Sheriff’s Sam St. John speaking to the county commissioners.

LIVE OAK, Fla. — Suwannee County Sheriff Sam St. John spoke to the county commissioners at a Tuesday meeting about updating the sheriff’s office computer systems to comply with an audit performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The audit was performed by the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) division of the FBI on March 10 to determine if the SCSO complied with computer system requirements, St. John said.

He said that if the office did not comply, it could put the every department under the FBI in danger. A hacker could break through the county’s inscription software to get to the FBI’s information, St. John said.

This means that if the county does not comply with the new requirements, Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office would be cut off from the CJIS information.

“We would be operating in the dark,” St. John said. “We wouldn’t be able to check driver’s licenses, run license plates. We wouldn’t be able to do our job.”

St. John said he would wait until the end of the year and see how much money he has leftover in his budget to purchase a new system. There are many companies that provide these services like SmartCOP, a Florida corporation.

According to the corporation’s website, SmartCOP provides system development, implementation and support services for a fully integrated suite of public safety products including Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD), Records Management System (RMS), Mobile Computing with Field Based Reporting and Jail Management System (JMS).

By purchasing a system like SmartCOP, St. John said, the office would be complying with the new requirements.

In 2014, the SCSO was audited and updated its system to comply, but since then the requirements have changed. Now, a single arrest form has to be duplicated up to four times due to an old system.

“It’s all old and antiquated,” St. John said. “Everything has to be done by hand, but this new system would eliminate duplications and streamline things tremendously.”

More information will come as the final audit is presented in 30 days, he said. But, regardless of the audit, St. John has said since taking office that he wants to update the sheriff’s office and provide a better service for Suwannee County residents.