Statewide Electronic Collision and Ticket Online Records (SECTOR)

Transcription

1 NASCIO Statewide Electronic Collision and Ticket Online Records (SECTOR) NASCIO Staff Contact: Eric Sweden, MSIH MBA Program Director, Enterprise Architecture & Governance NASCIO NASCIO represents state chief information officers and information technology executives and managers from state governments across the United States. For more information visit East Main Street, Suite 1405 Lexington, KY Phone: (859) Fax: (859) Copyright NASCIO All rights reserved Project Initiation and completion date Project Initiation date: March 2005 Production date: April of 2007 Organization and primary point of contact Washington State Patrol Tom Wallace, Chief Technology Officer 403 Cleveland Ave SE,Suite C Tumwater WA Telephone: (360) FAX: (360) [email protected] Business problem Description Each year the State of Washington processes approximately 130,000 collision reports and more than one million citations. Numerous state and local agencies share the responsibility of creating, collecting, and storing collision reports and citation information. Washington State s government structure requires that many different agencies process and use this information as a key function of their daily business. Prior to the deployment of SECTOR, the statutorily mandated collection and distribution of citation and collision reports was completely a manual process. The process was slow, introduced a high level of human error, and put law enforcement officers at risk while collecting the information. Collaborating agencies desired an electronic data-sharing and messaging infrastructure able to move information where and when it is needed. Such an application would facilitate prompt processing of interdependent data by the responsible agencies, while generating efficiencies in information delivery and data sharing. Successful deployment of this infrastructure would reduce redundancy and improve the timeliness, accuracy, and availability of critical 1

2 public safety information by eliminating error-prone manual data entry tasks. Business solution description The SECTOR application uses state-of-the-art technology to replace the current paper-based processes for creating citations and collision reports, while still enabling participating agencies to meet existing business needs and legal requirements. SECTOR is a client-server system where the client is the stand-alone selfupdating software on a law enforcement officers in-vehicle computer, tablet, or office work station, allowing the creation of electronic citations and collision reports, and supervisory review of submitted collision reports. Created to provide a seamless electronic document flow across multiple state agencies for traffic citations and collision reports, the SECTOR application uses the bar codes on the Washington State driver license and vehicle registration information to speed data entry. State and local law enforcement officers are able to generate electronic citations and collision reports in their patrol cars using a scanner and laptop computer. Citation and collision information then routes electronically to the appropriate agencies. Following the upload of the electronic documents to the central Washington State Patrol (WSP) SECTOR server, they are sent to the Justice Information Network Data Exchange (JINDEX) server. JINDEX serves as the central messaging distribution platform, and is housed, operated and maintained at the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services (DES). Once received, JINDEX distributes these records to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), the Department of Licensing (DOL), and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for further processing. Prosecutors have the ability to utilize SECTOR to review officer created citations, make charging decision, and create additional citations. Benefit to government The simplified electronic method of data entry has several benefits. It reduces the number of errors introduced in a hand-written manual process. It reduces the time to complete a contact, reducing and the risk a law enforcement officer is exposed to when completing a contact. Additionally, the rapid electronic transmission of the data reduces the amount of time required by multiple agencies to process and share the information. Finally, this process significantly reduces the use of paper within the system. Because partnering state agencies own the SECTOR source code, the software can be provided to all law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, within the state, without a licensing cost. Another measure of system effectiveness is the level of adoption to the user community. In 2007 there were four (4) law enforcement agencies using the application, and by June of, one hundred and ninety four (194) were participating in the program, and from one hundred twenty (120) officers to over three thousand officers and prosecutors in the same timeframe. As of June, sixty-eight percent (68%) of local law enforcement agencies are using the SECTOR, and additional agencies and prosecutors are added 2

3 monthly. In addition to the law enforcement agencies and prosecutors, the railroad, transit authorities, Department of Fish and Wildlife, and several Native American Tribal Police Agencies are utilizing SECTOR. Since use of the system is purely voluntary, the rapid growth in the percentage of collision reports and tickets processed through the system indicates the benefits planned for the using agencies are being realized. Figure 1 - SECTOR LEA s Figure 1 illustrates the increase in Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA s) using SECTOR through June. 3

4 Figure 2 - SECTOR Users Figure 2 represent the number of officers who are creating citations and collision reports with SECTOR, and the total number of active users of the system through June. The total number of active users is comprised of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, local area system administrators, collision reviewers, and office support staff who are responsible for generating reports and fulfilling public disclosure requests. Figure 3 - Paper vs. Electronic Collision Reports June July Aug Figure 3 Values - Paper vs. Electronic Collision Reports Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Electronic 57.3% 47.3% 57.2% 54.3% 61.8% 59.3% 58.9% 61.6% 55.7% 58.5% 63.0% 64.6% Paper 42.7% 52.7% 42.8% 45.7% 38.2% 40.7% 41.1% 38.4% 44.3% 41.5% 37.0% 35.4% Figure 3 illustrates the steady increase in electronic collision reports. April May 4

