Birmingham City Council approved a three-year, $246,381.26 contract with Versaterm Public Safety US Inc. on Tuesday for software used by the police department and municipal court, even though city finance officials never got answers to basic questions about what the technology does or why the city needs it.
The contract includes Blueteam and EIPRO software for the Birmingham Police Department, along with CaseWorX software for the city's specialty courts, according to WBMA. City council members had raised questions about what the technology would actually do before the deal reached the full council for a vote.
Those questions surfaced a day earlier, when the Finance Committee pressed on whether Birmingham had previously contracted with Versaterm and what the software would be used for. The committee asked the administration to provide more information ahead of Tuesday's council meeting, but the station's report notes that the Information Management Services Department did not present a representative to answer the committee's questions.
Key Questions Left Unresolved
The Finance Committee never established whether the software represented a new purchase or a renewal, how the city planned to use each product, or what improvements officials expected from the deal. The committee also did not clarify which software functions Birmingham plans to use or how the information would be reviewed, per the same account.
Without a clear answer from the administration, the committee sent the contract to the full council without a recommendation. The council then approved it Tuesday without discussing it, leaving the same unresolved questions in place when the vote was cast.
What the Software Could Involve
The software could relate to documenting police incidents and personnel reports, employee oversight, and early intervention, the report states, though the exact scope of Birmingham's planned use was not established. The city has referred ABC 33/40's questions about software use and whether it was a new system to the Birmingham Police Department, which had not answered those questions as of publication.
Separately, vendor materials from Versaterm describe its CaseWorX for Courts product as designed to increase efficiency for treatment courts and pretrial services. The company's brochure says the platform can track individual progress, including drug screens, court sessions, treatment, phase advancement, case notes and payments. Versaterm also says the software can import information, set up automations and generate reports, while treatment courts, pretrial services and probation court staff can dedicate more time to better outcomes using the tool.
It is worth noting that a Texas Department of Information Resources vendor listing describes Versaterm's contract services differently, stating the company provides Software COTS and Related Services and offers CaseWorX, Street Smart, FocalPoint and SPIDR Tech software and SaaS products. A second Texas state contract page contains the same description. Neither document establishes which of those products, if any, Birmingham's new agreement actually covers.
A Larger Pattern of Quiet Tech Spending
This is not the first time Birmingham has approved significant public-safety software spending amid public concerns and council debate. In 2020, the council approved a five-year lease-purchase agreement for Motorola Solutions' CommandCentral Aware and BriefCam software at a cost of $1,315,659, according to BirminghamWatch. That deal was intended to integrate the police department's existing data-collection software into a single system for its real-time crime center, and it passed by an 8-1 vote, with District 5 Councilor Darrell O'Quinn casting the lone no vote.
Whether this week's Versaterm contract represents an entirely new system or builds on software the city already uses remains unclear. For now, the $246,381.26 agreement has been approved, but the basic questions finance officials raised before the vote — what the software does, how it will be used, and what Birmingham expects to get out of it — remain open.
