SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) -- The San Jose police union is accusing Santa Clara County court administrators of creating a dangerous situation for officers and the public.

It has to do with a software update that officers say deactivated thousands of bench warrants.

The issue first surfaced last December, after the Santa Clara County Superior court migrated it's court management software to the Odyssey system made by Tyler Technologies.

The police union says officers in the field are no longer able to access information on car computers about whether a subject they
encounter has outstanding warrants.

"They may not know, they have a warrant in the system which can cause obviously danger to the officers or if let go, a danger to the public," said Paul Kelly, president of the San Jose Police Officers' Association.

Officers blamed what they called a "bungled" software migration process. The union said 2,500 warrants were de-activated and called on the court to revert to its old system.

"Court administrators that pushed this system ought to be ashamed of themselves for putting officers at risk," Kelly said.

Tyler Technologies has been called out by other agencies like Alameda County for past glitches that resulted in wrongful arrests and imprisonments.

But the company defended itself Friday. "We have investigated these claims and have verified that Tyler and our products are in no way involved in the issues presented in the media alert," said the company in a statement. "Odyssey is used successfully throughout California."

The court administration also denied that the software has problems saying in a statement "There is no malfunction with the warrant process in Odyssey."

The court said there was a backlog in December created when police agencies asked the court to review and validate every warrant going into the new system.

But the court said "the backlogs are for low level crimes referred to as misdemeanors ... Remaining on the old case management system is not an option for the court."

The District Attorney's office, which also uses the system says it has not had any serious issues.

"With every new system growing pains and adjustments," said Sean Webby, a spokesperson for the D.A.'s office.

Police officers say they will have to take extra time on car stops to call in to the county records department to check if a subject has an outstanding warrant.

The court says it is putting more staff on the problem to reduce the backlog.