Executive Summary Overview

Transcription

1 Executive Summary Overview Formalized during a Special Session on Crime in 1995, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania s Justice Network (JNET) is a secure virtual system for the sharing of public safety and justice information by authorized users. The JNET portal allows users to enter search criteria via a web browser and simultaneously query information from disparate federal, state, and county justice databases. JNET reached a major milestone in 2004 with the successful deployment of JNET to all sixty-seven (67) Commonwealth Counties. The JNET user base currently consists of over 22,500 users, including practitioners from federal, state, county and local agencies, over 750 municipal police departments, county practitioners, all State Police divisions, every Magisterial District Justice office, and over forty (40) federal agencies. JNET use is growing at an incredible pace because it provides public safety and criminal justice practitioners with a snapshot of an offender s criminal case file in one easy search. JNET provides the following four components of integrated justice: secure information access, data exchange and sharing, hosted applications, and notifications/alerts. Information Access The JNET portal or inquiry function allows JNET users to enter search criteria via a web browser and simultaneously query information from disparate state and county justice databases. Examples of information accessed through JNET include Pennsylvania Department of Transportation driver license photographs and certified driving histories, Pennsylvania State Parole case files, Department of Correction and county jail inmate information, digital arrest mug shot photographs, Criminal History Rap Sheet information, and Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts case information just to name a few. Notifications The JNET notification service allows for the immediate notification via a secure JNET session and a targeted broadcast of the notification via pager or . JNET notifies the public safety community when events or incidents occur that match the criteria on their respective watch list. To date, JNET has delivered over 77,000 confirmed watch list notifications to justice and non-justice agencies. Notification events include arrests, wants, warrants, dispositions, address modifications, and parole violations. Data Exchange and Sharing Through its messaging infrastructure, JNET facilitates the secure exchange of data - horizontally between state justice agencies, and vertically between state and county justice agencies while allowing agencies to maintain only their own systems. Hosted Applications The JNET secure infrastructure hosts applications for other justice agencies and is utilized by several state agencies to help them deploy applications across the state. This represents a significant cost and time savings for participating state and county agencies because JNET has established a secure statewide infrastructure encompassing each criminal justice component. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has partnered with state and local law enforcement for many years. Driver license information and photo images were made available through JNET as one of the first statewide applications. Subsequently, PennDOT and JNET joined in a collaborative initiative to implement a feature which provides access to full certified driving records using the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM). In January, 2004, an enhancement was added to include an attestation and signature to the certified driving history record, thereby making it the official certified document; admissible for all Commonwealth Court proceedings.

2 Project Description Recognized as a national model for information sharing, JNET s formalized governance structure was implemented in May of A driving force to the founding vision was to enhance public safety through the integration of justice information throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. JNET has successfully built this collaborative enterprise between municipal, county, state, and federal justice agencies, and continues to develop and provide access to content via the online, secure, integrated justice portal. A prime example of the collaborative effort includes contribution and access to driver records, offender data and photographs, statewide hosted applications, as well as additional justice data and integration points. In August, 2003, Pennsylvania s Justice Network (JNET) deployed its online Driver History Record application, a cooperative effort between JNET and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). This was JNET s debut implementation of the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Dictionary (GJXDD), and added another XML standard to JNET s repertoire of supporting public safety and criminal justice information sharing. The Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM), a benchmark in justice XML standards, was developed by the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The GJXDM is comprised of approximately 300 data objects, or reusable components, that have inherent qualities that enable access from multiple sources and reuse in multiple applications, allowing the entire justice and public safety community to effectively share information at all levels. The development of the GJXDM represents a significant change in the way practitioners develop their information sharing systems. Prior to JNET, each Pennsylvania agency maintained its own computer and database systems which resulted in a fragmented justice environment. Requests for critical information took days or weeks to get to the appropriate agencies. Today, JNET helps to solve the disparate problem and represents an unprecedented leap forward in information sharing and cooperation. One example of this integration success is found within the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation s Driver Information and Certified Driving History application. JNET s Driver History Record utilized the GJXDM data element standards to develop a robust Driver History Record tool. In developing the Driver History XML schema, about 80% of the data elements were extracted from GJXDM, with the remaining 20% extended to meet JNET project requirements. The efforts and lessons learned from this implementation have positioned JNET and PennDOT with opportunities for expansion and further implementation between collaborative stakeholders. As a result of this mutual effort, JNET users, with the proper user role and credentials, can directly obtain digital Driver License Photographs, demographic information, signatures, and Certified Driver Histories. This has vastly improved the business process for obtaining this information and these critical documents. Historically, the process for obtaining a certified driving history took four (4) to six (6) weeks, and requests were typically initiated by telephone, fax, , or the postal service; all known to lack

