Cover Page. NCAWARE Local Integration Mecklenburg project

Transcription

1 Cover Page Title: Category: State: NCAWARE Local Integration Mecklenburg project Cross-Boundary North Carolina Contact: Jeffrey M. Marecic, CIO Administrative Office of the Courts Project initiation: April 2010 Completion date: January 16, 2013

2 2. Executive Summary NCAWARE (North Carolina Warrant Repository) is a statewide repository of unserved processes that implements electronic repository legislation (G.S. 15A-301.1) and provides North Carolina law enforcement and court officials with real-time, web-based access to current and historical criminal processes and defendant information across all 100 counties. The system proactively alerts users of outstanding processes and facilitates paper-on-demand arrests and service of criminal summons. The implementation of Mecklenburg County on NCAWARE on January 16, 2013 is the first major integration of NCAWARE and a county s local criminal justice system (Mecklenburg Arrest Processing (AP) system), allowing for a seamless workflow with local criminal justice functions and the uniform statewide entry and collection of warrants and arrests. This integration greatly reduces data re-entry and improves data quality and synchronization of data between the local and state data repositories. NCAWARE Local Integration Mecklenburg County and the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) collaborated to create a seamless integration between Mecklenburg s AP system and NCAWARE. The teams employed the use of standard National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) extended markup language (XML) messages and WebSphere message queues to immediately transmit arrest information from Mecklenburg s AP system to NCAWARE. Likewise, process status and assignment information was transmitted from NCAWARE to Mecklenburg to allow synchronization of the two systems. The development cost of this application was $1,069, The project was completed on schedule as planned.

3 3. Business Problem and Solution Description: Mecklenburg County is the home of Charlotte, the largest metropolitan city in North Carolina. In response to managing a larger population and a statistically larger crime base, Mecklenburg County had developed and maintained a very centric, county-based law enforcement and arrest processing system. NCAWARE was implemented statewide in 2010, with the exception of Mecklenburg and Buncombe counties in Mecklenburg County came onto NCAWARE later than the other counties due to the development of its new arrest processing system, which Mecklenburg County officials wanted to be integrated with NCAWARE. Buncombe County came on last because Buncombe County officials first wanted to implement their newly purchased Criminal Justice Integration System before implementing NCAWARE. While 98 counties had access to all warrants electronically 24 hours per day, Mecklenburg s servable processes were not available for the rest of the state to view or serve in a paperless manner and likewise, Mecklenburg did not have electronic, paperless access to the rest of the state s servable processes. The county and the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) implemented NCAWARE in a way in which county systems and procedures could be seamlessly integrated with the state system thereby providing an uninterrupted workflow and allowing data to be captured once for both entities. The NCAOC faced several challenges: Very little money, limited resources, and a pressing deadline. The requirement to share information across domain and jurisdiction boundaries. The need to synchronize NCAWARE and the county s local criminal justice system (Mecklenburg AP system) which were operating in two different environments (WebSphere and BizTalk) without negatively impacting statewide usage of NCAWARE. NCAOC overcame the above challenges using the following innovative approaches: NIEM-based messages were used to overcome the interoperability challenge. The teams researched published white papers and technical journals to learn techniques and trouble-shooting best practices to overcome technical challenges when integrating the two different environments WebSphere and BizTalk. The teams chose to utilize SOA, custom coding using J2EE, DB2, JMS, Message Driven Beans, Message Queues and NIEM-based XML messages that can be reused for other integration needs. The teams followed the Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) Lifecycle as part of the development process. They published an Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) containing all required artifacts for 16 high-priority data exchanges with the Mecklenburg County Arrest Processing System.

4 The teams resolved complex problems through iterative code releases and by prioritizing deliverables and bug fixes to expedite the releases. The teams performed intensive performance and data integrity testing to ensure data accuracy and responsiveness of the interface. 4. Significance of the Project The implementation of Mecklenburg County is the first major integration of NCAWARE and a county s local criminal justice system (Mecklenburg Arrest Processing (AP) system. This implementation allowed for a seamless workflow with local criminal justice functions and the uniform statewide entry and collection of warrants and arrests. The NCAWARE Local Integration Mecklenburg project improved business processes by: Eliminating the wait and processing time for magistrates when defendants were accompanied by law enforcement. The NCAWARE Local Integration Mecklenburg project enabled law enforcement to pre-enter warrant data beforehand which decreased the processing time and dual data entry for the magistrate. Reducing the drive time and gas expense required to deliver paper warrants to and from the sheriff s office and courthouse. Allowing law enforcement to view and serve any electronic unserved processes in the state of North Carolina without having paper in hand. The improvements and benefits for stakeholders were as follows: Benefits to Magistrates: Magistrates no longer have to wait for a paper arrest package to arrive from the intake processing center. They can view pending charge information online immediately in NCAWARE. Magistrates are able to determine probable cause in a timelier manner. Magistrates now have the electronic version of the intake process which eliminates reentering data from the paper arrest package. Benefits to Court Clerks: Clerks can now access one system instead of multiple systems to update order for arrest information. Clerks can use key county criminal identifiers to search for processes in NCAWARE and locate these processes quickly. Benefits to Law Enforcement:

5 Law enforcement and court officials are provided with real-time statewide access to criminal summons and warrants for arrest from any location with wired or wireless internet access. The system proactively alerts law enforcement of outstanding processes. Law enforcement no longer has to drive to the sheriff s office to retrieve paper copies of processes to be served. Mecklenburg County law enforcement now has the ability to view and serve out of county processes without having to wait for the paper copies of these processes to be transported or sent to Mecklenburg. All other counties in the state are able to view and serve Mecklenburg County processes at any time of the day or night. Benefits to Citizens The integration between Mecklenburg local systems and NCAWARE provides additional safety benefits to the public by allowing for processes statewide to be served. For example, if a person in Mecklenburg County is stopped for a minor traffic offense, law enforcement is also able to see whether that person has outstanding warrants for more serious crimes and can arrest that person immediately if processes are found on NCAWARE. Improvement in business processes and cost savings means tax payer dollars are utilized more efficiently. 5. Benefits of the Project Satisfies legislative requirements for a statewide electronic warrant repository (G.S. 15A-301.1). Provides real-time statewide access for all law enforcement and court officials from any location with wired or wireless internet access. Increases officer safety by providing alerts on dangerous defendants. Saves travel time and fuel costs by providing for paperless service of arrest warrants and criminal summons. Eliminates/reduces dual entry of data and minimizes errors and time delays. Provides the convenience of 24x7 availability from any location with wireless internet connectivity. Through the use of a standard messaging interface, lays the foundation for other agencies in the state to exchange data with NCAWARE. Enables Mecklenburg County to view and serve out of county processes. Enables all other counties to view and serve Mecklenburg County processes. Allows for the near paperless handling of criminal processes. Adheres to the NIEM (National Information Exchange Model) 2.0.

6 Provides greater agility and efficiency in addressing the business needs of Mecklenburg County and other local agencies who may integrate with NCAWARE. Automatically transfers arrest information from the local county system to the judicial criminal systems NCAWARE and the Automated Criminal Infractions System (ACIS). Allows issued criminal processes to be automatically forwarded back down to the local county system. All relevant activity and status updates are also automatically sent back and forth between systems.