Hornbeam Software LLC · Illinois

Compliance you can prove.

Hornbeam Software is an Illinois company focused on building narrowly scoped compliance tools for the public sector.

What we stand for

The values behind every product

Our customers answer to taxpayers, boards, and courts. We hold ourselves to the same standard.

01

Do one thing well

Narrow scope is a choice, not a limitation. Each product covers a single requirement completely, so an agency never pays for a dashboard it will not use or a feature that only half works.

02

Earn trust, never ask for it

We keep as little data as possible, keep records that cannot be quietly changed, and make our work checkable. Nobody should have to take our word for anything.

03

Build for public scrutiny

Public work gets examined years later, by people who were not in the room. Everything we make is designed to hold up when that day comes.

Our first product

Constancia

Public Act 104-0158, the Sonya Massey Act, requires an Illinois law enforcement agency to seek personnel records from every previous employer of an officer applicant before a final offer. Constancia serves the requests, tracks the statutory clock, validates the required certifications, and finishes each investigation as one evidence record the agency keeps.

Explore Constancia
Constancia · Massey Act Compliance Platform

Every employer asked. Every answer on record.

Before a final offer of employment, Illinois law enforcement agencies must seek personnel records from every previous employer of an officer applicant. Constancia turns that duty into documented, defensible compliance evidence: proof of service, tracked statutory deadlines, validated certifications, and a court-ready evidence record for every investigation.

Pilot Constancia at your agency
Illinois Public Act 104-0158, the Sonya Massey Act. Now preparing for pilot with Illinois agencies.

Evidence your counsel can stand behind

Every investigation produces one complete evidence record, designed to be read by a reviewer, an insurer, or a court, years after the hire.

  • Append-only audit trail. Every event, from service and delivery to response, certification, deadline, and outcome, is recorded when it happens and can never be edited or deleted.
  • Independently verifiable. The finalized record carries a SHA-256 digest your agency retains. Anyone holding the file can verify, independently of Hornbeam, that not one byte has changed.
  • Records pass through unaltered. Constancia inspects files only as data, never for content, and delivers them to your agency exactly as the employer provided them.
  • Retention by design. Record content is automatically destroyed 30 days after an investigation completes, with litigation-hold override. What remains, permanently, is the compliance trail.
  • Military service handled the same way. The agency requests the DD-214 from the National Archives, Constancia tracks it to its outcome, and the applicant never handles the record.
The console

One screen per investigation, from intake to evidence

An investigator enters the applicant’s employers exactly as written. Constancia checks each business against the state’s corporate registry, serves the letters, and shows every request’s status against its statutory deadline until the last one reaches an outcome.

constancia.hornbeamsoftware.com
Constancia
Current investigations
Investigation history
Settings
Active12
Awaiting response7
Overdue1
EmployerStatus
Village of Elmwood PDDelivered Sep 19Response due Oct 3
Kane County SheriffVerification on fileComplete
Midstate Logistics LLCExtension requestedDue Oct 17
National Archives (DD-214)Requested by agencyPending
Constancia console, shown with sample data.
Service

Service you can prove

Statutory request letters generated with the correct citations, addressed to the legally correct recipient, and served by certified mail with USPS electronic return receipt. Proof of delivery, not just proof of mailing. Every letter encloses the form the Act requires of the responding employer, and carries a code the employer can use to answer online, with records uploaded securely, or by return mail.

Certified mail · Return receipt
Village of Elmwood Police DepartmentControl No. 7A3F19C2

Re: Request for employment records under 820 ILCS 40/8.5 (Personnel Record Review Act), as enacted by Public Act 104-0158.

Applicant: Jordan A. Reyes · Period of employment: Mar 2019 to Aug 2023

Pursuant to 820 ILCS 40/8.5, the Department requests copies of all records relating to the above-named applicant's employment, within 14 days of receipt. The enclosed verification of complete production (Enclosure 2), signed, is required with your response.

Enclosures  1. Consent and release signed by applicant  2. Verification form

Sample request letter. The agency is the requester of record on every letter.
Deadlines

Deadlines the statute recognizes

The response clock runs from proven receipt, not from mailing. Constancia computes every deadline the way the statute does, including extensions only when affirmatively requested, and weekend and holiday rollover under 5 ILCS 70/1.11. Every change is an event in the ledger, with its cause.

