Central Ohio man has seat at table in White House crime data meeting

POWELL, Ohio (WCMH) -- Leaders in the White House are working on plans to modernize data collection systems for law enforcement agencies nationwide and a central Ohio man was given a seat at the table to be a part of the conversation.  

Greg Davda Sr. is the chief business development officer with Powell-based Optimum Technology, which develops software for data collection used by law enforcement and courts in all 50 states. 

Davda said his job is to focus on strategy for the future. 

“Taking the firm into the next few years, right, and what's that plan look like?” he said. “What's the focus on? And then we take that back as a business and work with our software development team on what that means for software products and then for obviously our user agencies, classes, our software." 

Davda said something that's become common in the new age is law enforcement sharing data like statistics and dashboards to be transparent with the community and within the department. 

“We saw during COVID many things happened that fostered even greater change in practices, leadership change,” Davda said. “It's kind of getting ahead of any issues. Some agencies, the larger ones, have older software and so it's glaciatic, that kind of moves more slowly and it's harder for them to get access to some of the data. I know CPD (Columbus Division of Police) specifically is trying really hard to modernize their systems.”  

In December, Davda and several others with similar backgrounds were invited to the White House to brainstorm how the federal government can help improve the quality of data collected by law enforcement moving forward.  

“They're highly motivated, right, so these are people that are doing it for the good of the community,” Davda said.  

This marked the second time Davada was invited to the White House but said this is the first time he has met with department heads and, to his knowledge, the first time that what was discussed went to the President’s desk.  

He called this “a meeting of the minds” to better the technology law enforcement uses. They want to help gain the trust of the community and also make the technology accessible no matter the size of the department.   

“I think the attention it's getting there will help make change happen,” Davda said.  

He said some of the things they discussed require changes in data systems; if that happens, the group discussed ensuring there are grant or funding opportunities available to make the technology accessible to all departments. 

The group also discussed having a mandatory set of data practices and standards ensuring all systems can communicate. 

“So few had access to that data or knowledge of practices;” Davada said. “You know, you want to find out before it's a problem, to find out ahead of time that an officer may be outside the norm in behaviors or work practices so you can intervene, create opportunities for change and better training.” 

Davda said this was the brainstorming portion of making the changes, but he said that since the visit, officials have been working hard to get a set plan in motion.