3 security and guaranteed delivery. Since the Commonwealth s Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts requires a certified driving record within thirty (30) days of an offenders arrest for Vehicle Code Title 75 offenses, the manual process was often responsible for lost cases, scheduling conflicts, inaccurate information, and dissemination violations; not to mention the associated fiscal considerations of each setback. For instance, when a police officer executed a traffic stop, the driver s name was sent to the Communications Center over an unsecured radio frequency. The dispatcher processed the request and queried the PennDOT database through a direct point to point connection in Harrisburg, PA. If the driver gave the correct information, the driver s information would be returned to the Communications Center and passed on verbally to the officer in the field. If a driver s certified history was required, the Communications Center would submit a request for the record to PennDOT, and it would be manually processed by the PennDOT Bureau of Driver Licensing, eventually making its way to the arresting police officer. Due to the workload and level of effort to produce a paper certified driving record, the turnaround time for this process could exceed six (6) weeks. Under this new XML enhancement, if a certified copy of the driver history is required, the officer can log into JNET, query the PennDOT database, and print out the record with the proper attestation and signatures affixed. These efforts have reduced a processing time from six (6) or more weeks to less than sixty (60) seconds. When considering that the Bureau of Driver Licensing processed 157,840 certified records in 2003, an immediate return on investment was realized. Significance to the improvement of the operation of Government (G to G) The Bureau of Driver Licensing (BDL), under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, provides driver information including photographs, signatures, demographic data, and driver history to the criminal justice community via JNET. The PennDOT application is the most commonly used application in the JNET environment, experiencing over 200,000 demographic and photo queries per month. The greatest improvement realized as a result of the JNET/PennDOT access to driver s information is the quick turnaround in receipt of certified, court accepted driving records. The process has been reduced from four (4) to six (6) weeks to less than sixty (60) seconds, and has reduced PennDOT s workload by thousands of requests each month. This has impacted other government entities as well. For example, whereas in the past, the initial hearing for a violation of the traffic code would have to be rescheduled by the Magisterial District Court due to the length of time required for the receipt of the certified record. The scheduling of these hearings is no longer impacted by waiting on a PennDOT issued paper certified driving record. This translates into work hours saved by the law enforcement agency, PennDOT, and the Court. Additionally, the ability to obtain the certified driving record within minutes of the offender s court date guarantees a more accurate document. With the ability to view the certified driving history at will, prosecutors, the Court, and defense counsel have the ability to review subsequent violations which may have occurred between the filing of the original charges and the actual court appearance.

4 Other Criminal Justice practitioners have also benefited from the ability to obtain the certified driving history via JNET. For instance, a District Attorney can instantly access an up to date driving record as part of preparation for trial or review of the charges. Probation Officers, Children and Youth Case workers, etc. can also retrieve these records without the need of going through a third party, i.e., communications center, and without the lengthy wait for receipt of the records. Because the certified driving record was only accessible from select government entities with a dedicated connection to PennDOT, county communication centers, district attorney offices, PennDOT s BDL, and others previously responsible for processing certified driving history requests, have been relieved of a substantial amount of processing overhead. With the accessibility of the certified driving history via JNET, these agencies are now focusing on improving other internal business processes. Benefits realized by service recipients, taxpayers, agency, or state Prior to JNET, the ability for Pennsylvania agencies to collaborate and share information required extensive studies, contracts, and point to point integration. Today however, JNET partners take advantage of the secure infrastructure for data exchange, request/reply, and query based transactions. The implementation of this secure infrastructure, and the flexibility of the JNET architecture, has enabled municipal, county, state, and federal partners to simultaneously realize immediate returns on investment while improving the services of their respective agencies and collaborative stakeholders. Specifically, criminal justice practitioners can now leverage the PennDOT application for immediate access to certified driving records without making manual request to PennDOT s BDL. This has significantly cut down on the backlog at PennDOT, while providing a more secure and efficient delivery mechanism for the requesting agency. This time savings has been realized by PennDOT through improved customer service for outstanding requests to the BDL, reduction in overtime and related expenses, and has resulted in a positive effect on collateral state agency stakeholders such as the Courts, police, probation, and district attorneys. One example of the efficient use of this application and its respective impact on public safety comes from a Children and Youth Services (CYS) Caseworker in Delaware County. The caseworker was conducting a background investigation on a foster parent because the foster parent was transporting children to doctor appointments, school, etc. During the investigation, the caseworker discovered that the foster parent s driving privileges were under suspension. This information, critical to the care of the child s care, would not have been available to the CYS caseworker prior to the release of the JNET/PennDOT application. There are current initiatives in place that provide JNET functionality for law enforcement officers utilizing a wireless connection to secure JNET. In this scenario, law enforcement officers in the field have immediate access to the certified driving record, thereby improving their ability to respond to information needs and offender processing; two core

