• In 2018, the City provided notice of its intent to exit the Regional Joint Information Network (RegJIN) hosted by the Portland Police Bureau following documented technical inefficiencies, projected cost increases, and Portland’s own indication that it intends to replace RegJIN in the near future;
• Following a robust, nationwide competitive procurement process, Mark43, Inc. (“Mark43”), a provider of an internet cloud-based RMS solution, was selected by the City’s RFP Evaluation Committee and Executive Steering Team as a replacement vendor for the City of Vancouver’s police record management services (“RMS”);
• City staff have negotiated a tentative Agreement with Mark43 with the following key deal points:
  
  1. In exchange for a not-to-exceed amount of $1,278,116.00, Mark43 will provide the City with the professional services needed to create computer interfaces, facilitate data migration, test software, train staff, and launch the City’s use of the RMS with an estimated cut-over date in June 2020;
  2. Mark43 has agreed to an agreement with an initial duration of five (5) years, followed by two renewal term option periods of five (5) years each with negotiated subscription pricing. These subsequent renewal term option periods can be exercised in the sole discretion of the City;
  3. As part of the proposed agreement, Mark43 guarantees 99.9% RMS availability. If it fails to meet this requirement, it will agree to credit the City according to a payment offset schedule (0% Credit for 99.9% availability, 10% credit for 99.8-99%, 20% for 98.9-98%, and 30% below 97.9% availability.) Mark43’s guaranteed uptime exceeds the availability of the current RMS system used by the Vancouver Police Department (VPD), translating to increased efficiency for VPD officers.

   

Goal 2, Objective 2.1: Provide reliable and responsive police, fire and EMS service.

Background. In 2015, the Vancouver Police Department entered into a consortium of law enforcement agencies to participate in a shared regional records management system known as the Regional Joint Information Network (RegJIN), which is hosted by the Portland Police Bureau. Unfortunately, the efficiencies expected through the RegJIN system did not materialize. The RegJIN software system interaction has proven to be difficult and time-consuming from an officer/user perspective. For instance:

• RegJIN requires significant IT maintenance due to complex hardware architecture, antiquated software design, and frequent system updates.
• Promised RegJIN system improvements have been slow to achieve and not fully delivered.

Additionally, RegJIN costs to maintain system functionality are largely fixed and have not decreased significantly—even with decreasing numbers of users. As a result, the Portland Police Bureau has hired a consultant to assist their agency with the replacement of the RegJIN software system. It is anticipated that the existing RegJIN system will cease to exist in the summer of 2021. As a result of the factors above, in 2018, the City of Vancouver provided notice of intent to terminate participation in the RegJIN project to the Portland Police Bureau.

Selection of Mark43. After conducting an internal needs assessment, a competitive request for proposals (RFP) was developed and published. RFP responses were reviewed and rated by representatives of VPD and other key City stakeholders with diverse skills, experiences, and RMS needs. Vendor performances were evaluated by relevant users including Command members, Patrol officers and Records staff. Following review of vendor proposals and staff feedback, the Executive Steering Committee recommended the selection of Mark43 as the next VPD records management system vendor. Following several months of negotiations, Mark43 and City staff developed a tentative agreement pending City Council’s approval. In recognition of City Charter provisions, this agreement (which could last fifteen years or longer if all renewal term option periods are exercised by the City) is accompanied by an enacting Ordinance.

Agreement Overview.

• General Provisions. If approved, Mark43 would provide a combination of professional services (e.g., computer interface development and data migration), subscriptions and technical support to a cloud-based Software as a Service Records Management System (SaaS Services).

• Cost. The City would pay $1,278,116 for the initial 5-year Term of this agreement for professional services and SaaS services. This covers implementation costs as well as the subscription costs, but is exclusive of applicable taxes (e.g., sales and use taxes). Following the initial agreement term, the City will be responsible for pass-through costs of $16,500 per year for a third-party system (“CommSys”) that facilitates Mark43’s connection to state and federal criminal justice databases.

• Duration. After the initial 5-year term, the City will have the option of exercising up to two additional 5-year renewal periods. The annual subscription fee ($217,651.20) would be discounted by 10% during the first 5-year renewal term option period (adjusted annual total: $195,886.08). During the second 5-year renewal term option period, Mark43 will be allowed to increase the subscription fee by 4.5% on a year-over-year basis for years 11-14, with no increase allowed in year 15. Thereafter, the agreement will renew on a year-to-year basis unless renegotiated.

1. Mark43 software is a SaaS cloud-based solution. The City will not need to purchase, maintain, and support costly hardware on premise.
2. There will be decreased report writing and processing time using the new system. The project consultant has extensive data on Vancouver report processing times and estimates that the total reporting lifecycle period could be reduced by an estimated 40 to 44 percent between Patrol and Records personnel.
3. Mark43 utilizes an intuitive interface with modern web design techniques such as robust show/hide logic, nested fields, and minimal free text. This will reduce errors and encourage more accurate data collection, resulting in more precise crime statistics.
4. With its intuitive interface, training time for Mark43 is anticipated to be one-fifth of that which was required by the current system.
5. Mark43’s SaaS Service supports single-entry where relevant data will appear in other modules within the RMS, resulting in decreased redundant data entry by police report writers.
6. With an SaaS Solution, IT will no longer need to maintain several different independent software components of the current system.
7. Statistical reporting and access to data is anticipated to be much easier in Mark43’s SaaS Service, which will allow staff to make decisions faster and with increased consistency and reliability.
8. Mark43 offers a lower cost of ownership than the City's current system. The costs relating to hardware, disaster recovery, backup, updates, and application security are included in the subscription costs.
9. Functional integration between the RMS and other law enforcement systems (Sector, CAD, the prosecutor’s office, NW LinX, Accurint, CCSO, ACCESS/WACIC/NCIC) will limit redundant data entry and enhance the capabilities of employees.
10. The powerful analytics and reporting capabilities of the Mark43 platform will enable VPD users to assemble information (such as workload statistics by RMS activity type) allowing managers to generate accurate employee performance reports.
11. Mark43 RMS is hosted on Amazon Web Services GovCloud (US) infrastructure, which allows for dynamic scaling, security, and redundancy due to multiple data centers. The contract guarantees 99.9% minimum uptimes 24/7/365 for all users throughout the duration of the subscription agreement (and cost offsets if projected uptimes are not met), which would be an improvement over the current system.