The crippling computer failure that froze many of the Flagler County Sheriff’s field, dispatch, jail ad detective operations starting on Oct. 29, and may have wiped out masses of data stretching over 20 months, was only the latest in a series of computer failures and problems since the county and the sheriff’s office agreed to merge the system under the county’s direction in January 2014.
Since then, and even though, according to Sheriff Jim Manfre, the county had assured the sheriff’s office that “all systems were being properly backed up,” there’d been one other critical failure, in February 2015, when “County IT staff failed to properly back-up another critical server that allowed my detectives and crime scene personnel the ability to store reports and forensic evidence,” requiring a $13,000 emergency forensic retrieval that proved successful. Funding for a back-up system earmarked for this year was pushed back to 2016, and “no substantial effort has been completed on this effort, one we know is vital to the retention and safety of law enforcement data,” Manfre wrote.
The sheriff’s email server crashed a few days before the major data server crash. A new server intended to provide greater capacity for the sheriff’s computer operations “sits idle.” The sheriff had planned to consolidate his IT operations with those of the City of Palm Coast, but according to Manfre, County Administrator Craig Coffey “requested that I reconsider and consolidate with the county. I expressed my concerns that the county IT was not able to handle its own needs at that point.” The county administrator reassured him that the county would hire qualified staff.
“We are now on our third director since that conversation,” Manfre said at the conclusion of a four-page letter to Coffey, written Thursday and outlining in greater detail than anything made public to this point the severity of the October crash and broader problems that have apparently been undermining the system since 2014, not least of them an apparent breakdown in communications between the two agencies. “I have been disappointed with the lack of timely communications and status reports concerning the system to my staff,” Manfre told the administrator.
A litany of IT issues since the sheriff’s system mjerged with the county’s in January 2014.
The letter isn’t without political dimensions. While not explicitly intended as such, the letter is an indictment of the county’s IT system, even though Manfre himself chose to join it, though his letter is clearly intended to distance himself from the county administration, pin the problem on the county and cleanse his administration as much as possible of the issue: Manfre is facing a tough re-election campaign, and he’ll need to convincingly show that he was not responsible for the crash to avoid opening a himself to a new line of criticism form opponents.
Coffey has already taken some responsibility for the crash, but how he’ll respond to the letter is unclear: a spokesperson said he’d only glanced at the letter by Friday, when he’d been in meetings most of the day (he was meeting with Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon, council member Bill McGuire, County Commissioner Nate McLaughlin and the county and city fire chiefs to discuss Palm Coast’s desire to run its own ambulance system).
The county was invited to address the computer issue on WNZF Friday morning, but declined, saying through spokesperson Julie Murphy that there was nothing new to report since the county last issued a news release—on Nov. 9. The sheriff’s office also declined to be on Free For All. “We have deferred all comments concerning the system, its operational capabilities, why it failed, all the rest of those issues, to the county,” Jim Troiano, the sheriff’s chief spokesman, said this morning, noting: “Some of the stuff has been fixed, some hasn’t, we’re still waiting for a resolution.”
A request for an interview with Jarrod Shupe, the county’s IT director, was placed with Murphy this morning. The request was not granted. Murphy instead emailed, “Jarrod Shupe says the system is mostly switched over. He [says] Microsoft continues to work on data recovery. There is no definitive date for this to be completed.”
Coffey, in meetings at the time of this writing, had told the Observer on Nov. 11 that the county had “walked into a mess” when it took over the sheriff’s IT operations, but that it was working toward a resolution after spending $130,000 on the sheriff’s system last year and is preparing to spend an additional $600,000. “We’ll take responsibility for our management of it, and we’re working toward fixing it,” the administrator is quoted as saying.
He elaborated on those comments in an interview this evening. “I called him twice last week and didn’t get a returned call. I got the letter,” Coffey said, refuting Manfre’s claim of lack of communication. “I called him at work, I called his cell. My job is not to fight with the sheriff. My job is–and I understand, I think there’s enough blame to go around.” He said he did not want to get into all the details, but described the sheriff’s IT infrastructure as “a disaster.” But he said that disaster is the accumulated result of the effects of the Great Recession, when government agencies, including the sheriff, retrenched and shifted spending from infrastructure such as IT to immediate needs. That price is now being paid.
