TECHNOLOGY/Common ID numbers ease tracking of cases
Maricopa County, Ariz., has developed and installed a software program to simplify the process of assigning identification numbers to its criminal cases. The program is part of an ongoing effort to improve the efficiency of criminal proceedings as the county grapples with rising case loads.
Before the installation of the program in January, each of the county’s five criminal justice agencies — the sheriff, the county attorney, Superior Court, the county clerk and the public defender — had its own method for assigning identification numbers to cases. Consequently, the same case could have five different identification numbers. Now, all of the agencies use the same case number.
The previous system often created delays in case processing, as the agencies struggled to match up paperwork from other agencies that was branded with different identification numbers. For the agencies, the general public and people involved in a case — such as private lawyers, witnesses and victims — the variety of numbers made it difficult to track a case from department to department. The problem became magnified as the county’s population, and, correspondingly, its criminal cases, grew.
During the 1990s, Maricopa County’s population increased by 50 percent; today, the county has 3.5 million residents. More people meant more crime, and the county’s criminal-justice system became overburdened. During the past six years, felony case filings in the county have increased 46 percent. Maricopa County’s eight jails, designed for a total of 5,600 people, now house more than 8,000 inmates.
In 1998, county residents passed a sales-tax referendum to raise almost $1 billion to build new jails and improve the criminal-justice system. The county tabbed $25 million of that money to create the Integrated Criminal Justice Information System (ICJIS), which was an agency charged with increasing data sharing among the agencies dealing with crime.
Agency leaders decided to make the common case numbering system one of their first projects. “It sounds simple, but it provides the bedrock for what we want to do,” says Larry Bernosky, manager of data integration for ICJIS. “The common case number had been a dream. It had been something that was wanted in the county for probably about 12 years.”
In a series of meetings that included representatives from the five criminal-justice agencies, ICJIS used AllFusion software from Islandia, N.Y.-based Computer Associates to identify the business and technical requirements of the various departments. ICJIS then designed the case-numbering software, which is housed on a central server. In all, the software cost about $150,000 to design and build, Bernosky says.
Maricopa County’s criminal-justice agencies access the server through a county intranet. After the first agency to handle a particular case generates a case number, the other agencies are notified electronically — via e-mail or file transfer protocol — of the case and its number. All agencies then can enter updates on the case, such as a notice that it is being considered by a grand jury or that a hearing date has been set.
The program allows agencies to enter only general information. To find out the date and time of a specific hearing or the start of a trial, for example, a person would have to consult the court calendar or the appropriate agency.