5 components to their public safety role. Wireless JNET is being used in over twenty (20) counties throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A prime example of wireless access to JNET s PennDOT application was reported by West Manchester Township Police Sergeant, Richard K. Trout. Sergeant Trout accesses wireless JNET from his patrol car in York County and consistently uses PennDOT to confirm identity, demographics, and to process certified driving histories. While on patrol, Sergeant Trout discovered a female occupant sleeping behind the wheel of a parked vehicle at a local convenience store. Sergeant Trout woke the occupant and asked her for identification. The subject indicated that she did not have her identification with her, but offered her name and DOB. Sergeant Trout used his wireless JNET connection to query PennDOT s records; his search results revealed that name she provided was that of a deceased individual. Sergeant Trout asked the female for her real name; she subsequently provided another name and DOB. Officer Trout was able to confirm the individual s identity by viewing her PennDOT photographs and confirmed that the subject provided the false name in an attempt to conceal her current license suspension. This record was accessed in real time by the officer without the need for submitting a request to the county dispatch center. The accessibility and convenience of wireless JNET has resulted in hundreds of similar success stories related to the PennDOT application. Officers in the field are able to obtain critical information, including photographs and certified driving records, without the need to impede upon a dispatcher s service to other practitioners in the field. Return on investment, Short-term/long/term payback During calendar year 2003, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation processed 157,840 certified driving history requests for local police, district attorneys, and the Courts. On January 7, 2004, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Justice Network released the Attestation Statement and signature upgrade to the PennDOT Certified Driving History application. As a result of the XML development efforts, the amount of certified driving history requests that required manual processing by PennDOT decreased in calendar year 2004 by 28% to 114,509. As the JNET user base continues to increase, the dependency on manual requests for PennDOT Certified Driving Histories comparatively decreases. In April 2005, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation BDL processed 10,116 Certified Driving History requests for local police, district attorneys, and Courts. During the same month, JNET users requested 67,626 Certified Driving Histories in support of their business processes, representing a 1:6.68 ratio of those processed manually. The accessibility, security, and ease of use have motivated Pennsylvania criminal justice practitioners to leverage this emerging technology. A direct benefit of this GJXDM implementation is reflected by reduced time delays, processing costs, and ease of accessibility. One clear performance measure is highlighted by the dramatic reduction in processing costs for PennDOT. The personnel cost metric is based on the time required to process a paper copy of the driver history request, including the manual application of an embossed certification seal. PennDOT calculates their personnel cost at $1.50 per certified history

6 processed, and when incorporating a combined printing and mailing cost of $.50 per copy, the total cost to manually generate a certified driver history equates to $2.00 per request. During April 2005, the 67,626 certified driving history requests process by JNET saved PennDOT $135,252 in monthly operating expenses. As certified driving record requests via JNET continue to increase, PennDOT personnel are reallocated to support and process other areas of business such as paid requests from individual citizens and preemployment screeners. Throughout the implementation of the GJXDM standards and XML schema development, the JNET knowledge base has grown significantly. What was once a vision and a proof of concept has become an irreplaceable commodity for PennDOT, JNET, and the stakeholders dependent on each agency. One result of this XML achievement includes secured knowledge and tool sets that are being applied to subsequent GJXDM projects. GJXDM is highly reusable from an XML and object perspective; therefore, JNET anticipates that real-time savings and returns on investment are just beginning to be realized.