The city and the county of San Diego will continue to share a computer program that manages their respective criminal files under a five-year contract unanimously approved Tuesday by the City Council.
The case management system, or CMS, is used by about 150 employees in the criminal division of the City Attorney’s Office and is managed by the District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis agreed to share the computer program with the City Attorney’s Office in 2009. Her office created the software and licenses it to the city, which owns the computer servers that house its information.
Under the agreement, the city pays the county no more than $100,000 in any given year for upgrades and other costs.
A similar, off-the-shelf computer program would cost about $2 million, plus additional costs for hardware, technical support and licensing fees, according to officials.
Before 2009, every misdemeanor and infraction handled by the City Attorney’s Office — roughly 35,000 last year — was on an archaic computer system that needed to be augmented with extensive paperwork. Its inefficiencies and loopholes were vulnerable to exploitation by criminals.
“Modernizing this office, both professionally and technologically, was my top priority during my first year,” said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith. “We were fortunate then and now to have in our district attorney a public servant who is collaborative and who embraced this opportunity to further protect our community.”
The city attorney prosecutes misdemeanors committed within the cities of San Diego and Poway and some unincorporated communities, not including San Diego communities in the South Bay.
The district attorney prosecutes misdemeanors outside the city attorney’s jurisdiction and all felonies in the county.
The system allows for the easy transfer of so-called “wobblers,” cases that can be misdemeanors or felonies.
— City News Service
