(WBAP/KLIF) — Tarrant County may be pouring taxpayer funds into a money pit. The Tarrant County Commission jumped on the bandwagon in 2011 to hire TechShare to develop software for the county’s criminal justice system. County leaders are now taking the heat for continuing to spend millions in taxpayer dollars on a court software system that doesn’t work.
Commissioner Alisa Simmons says software issues, launch delays and ballooning costs may trigger the commission to pull the plug. The Commission, Tuesday, held a lengthy debate on whether or not the county should continue paying for failing software. In 2011, the county entered into an agreement with TechShare to provide technology solutions however Simmons says the number of software failures is unacceptable.
Tarrant county bought into TechShare digital solutions along with other Texas counties, however, many of them pulled out due to software problems. County Judge Tim O’Hare says the main issue with tech-share software deals with the extremely high maintenance costs, such as $750,000 annually for just the jail’s system.
The county has spent nearly $27-million dollars in all on the failed software over the past 12 years.
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