| | | | | | | | | TO: | Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee Members |
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| FROM:
| Alina T. Hudak, City Manager
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| | DATE: | February 28, 2023
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| | SUBJECT: | DISCUSS OPTIONS IN ORDER TO ADDRESS THE POLICE DEPARTMENT’S CONCERNS REGARDING THE CASE DISPOSITION DATA PROVIDED BY THE MIAMI-DADE COUNTY CLERK OF THE COURTS. |
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| | | | | | | | HISTORY:
| | Commissioner Meiner placed a referral to the Public Safety and Neighborhood and Quality of Life Committee (PSNQLC) on the December 14, 2022 City Commission Meeting agenda to discuss the police department’s concerns regarding the case disposition data and information provided by the Miami-Dade County Clerk of the Courts |
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| | | | | | | | ANALYSIS
| After a brief period in the summer and fall of 2022, where the Clerks of Court and Miami-Dade IT departments collaborated with the City of Miami Beach, this project has again come to a halt.
During the period of cooperation, the Departments navigated issues regarding the transmission and content of the requested data sets. The Police Department received a few data sets they could use to compare to internal records. PD and IT began testing and comparing and concluded that there were discrepancies. Despite efforts in meeting and discussing the issues with Miami-Dade ITD, the County Clerk IT, and CMB IT, there has been no ability to explain these discrepancies. Our last effort involved sending our arrest data to the County and Clerk’s Office IT staff to see if they could “reverse-engineer” the data query to match our arrests. They responded that matching the file provided would require a change in scope to the original data request we made.
At this point, we do not have confidence in the data we receive. We know it will never be perfect, but we do not know enough to say this data has an acceptable level of accuracy. It would not be responsible for making policy or any other decisions based on this data in its current form.
Recommendations:
• The first recommendation would be to request the County or Clerk’s Office make the data available to agencies as a standard product. Part of the problem is this is being handled like a “custom” product through their public records platform specifically for Miami Beach. So if we didn’t use the exact precise language in the original PRR order (over a year ago), they are looking at it like it’s out of scope and not what they are required to provide. This seems to be a stumbling block in how the Clerk and the County view it. They do not look at this like a collaboration to get the results we wish; they look at it like a request to be filled. If they believe they have filled it, they want to close it out. If providing this data was a requirement of their system, their interest would be in making sure it worked correctly and was available. This will likely require multiple agencies or political bodies to act together to accomplish this.
• Otherwise, we will continue to reach out to the contacts we have been working with and keep trying to improve the information they are providing. We feel this will continue to be a slow and frustrating process. As you know, this data is not in our control. Which means we will never be able to validate its accuracy or comprehensiveness. All we can do is compare the data provided to our internal arrest data. We will only be able to verify that what is provided matches one of our arrests.
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| | | | | | | | CONCLUSION:
The Police and IT Departments will continue to work closely with the County in trying to reach a product that the City can properly analyze.
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| | | | | | | | | Is this a "Residents Right to Know" item, pursuant to City Code Section 2-14? | | Does this item utilize G.O. Bond Funds? | | | No | | No | |
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| | | | | | | | Strategic Connection
| | Neighborhoods - Prevent and solve crime for residents and visitors. |
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