Pennsylvania

In 2005, the Pennsylvania Justice Network (JNET), the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP), and the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) began developing an electronic warrant issuance process for all Magesterial District Judge and Common Pleas warrants. The primary objectives for the eWarrant system were to collect, secure, automate, and enter all warrants into PSP's Commonwealth Law Enforcement Assistance Network (CLEAN) and the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) at the time of judicial approval.

In collaboration with PSP and AOPC, JNET has migrated warrant processing from the PSP to JNET-maintained system components and has enhanced the eWarrant system by deploying a warrant correction application to local law enforcement and by improving the system's capability to track rejected warrants.

Developed at a time when economic resources dwindled, but criminal caseloads rose, the Allegheny Standardized Arrest Program (ASAP) was designed to expedite required court paperwork preparation, electronically share information among law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies, and identify and reduce delays between the time of arrest of criminal defendants and their subsequent arraignment. ASAP generates a complete Pennsylvania Criminal Complaint complying with the uniform statewide template, which is immediately available to the jail, district attorney, and the court. The program has contained costs, vastly improved efficiency and accuracy, and has proven to be a valuable investigative tool.

In 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. The Adult Probation Department also subscribes to the JNET electronic notification of new arrest warrants, enabling the probation officer of record to be automatically notified if a probationer is wanted on an arrest warrant. 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.

Disposition 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.