Introduction to Criminal Justice Information Systems

Ralph Ioimo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781498748872
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Criminal Law
• Index: Law

The proliferation of information systems throughout the criminal justice system has prompted many universities supporting criminal justice programs to add criminal justice information systems technology to their curriculums. Several universities have gone so far as to hire professors with specializations in information technology and to offer criminal justice information systems as an area of concentration.

Introduction to Criminal Justice Information Systems gives an overview of the various software systems and technologies currently used in the criminal justice environment. The book covers a variety of topics critical to each member of the criminal justice system: police, prosecutor, courts, and corrections. It details the current systems in use, how they are used, and how separate systems interact with others. It also suggests how the current technology and the processes built upon it will evolve.

While designed as a textbook to meet the needs of an introductory criminal justice information technology course, Introduction to Criminal Justice Information Systems is also a flexible resource useful to professionals in relevant areas of the criminal justice system. With rapidly increasing development and use of technology in modern law enforcement, this book provides a much-needed reference for those who are responsible for its implementation as well as an essential introduction to those who will become responsible for it. An instructor's manual is available as an electronic download upon request.

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chapter one
Overview of criminal justice information systems

The importance of information systems in a modern criminal justice environment spans every aspect of the criminal justice service delivery system.

List of definitions

CAD—computer-aided dispatch

CMS—court management system

COBOL—a programming language

FBI—Federal Bureau of Investigation

GJXDM—Global Justice Extensible Markup Language Data Model

GUI—graphical user interface

IJIS—integrated justice information system

Mainframe—large central servers that supported terminals directly attached to the computer

NCIC2000—National Crime Information Center

N-DEx—Law Enforcement National Database Exchange

NIEM—National Information Exchange Model

POSSE—Police Operations Support System Elementary

PROMIS—Prosecution Management Information Systems

RMS—record management system

Time slice—computer processor time required to complete a task

Introduction

Information systems are an essential part of today’s criminal justice system. An information system is a process that uses information technology to capture, transmit, store, retrieve, manipulate, or display information used in one or more business processes (Alter, 1996). In today’s environment, without information systems, the components of the criminal justice system would grind to a halt. For purposes of this text, we define the criminal justice systems to be comprised of the police, prosecutors, courts, and corrections.

Criminal justice agencies depend on information technology to perform their daily functions, similar to their business counterparts. As the world moves deeper into the information age, the need to manage information becomes ever more critical. There is no greater reliance on information technology than that found in the criminal justice system. Information technology is what makes the management of information in these environments possible. Without information technology, the criminal justice system and all subcomponents would grind to a halt.

The focus of this book is on the information systems used by criminal justice agencies. We discuss business applications used within each component of the criminal justice system wherein all members of each agency rely upon for common information. We also examine the workgroup applications that criminal justice agencies use to perform tasks related to a specific workgroup function.

This book focuses on the current information technology trends within the criminal justice information systems (CJISs). We examine information sharing between the various criminal justice agencies across disparate systems and how the use of new technologies inspired new approaches to sharing data between each of the criminal justice agencies. These exciting new technologies have given way to improved information-sharing efforts that enhance the effectiveness of the justice system.

We will begin exploring CJISs in this section by reviewing the following:

• The evolution of CJISs

• Exploring the criminal justice enterprise databases

• Exploring workgroup applications used in criminal justice agencies

• The current trends in CJISs

The evolution of CJISs

Like most information systems, CJISs evolved over time. Perhaps the earliest use of information technology occurred in New Orleans with the development of an electronic data processing device. The system was not a computer but a vacuum tube—operated calculator with a punch-card sorter and collator. New Orleans Police Department used this tool to summarize arrests and warrants (Brown, 2000). Throughout the 1950s, isolated uses of automated information systems existed, mostly among the larger justice agencies throughout the country. These customized software packages provided statistical information to the agencies they served. These systems were mainframe based and shared with other government departments. Only large cities could afford their own information systems, so there were few criminal justice agencies computerized before the late 1970s when computer technology started to become affordable to medium and small cities.

In the large agency environments, criminal justice software resided on the city or county’s mainframe and was under the control of the data processing department, which reported to the finance or general services department within local government. Access to these systems occurred through terminals connected to a central server. Figure 1.1 depicts a typical mainframe environment of these early days.

These early information systems were under the total control of a data processing department. If end users sought reports, they would print the information on the master printer located in the data processing facili-ties; there was no local printer capability. These shared resources often competed for “time slices” on the mainframe. A “time slice” refers to computer processor time needed to complete a processing task (Whisenand & Tamaru, 1970). Computer time was under the management and control of the data processing department. Programs running on the mainframe received a priority assigned by a data processing operator. As an example, when the data processing shop ran the payroll checks, it had priority. The other applications had to wait until the payroll checks completed before they could complete their processing. Other city or county applications took precedence over the justice applications, and because the justice agency did not have control of the mainframe, there was rarely anything an organization could do about these delays.

Figure 1.1 Central server environment.