“I’ll take responsibility for our time that we had with the system. Obviously we took the helm, the handle in January 2014. We were working a lot with Rick Staly”–the former undersheriff, now a candidate for sheriff–“so maybe the sheriff was not always privy to the conversations and issues we worked on and how it transpired. Nonetheless, we didn’t have half a million or $600,000 budgeted right after the start of that budget year. We were trying to assess where do we go first. It was like a ship that’s leaking from every hole, where do you plug the holes? And I think it was a little daunting to go in there and realize the stuff was in such bad shape. And I think during the downturn money was spend in other places, maybe even with both sheriffs.” He added: “We’re going to own some of these mistakes, we’re obviously addressing it now, we’re being proactive, I think we’ve been proactive from the start, unfortunately it just happened quicker, we had failure quicker than we’d like.”
Coffey says the “thing that bothers me the most” is the absence of a backup system. He said some employees who left, and some who are still there, are responsible.
Officer safety was at stake because of the failure in several instances. The sheriff devoted two pages to outlining the numerous consequences of the computer failure, calling it “not an exhaustive list,” and cited among those issues the inability of deputies in the field to access records that would have shown them whether a person at a traffic stop had warrants or was considered dangerous—a routine check that helps define how a deputy approaches people pulled over.
The problem also affected detectives, “and for this matter, all records management users” who had “a greatly limited or no access to critical law enforcement records while conducting their investigations. This limited their ability and efficiency.” At the same time, detectives could not use the new operations center’s new interview rooms because the recording systems in there were not working properly. The problem is not tied to the server crash, but it ties into the larger IT problems between the county and the sheriff. Detectives have had to take their suspects to Flagler Beach or the State Attorney’s office for interrogations.
“Although we now have access to many records, we still cannot access the records that were not backed up by county IT staff,” the sheriff wrote, leaving no doubt where he thinks the problem originates.
“All through this process,” he wrote near the conclusion of the letter, “we have resorted to pre-established back-up procedures and improvised successfully to accomplish our responsibilities. I have reassured the community via the media that calls for service, specifically ones made to 911, for all of our public safety partners would not be affected. However I have been frank that efficiency is not what it was like prior to the failure. As the sheriff of this county, one responsible for investigating crimes, being an advocate for our victims, and completing all of my duties as sheriff, I respectfully request to know why this failure occurred and what reassurances we have from county IT that this will not happen again to any of our computer systems or infrastructure. Furthermore, I would like to know why there was a considerable delay in transitioning to the [New World System] upgrade after you purchased a server and accessories to accommodate the transition in 2014. For the record, this server is idle.”
tomc says
Is it any wonder that most citizens believe that governments
are incompetent and pathetic.
Confidential says
Just like I told myself when I first read about the computer system crash….bet is the county’s fault and probably trying to lay blame on Manfre.
Why the Sheriff had to obey and attach his very important system to the county one…? probably because if he didn’t there comes the witch hunt again to Sheriff Manfre, just like around 2004 and just like recently happened to SOE Weeks!
The Sheriff services are too vital and important for us all taxpayers to be sharing IT’s with Coffey! In this county all our taxes are utlized in a too much “all around in the family manner”. How many names of the sames families we find in the county services payroll..? Now we have also a Mr. Shupe county IT rings to me like some Marshall Shupe FB Commis. related? All in the family and here are the results. Why should we trust this county Manager? We pay for law enforcement services and we need to have them and the sheriff emergency system is too vital to be under the FCBOCC paws! Please correct me if wrong….
Oak Dude says
Old government guys don’t think them thar computers are all that important. Efficiency is for the people who pay taxes, not those who take taxes. How did your business continuity plan work out there Sheriff? What? Didn’t have one of those either?
m&m says
The blame game so Manfre is not responsible for all the criminals that go free and have a clean record so they can persue their carrares.
Mr. Bytes says
When you depend on computers for EVERYTHING, you will ALWAYS be disappointed because there will ALWAYS be data lost and backup crashes. Not to mention now days HACKERS and foreign countries breaking into data servers and stealing information…..Only TRUE way to keep things protected is go back to PEN and PAPER !!!
Can't Say says
It’s not a surprise that Manfre continues to deflect blame whenever something goes wrong at FCSO. (And there has been an awful lot of things gone wrong since the little man took over the top spot. Truth of the matter is Manfre was behind getting rid of Donnie Wines (County IT whom Manfre didn’t get along with from his first administration, Bob Urie (FCSO IT) and Norren Kelsa (Both of which knew New World better than anyone else in Flagler County). Manfre created this perfect storm but now he washes his hands of it and blames someone else. Where’s the accountability here Jim? Oh, he must have left it in a cabin in Tennessee…… I see a pattern here, don’t you?
David S says
There is no excuse that anyone can give for this to happen its Flagler County at its best.
