officials told the commissioners they again postponed a planned switch to a new regional dispatch software because of three outstanding issues the county considered material to officer safety and multi‑agency operations.
Tim Milam, the county project lead for the dispatch upgrade, reported the county pushed the go‑live date previously from March into April and has again postponed to May 27. Milam identified three problem areas: a self‑initiate button that allows officers to create events (he said that function has been corrected), a parsing problem that overwrote regional return fields (warrant, insurance and other information) when the vendor's return order varied, and multi‑jurisdictional call sharing and officer deployment functionality that still required vendor fixes.
State approval and vendor responsibility: County staff said approvals from the state law enforcement data system (TLETS) are in place for participating agencies and the remaining issues are on the vendor (Soma) side. A county official said they and the vendor were "in a holding pattern waiting for Soma" and that a recent call with the Soma CEO emphasized the importance of meeting the May go/no‑go date.
Coordination with Burleson: Milam said Burleson has been upgrading its systems in parallel and that upcoming server‑room steps for Burleson could affect the county if schedules slip, so the county is coordinating to avoid disrupting the city.
No additional contract costs were reported at the May 12 meeting; staff said contingencies are in place but further delays could create budget impacts.
The court recorded the report and was told the county would confirm the May 27 go/no‑go status once vendor tests conclude; no formal vote or procurement change was recorded at the meeting.