Development of criminal history systems

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed the first nationally recognized CJIS known as, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The NCIC is a national information network operated by the FBI since 1967, which provides criminal justice agencies throughout the country with access to information on stolen vehicles and stolen property, wanted persons, and missing persons (Chu, 2001). The FBI provides each state with access to NCIC. Each state provides access to the counties, and local agencies can access the state system through their own computers. 1.2 the NCIC information flow.

Initially, local agencies accessed NCIC via a teletype machine. Data returns printed in a single line format with data separated by forward slashes (/). The abbreviation of data meant operators had to know the abbreviations or look them up in a manual (Whisenand & Tamaru, 1970).

Many states, and some larger police jurisdictions, created their own criminal information systems, which allowed local agencies to obtain criminal information at the state and local levels but were not a part of the NCIC system. Many of the state systems provided access to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) information, state arrest data and other state related information. This allowed police officers to check vehicle registration details, state warrants, and other criminal history information. Officers in the field provided dispatchers with the person’s name and driver’s license number, and the dispatcher entered the individual through the teletype into the state and NCIC systems and would get potential wants and warrants from the state and national systems. With links to the DMV, they would also get a driver’s license and vehicle registration details. Today, every state has a CJIS specific to that state’s requirements but usually contains similar information as to what NCIC provides at the federal level.

Figure 1.2 NCIC information flow.

Several prominent local wants and warrant systems were developed in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the City of Los Angeles, the Automated Wants and Warrant System, and the Police Information Network system developed by the San Francisco and Oakland area police agencies (Whisenand & Tamaru, 1970). Today, there are many similar systems throughout the United States. With the emphasis on information sharing that has expanded since 9/11, these local systems provide their information to the state and federal systems.

In 1971, the FBI added a computerized criminal history (CCH) file, containing records of individual offenders’ criminal histories. The CCH program gradually developed; only 12 states and the federal government contributed records to the system until recently. With the Community Oriented Policing Services Making Officer Redeployment (COPS/MORE) program implemented by the Clinton administration, many states rewrote their CCH systems and now regularly access the FBI systems.

In the 1990s, the FBI completely reengineered NCIC and released NCIC 2000. NCIC 2000 is the latest version of this system. In reengineering NCIC, the FBI added significantly more capability to match technology advances. NCIC 2000 now has the capability of providing mug shots of wanted suspects, which can be sent directly to field officers that have laptops in their vehicles. They also provided single fingerprint identification capability. If the officer has a fingerprint cradle in his or her vehicle, the officer can place the subject’s finger in the cradle, transmit the fingerprint to NCIC, and quickly obtain want or warrant information on that individual (FBI, n.d.a).

Another crucial database supported by the FBI is the “Combined DNA Index System” known as CODIS. One part of CODIS is the National DNA Index System or NDIS. NDIS contains the DNA profiles contributed by federal, state, and local participating forensic laboratories (FBI, n.d.b). Upon collecting DNA samples, the agency submits them to the state for analysis, and CODIS searches for a match. CODIS matches a target DNA evidence against the DNA records contained in the database. Once CODIS identifies a match, the laboratories involved in the match exchange information to verify the match and to establish coordination between their two agencies (FBI, n.d.b).

Since 9/11, law enforcement has recognized the need to share information on criminal activity between justice agencies. The importance of sharing information about crimes and criminals is a key factor in the fight against terrorism. This brought about the creation of new databases to assist in this task. A vital national database developed to promote this information sharing supported by the FBI is the Law Enforcement National Database Exchange (N-DEx). N-DEx is a repository of criminal justice records, available in a secure online environment, managed by the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division (FBI, n.d.c). N-DEx brings together information such as incident and case reports, arrest reports, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) calls, traffic citations, narratives, photos, supplements, booking and incarceration data, and parole/ probation information. In addition, N-DEx automatically correlates and resolves data from open and closed reports to determine relationships between people, vehicles/property, locations, and/or crime characteristics. It also supports multijurisdictional task forces—enhancing national information sharing, links between regional and state systems, and effective regional information sharing (FBI, n.d.c).

Information-sharing technologies are the wave of the future in CJIS databases. A vital part of CJIS databases are criminal justice history systems, which is addressed throughout this book.

Evolution of CAD systems

CAD was one of the first significant applications built for police. A CAD system aids communication center personnel in the performance of their duties. Before CAD systems, call takers manually wrote down information provided by the caller. This information included the location and call type as well the caller information. The call taker would time-stamp a card that they placed in a time clock with the date and time they received the call. In most dispatch centers, the dispatchers had several card slots for each unit they controlled. The dispatcher would place the awaiting call into one of these slots, and when a unit became available, they would read the information aloud over the radio for the intended un...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Chapter 1 Overview of criminal justice information systems
• Chapter 2 Justice information system standards and national systems
• Chapter 3 9-1-1: Its history, current status, and the next generation
• Chapter 4 Police computer-aided dispatch systems
• Chapter 5 Police record management systems
• Chapter 6 Police workgroup applications
• Chapter 7 Mobile computing
• Chapter 8 Crime analysis and crime mapping
• Chapter 9 Corrections information technology
• Chapter 10 Prosecutor information management systems
• Chapter 11 Court management information systems
• Chapter 12 The challenges of implementing a criminal justice information system
• Chapter 13 The future of technology in law enforcement
• Index