Sep 12 REQUEST SERVED · Village of Elmwood PD · 820 ILCS 40/8.5
Sep 19 DELIVERY CONFIRMED · response due Oct 3
Sep 24 EXTENSION REQUESTED · Midstate Logistics LLC · due Oct 17
Sep 30 RESPONSE RECEIVED · verification of complete production signed
Sep 30 REQUEST COMPLETE · records delivered unaltered · digest recorded
Oct 03 DEADLINE PASSED · Riverside Security Inc. · no extension requested
Oct 14 RESPONSE RECEIVED · Midstate Logistics LLC · certification signed · digest recorded
Oct 17 NON-RESPONSIVE · Riverside Security Inc. · recorded in evidence
sample data
Certifications

Certifications, validated

Every request encloses the written certification the Act requires of responding employers. When one comes back, an investigator at your agency examines the signed form and confirms the signature before Constancia records it, with the scan preserved and its digest in the ledger. A response that arrives without one is flagged as deficient, so a produced file is never mistaken for a complete one, and no investigation is finalized until every certification is in. For police-to-police requests, the signed verification of complete production is handled the same way.

Enclosure 2 · Certification50 ILCS 705/6.5(b)
Control number7A3F19C2ApplicantJordan A. ReyesEmployerMidstate Logistics LLCReceivedSep 19, 2026
Response
Records produced with this certification
No records retained for this individual
Extension of 14 days requested

I certify that the records produced are true and complete copies of the records maintained by the employer, and that all records relating to the applicant that the employer maintains have been produced.

D. OrtizAuthorized signature
Oct 14, 2026Date
Sample certification enclosure, as returned by an employer.
Evidence

Every outcome documented, then finalized as evidence

Every business employer is checked against the state's corporate registry before service, so the letter goes to the registered agent of record and a dissolved company is documented as such. Responses, refusals, dissolved employers, and silence past the statutory deadline each become a documented outcome, including the dead ends, with the registry evidence that proves them. When every request reaches an outcome, Constancia finalizes one complete evidence record as a PDF your agency retains, with its SHA-256 digest.

Evidence RecordInvestigation 7A3F19C2 · Finalized Oct 17, 2026
Sep 12Request served to Village of Elmwood Police Department under 820 ILCS 40/8.5, certified mail, electronic return receipt.
Sep 19Delivery confirmed. Statutory response period begins; response due Oct 3.
Sep 30Response received with signed verification of complete production. Records delivered to agency unaltered.
Oct 14Response received from Midstate Logistics LLC within the requested extension, with signed certification. Records delivered to agency unaltered.
Oct 17Riverside Security Inc. non-responsive. Deadline passed with no response and no extension requested. Outcome recorded.
SHA-256 of this record
9f2c41a7e0b8d35c6a1f4e92b7d0c8a3e5f16b29d4c7a80e3b5f9d2c1a6e7b48
Excerpt from a finalized evidence record, sample data.
Contact

How can we help?

A question about Constancia, a requirement you need to document, or software you would like built for your organization. Write to us and a person replies, not an autoresponder.

Your message goes directly to Hornbeam Software and is used only to reply to you. See our privacy notice.

Privacy notice

What this website collects, and what it doesn't.

This notice covers hornbeamsoftware.com. Constancia itself is governed by the agreement between Hornbeam Software and each agency that uses it, not by this notice.

Last updated October 1, 2026

Browsing the site

The site is static pages served from a content delivery network. It sets no cookies, runs no analytics or advertising scripts, and does not track you across other websites. Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your browser's request for the font files like any other web resource. Standard server logs of requests to the site (IP address, page requested, time) may be kept by the hosting provider for security and operations.

The contact form

When you send a message through the contact form, we receive what you typed: your name, agency or organization, work email address, phone number if you gave one, and your message. The system that relays the form also records the time and the IP address the message was sent from, to help us spot abuse.

We use this information for one purpose: to reply to you and continue the conversation you started. We do not sell it, share it with third parties for their own purposes, add you to a marketing list, or send automated follow-ups.

How long we keep it

  • Your message arrives as an email in Hornbeam Software's business mailbox and is kept as ordinary business correspondence for as long as the conversation, and any resulting relationship, is active.
  • The relay's technical log, which includes the IP address and time of each submission, is deleted automatically after 30 days.

Who processes it

The site, the form relay, and our email are hosted by cloud service providers in the United States. Each handles the data only on our instructions and only to provide its service to us.

Public officials

Many people who write to us do so in an official capacity for a public body. Nothing in this notice changes the treatment of your message under the records laws that apply to your agency; it describes only what Hornbeam Software does with it.

Changes and contact

If this notice changes, the date at the top is updated. Questions about it can be sent through the contact form.