About
The agency approached the university, not the other way round.
Ledger is working under a research and development agreement with a large Michigan sheriff's agency. We shadowed more than twenty detectives and records staff before writing code, and we build one capability at a time inside their CJIS boundary; the agency accepts each before it ships. The first goes into production in December 2026, and neighboring departments are being introduced now. We are looking for the next Michigan agencies to build with.
Where we are
Ledger is working under a research and development agreement with a large Michigan sheriff's agency. We shadowed more than twenty detectives and records staff before writing code, and we build one capability at a time inside their CJIS boundary; the agency accepts each before it ships. The first goes into production in December 2026, and neighboring departments are being introduced now. We are looking for the next Michigan agencies to build with.
How this started
How this started.
An agency came to us with a problem: too many records, too few hours, and rules that do not bend. We spent our first weeks watching the work rather than describing software. What we built is our own field translated to theirs, one task at a time.
Who we are
Zach DeBruine
Co-founder
Assistant professor of computing at Grand Valley State University. Ph.D. in machine learning, Van Andel Institute; Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funded research; MSU Conquer Accelerator alumnus. Builds the product inside the agency's workflow.
Aziz Boufaied
Co-founder
Second-time founder; M.S. in applied computer science, Grand Valley State University; Draper accelerator alumnus. Agencies, procurement and the road to a signed agreement.
Technology licensed through Grand Valley State University Research Corporation.
Principles
- No facial recognition of the public
- Ledger does not identify people from photographs or video of the public. We do not build it, license it, or connect a tool to a service that does.
- No predictive policing
- Ledger does not forecast who will commit a crime or where to send a patrol. It works on records that already exist, about incidents that already happened.
- No sale or sharing of agency data
- Agency records stay in the agency's tenant. We do not sell them, share them with a third party, or use them to improve a product for anyone else.
- No automated decisions about any person
- No release, charge, finding or referral happens because the software said so. A person makes the decision and the log carries their name.
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