LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – After numerous delays, a computer system to track officer conduct — a key requirement of a federal consent decree — will be fully operational by mid-March, a Los Angeles police official said Tuesday.

The database, known as TEAMS II, will include the number of complaints filed against an officer, as well as list any shootings, pursuits and use-of-force arrests he or she has been involved in, along with commendations, assignments and records of arrests.

Part of the system was put into use in November, and is expected to be implemented department-wide by next month, according to Maggie Goodrich, commanding officer of the LAPD’s TEAMS II Development Bureau.

“The big picture means that we are on track,” Goodrich told the Los Angeles Police Commission. “All systems are running and will be in compliance with the consent decree requirement for TEAMS II.”

The TEAMS II tracking system will help the LAPD meet the requirements of a consent decree that the city agreed to in 2001 in the aftermath of the Rampart police scandal.

The agreement was reached to avoid a U.S. Justice Department lawsuit that would have alleged a “pattern and practice” of civil rights violations by LAPD officers.

Last May, U.S. District Judge Gary Feess extended the five-year consent decree for another three years because all the requirements had not been met, including implementation of the TEAMS II system.

Problems with the initial design of the TEAMS II computer system made it incompatible with the rest of the LAPD’s computer systems, delaying implementation.

The LAPD was supposed to convert its TEAMS I officer tracking system from a paperwork process to the computerized TEAMS II system by last fall, but the system was not considered to be “user friendly” and the implementation deadline was extended to June.

The department spent about $2 million to fix the problems.

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