Ray Thorne says
Under the last Sheriffs Office administration, it was in house IT employees who ran the system and without issue other than routine updates and backups and a small glitch here and there. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to have retained and transitioned those employees to the county. Had that been done rather than Manfre terminating them, this “catastrophic failure” would not have occurred.
gkimp says
Management/Leadership 101, you can outsource the work, but you can’t outsource the RESPONSIBILITY!!! This fall squarely on Manfre and his then sidekick Rick “I didn’t do it” Staly!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
*disbands internal IT department at the last minute*
*passes IT tasks to group unfamiliar with status of machines*
*machines break*
“Herpaderp it’s the county’s fault”
confidential says
With this headline Sheriff Manfre reassures his incoming witch hunt (a la 2004 and exactly like happened lately with SOE Weeks), in spite that he was forced to accept and inclusion of our vital Sheriff communication systems that provides our 911 into the county one in 2014, to avoid the witch hunt. Always the FCBOCC and manager Coffey micromanaging our constitutional elected officials which agencies heads we elect to work independently of county political influences. Not satisfied yet interfering/micromanaging our elections process elections backed by the Tallahassee Board of Elections and the Ethics Commission but now also our law enforcement too. Isisn’t peculiar they cause this problem to the Sheriff Department communications almost at the doors of an election year?
If we were to look into this FCBOCC services payroll we will find out that Nepotism runs havoc!
We will see in those employees list several same last names some connected with elected officials like in the case of the County Communications IT Jarrod Shupe being he son of the FB Commissioner Marshall Shupe and look what happens to our Sheriff communications under his management!
Too much conflict of interest to say the least!
The current interference and micromanagement of Coffey under FCBOCC orders of our elected constitutional officials renders our Sheriff communications ineffective in spite of the great law enforcement services we currently have and our incoming elections totally micromanaged by the FCBOCC will be worthless. just wait and see.
Dave says
Computer issues are now common place in local, state and Federal business. These business would rather put money towards their new department cars, riot gear, buildings and anything NON computer (IT related) than invest good money in IT and IT training. .
Geezer says
The four-star sheriff, passes the buck. What’s with the adornments on his collar?
Reminds me of foreign dictators who decorate themselves.
Just me says
Ok so why did the County takeover the IT of the sheriff? Was it forced on it as some here seem to think? Or was it a perceived as a cost saving measure by the Sheriff dept. Ill put my two cents in and say the sheriff dept knew it was in desperate need of upgrades and went the easy way out by passing it along to the County. The County im sure saw a way to charge the sheriff dept and have extra $$$$ left over for other things BUT did not fully look into what they where taking over. Just like with the water systems it took over they take over old run down systems water/IT and get stuck with all the repairs and costs to us.
Just me says
I find it amazing any still see weeks as the victim. She is anything but innocent in her demise.
Just me says
.
Coffey (he was meeting with Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon, council member Bill McGuire, County Commissioner Nate McLaughlin and the county and city fire chiefs to discuss Palm Coast’s desire to run its own ambulance system).
GREAT the City of Palm Coast is looking to add more onto the taxpayers of this City! WHY do we NEED another redundant service? The City should turn over the Fire Dept to the County and save us some $$$. We will be paying twice for TWO Departments that do the same thing.
confidential says
@m&m. Is not law enforcement or Sheriff Manfre’s fault that the criminals are let go free…that is courtesy of your judges in our court system!! And if their records as lost show clean now is the fault of the Flagler County bad IT management system that the sheriff “was forced to join!”
@Geezer until today I agreed with some of your blogs here, but as if today no more….you didn’t seem to ever before bother when Republican Fleming showed the same stars in his collard right? What an ugly and unfair comparison yours! https://flaglerlive.com/45595/ethics-commission-don-fleming/
Ray Thorne says
@ confidential: I don’t know where you get your info from but Manfre wasn’t forced into anything. He first merged the Sheriffs Office Fleet Services with the county and then the IT Dept. The Sheriffs Office IT employees who knew the system were terminated from employment due to the merge with the county. Under Flemings administration, there were no real issues with the program and it was properly maintained. And are you really going to go to bat for Manfre with a Fleming ethics article? I’ll take the membership card over Manfres abuse of taxpayers property, company credit card, unreported gift cabin vacations and unreported damage to the taxpayers vehicle while it was out of state for personal use.
Billy Bob Boo says
How does this “Man”fre still have a job? He has the worst reputation of any sheriff ever in the history of Flagler County, law enforcement officers don’t respect him, and he’s spent taxpayer’s money illegitimately. I guess the more laws you break in this country the more respect you get these days! Why not Manfre, after all, he must model his career after Hillary Clinton’s. Lie your way to the top buddy! I’d hate to be this guy after he loses his position, he has a LOT of enemies!