The following states have focused on improving the business functions related to the completeness, accuracy, and availability of disposition information in local, state, and federal databases. These efforts enhance officer and public safety by ensuring that law enforcement, prosecutor, court, and corrections personnel have all of the information needed to make decisions regarding the detention, prosecution, and retribution/rehabilitation of the person named on the criminal history record.
CaliforniaDesigned as a collaboration between Santa Clara County, the California Superior Court of Santa Clara County, the California Department of Justice (DOJ), and the California Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the California Disposition Reporting Improvement project (CA-DRIP) sought to improve criminal disposition reporting within the county and to develop a model that could be used by other jurisdictions within the state.
ColoradoColorado’s Electronic Disposition System uses a middleware architecture to link the state courts’ ICON (Integrated Colorado On-line Network) case management system with the Colorado Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Computerized Criminal History system (CCH), and the Colorado District Attorneys Council (CDAC) Action case management system. ICON is a statewide case management system used by all of the state’s general jurisdiction courts (District) and limited jurisdiction courts (County).
ConnecticutThe National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Improvement Amendments Act (NIAA) requests state estimates of NICS-related records that are available to the federal criminal justice databases (III, NCIC, and NICS). In an effort to coordinate the contributions of the state's multiple record reporting entities, Connecticut established the NICS Records Improvement Task Force. In 2011, the Task Force received a NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP) grant that, among other goals, included the creation of current "as is" business process flow charts for each of the seven categories of NICS records.
Several Indiana state and local justice agencies have enhanced their ability to effectively and efficiently report arrest charge and mental health case dispositions. These efforts have increased accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of offender criminal history information that impacts a myriad of public safety-related decisions. The Indiana Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC), Indiana State Police (ISP), and Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council (IPAC) leveraged their independent information systems to automate charge filing, case disposition, and error correction in the state criminal history system.
The objective of this project was to implement a system to improve the ability of courts to accurately charge and prosecute Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offenders. The system leveraged existing repositories and resources already provided by the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System (KCJIS) data center to help ensure that DUI offenders were appropriately charged and sentenced. As plans for the project evolved, stakeholders and legislators began to see the benefit of automating all disposition reporting and centralizing the dispositions of all offenders.
KentuckyThe Kentucky Open Portal System (KYOPS) has a statewide scope where agencies can quickly find criminal justice information, and eDispositions is an application accessible through KYOPS that supplies the Kentucky State Police with disposition information from the courts. In collaboration with Kentucky's NICS Record Improvement Task Force, and to improve record quality, the Kentucky State Police conducted a business process review and baseline needs assessment of their disposition management/reporting processes.
MarylandMaryland's Department of Public Safety and Correction Services (DPSCS) developed a program to identify submitted dispositions for which there were no associated arrest records in Maryland's Criminal Justice Information System-Central Repository (CJIS-CR).
MissouriThe Missouri State Highway Patrol, as part of a strategic plan to increase sharing of the offense cycle number (OCN) among criminal justice agencies, implemented the OCN Query Application, which provides prosecutors the ability to search the Missouri Uniform Law Enforcement System (MULES) for the OCN if it was not available when charges were initially referred.
OhioA number of courts in Ohio are using Live Scans as a means of improving criminal history reporting. The concept is straightforward -- equip local courts with small Live Scan units that allow them to capture fingerprint images as they interact with defendants.
PennsylvaniaDisposition reporting in the state of Pennsylvania was developed from a paper, form-based process to a fully automated, standards-based system utilizing service-oriented architecture. The result is a centrally managed criminal history repository for disposition reporting by the Pennsylvania State Police. Significant collaboration in technological enhancements and business process improvements now yield 80 to 90 percent disposition reporting rates.
York County Adult Probation Department's Strategic Technology SolutionsIn 2008, the York County Adult Probation Department was given access to the County's document management software system. When coupled with the AOPC's electronic docketing system and the offender tracking case management system, this new system enables the almost immediate transfer of information from the courts (sentencing orders and case notes) to the Probation Department (intake documents and revocation orders) to other justice system entities such as the Sheriff's Department and booking facilities. A key benefit of receiving these electronic communications is the immediacy with which offenders are supervised and held accountable, resulting in greater public safety and reduced violations and recidivism.
WisconsinIn the mid-1990s, the Wisconsin Bureau of Justice Information System (BJIS) was created to examine ways the justice system could improve the flow of information to stakeholders through the improved use of technology. Together with the courts, prosecutors, and law enforcement, BJIS prioritized the lack of standardization among prosecutors, eventually developing a statewide prosecutor's system known as PROTECT (PROsecutor TEChnology for Case Tracking).