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Automating Arrest Warrants Between Courts and Law Enforcement

NCJ Number
191872
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 68 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2001 Pages: 102-106
Author(s)
Mark Perbix
Date Published
October 2001
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article describes automating the warrant management process by sharing data electronically.
Abstract
Colorado has included automated warrant management in its statewide integrated criminal justice information system (CICJIS). CICJIS links together the state's five principal criminal justice computer systems--those for law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, adult corrections, and juvenile corrections--using a middleware-based data-sharing architecture. This allows data entered into one agency's system to be automatically transferred and loaded into the law enforcement wanted person system. When an arrest occurs, the law enforcement agency managing the warrant updates this system, which causes a message to be sent to the courts indicating that the warrant has been served in a specific court case. The article claims that, although the process seems relatively simple, developing an automated electronic warrant data transfer between two very different computer systems proved to be far more complicated than originally anticipated. However, the article concludes that the Colorado experience demonstrates that disparate systems can be married to produce a significant system improvement.