(The Center Square) – The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has announced the launch of the Washington State Data Exchange for Public Safety, or WADEPS, after years of delays and setbacks due to contract disputes, data security concerns, and allegations of unethical conduct.
In 2021, the state Legislature enacted Senate Bill 5259, which tasked the AGO with overseeing an advisory group to develop recommendations for a request for proposal, or RFP, for a private or public university to create a police use of force incident data that would be available for the public to view and download.
The contract was eventually awarded to Washington State University, a client of the AGO and the only institution of higher learning to submit a bid.
SB 5259 put the approximate date for the database launch as April 2023, but the project faced delays due to numerous issues. One of which was finding a subcontractor to partner with after IBM, which was included in WSU’s bid, withdrew over opposition to a contract stipulation that they waive all intellectual property rights.
WSU later went on in February 2024 to subcontract with Carahsoft, a company at the time under investigation by the FBI in a separate state, as well as Amazon Web Services.
In October 2024, internal emails revealed apparent miscommunication or conflicts between AWS and WSU employees over the website’s construction, and according to those emails, in March AWS withdrew from the project.
Prior to that, WADEPS struggled to obtain data user agreements with 9-1-1 call centers, which would have included computer-aided dispatch data, or CAD, which many centers opposed to signing due to fears of violating federal law.
Lake Stevens City Attorney Greg Rubstello in an August 2024 email also wrote that “there is no cause or reason for cities and towns providing general law enforcement to its citizens to disclaim any responsibility of the creator and administrator of this data base for its product. This is an issue for resolution between the State of Washington and WSU.”
Meanwhile, an AGO employee told WADEPS it was seeking data out of the project’s scope. Washington State Parks was an initial beta-tester for WADEPS, but later pulled out.
According to an AGO press release announcing the launch of WADEPS, the Fife Police Department appears to have signed a DUA with WADEPS.
The WADEPS has also faced allegations of unethical conduct by a potential subcontractor, starting from when the RFP was first put out. Bob Scales is a former King County Deputy prosecutor and special prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney General’s Office, and currently the president of Police Strategies. His company initially intended to subcontract with Seattle University to bid on the project, but Scales said he pulled out due to stipulations over waiving intellectual property.
Among Scales allegations is that the AGO employees involved in the RFP process offered information to WSU as to when the RFP would be put out and how long they would have to submit their proposal, information that was not offered to other potential bidders.
The AGO also engaged in what one attorney described as a potential “technical violation of ethical rules” by ordering Seattle University to preserve records in its possession concerning Scales and the RFP, warning that failure to do so could subject them “to a broad spectrum of court-imposed sanctions.” Such orders are issued from attorneys to their clients.
The AGO eventually awarded WSU the contract and signed an agreement in 2023.
Ethics complaints filed by Scales have all been dismissed by the State Ethics Board, which is composed of AGO employees and whose executive director reports to the solicitor general.
Scales also filed ethics complaints against several WSU employees involved with WADEPS. Then-WSU President Eric Schulz was accused of interfering with the process after he wrote in a letter sent to both Scales and AGO attorneys at its WSU Division that no investigation would occur.
Under WSU’s bylaws, the president has no role in ethics investigations. Meanwhile, emails sent by then-WSU Provost President Elizabeth Chilton after the president’s letter was written said that her office would be looking into the matter.
However, WSU never announced the conclusion of any investigation.
Scales then went on to file a $42 million tort claim against WSU and the AGO with the State Risk Manager, who then handed the claim over to the AGO’s Tort Claim Division.
At the same time, the AGO signed a $250,000 contract with law firm Pacifica to defend it from a potential lawsuit by Scales; the law firm is headed up by a former AGO employee and among its partners was incoming-State Attorney General Nick Brown.
The Center Square’s coverage of allegations surrounding WADEPS earned it a nomination last year for the DAO Prize for investigative reporting.
Law enforcement agencies have through Sept. 2 to begin reporting data to WADEPS, which they must then do on a monthly basis moving forward.