5 Figure 4 - Paper vs. Electronic Collision Reports Figure 4 depicts the steady annual increase of electronic collision reports compared with paper reports. Figure 5 - Tickets Electronically Filed To Courts Year JIS Cases Electronic Percent ,203,412 29, % ,197, , % ,234, , % ,214, , % 1,200, , % Figure 5 depicts the steady increase of electronic citations, by yearly percentages through year. Courts did not start receiving electronic tickets until April

6 Figure 6 - Percentage of Paper vs. Electronic Tickets June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Electronic 53.3% 51.1% 53.1% 52.0% 53.2% 55.5% 57.3% 60.8% 60.8% 61.0% 62.1% 61.4% Paper 46.7% 48.9% 47.0% 48.0% 46.8% 44.5% 42.7% 39.2% 39.2% 39.0% 37.9% 38.6% Figure 6 is a comparison of paper and electronic citations monthly growth through April. April May Figure 7 - Paper vs. Electronic Dispositions Figure 7 depicts the increase in electronic dispositions created from the SECTOR citations. Electronic transference of dispositions was not part of the project initially, but was an extra benefit of processing electronic citations. Currently 57% of all citation dispositions are processed electronically. 6

7 Benefits to customers The implementation and deployment of SECTOR resulted in tangible benefits to state agencies and the public, including: Improved officer safety and efficiency through faster event processing Ability to share data among multiple processes, reports, and forms Differing citation types may be issued simultaneously rather than separately (as with paper) Reduced processing and data entry costs for agencies throughout the state Eliminates data entry redundancies of the past Time studies have shown that the processing time of an electronic citation in the court system is about half that of a paper citation. In addition, dispositions for citations received from SECTOR are sent to the Department of Licensing (DOL) electronically completely eliminating the need for court users to process dispositions. WSDOT estimates their analyst can process SECTOR reports twice as fast as paper reports Enhanced timeliness and accessibility for analysis and decision making such as: Determining enforcement levels Guiding road maintenance and construction projects More accurate data Error rates for both citations and collision reports have been dramatically reduced Best practices employed (e.g., governance, relationship management, communication and marketing, etc.). That is, what business practices contributed to the success of this project, helped maintain commitment, funding and adoption. The state has adopted a unique governance structure to manage and direct the future of SECTOR. The governance of the application is managed by representatives from the following agencies: Washington State Patrol (WSP) 7

8 Department of Enterprise Services (DES) Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Department of Licensing (DOL) Administrator of the Courts (AOC) Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) This cohesive team reviews requests for modifications from the SECTOR user community, and regulators such as, legislature mandates or new federal regulations to determine priorities and feasibility of requests to direct modifications. During the project the representatives from the governing agencies functioned as their agency s project manager, determining and assigning resources within their organization. Good project management discipline at all levels was essential to the planning, execution and sustainability of this project. The governance structure includes an executive sponsorship level and a charter describing each agency s responsibilities and agreement to the continual support of the system. The executive sponsors identify and assign a member of their agency to the governance body. The JINDEX eliminates the need for agencies to develop expensive, proprietary interagency data exchanges. The SECTOR application and the JINDEX use industry standard principles [e.g. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM), and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)] in standardized processes and information exchanges that eliminate the requirement for users to modify existing business requirements or processes. Currently one of the data exchanges is NIEM 2.0 compliant and as new exchanges are developed or existing exchanges are modified, they will be made with compliant with the current NIEM standard. The SECTOR Governance Team developed a logical data model for use by all agencies accessing the system. This ensures common definitions, business rules, and formats. This common architecture ensures data is entered once and shared many times thus avoiding data entry errors and ensuring high data quality. High data quality ensures the data can be relied upon for decisions in the field as well as in the courts particularly involving multiple jurisdictions, thus reducing risk in decision making, contributing toward the safety of law enforcement officers, and improving public safety. This architecture also provides the ability for any law enforcement agency to build a service that allows them to connect to the system to make use of the data within their own data repositories and processes. Several approaches were used to educate the law enforcement community on 8 the availability of an electronic ticketing and collision process. It began with the inclusion of the law enforcement community as part of the project team, utilizing their input in the design of the application, and continued with the identification of law enforcement agencies participating in a pilot imple-

9 mentation of the application. The application was free to the agencies, and funding was made available to assist with the purchase of scanners and printers. A WASPC representative traveled the state providing the law enforcement community with an introduction to the application, providing dates for free training opportunities, and explaining the program to receive assistance with hardware purchases. On a yearly basis a SECTOR User Group meeting is held to discuss submitted requests for changes to the system and determine the prioritization of the requests. This group is comprised of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, local area system administrators, collision reviewers, and office support staff who are responsible for generating reports and fulfilling public disclosure requests. A master plan, which is critical input into the strategic planning for the application, is generated from the decisions of this user group. All SECTOR users are required to attend a two day sanctioned training class; this class is free to all law enforcement staff. All training materials and manuals are kept current with SECTOR application modifications. Communication of modifications to the application is distributed via ListServs to all users of the system. Describe why and how this collaborative effort is transferrable to other jurisdictions. All states issue citations to traffic violators and require collision reports for crashes. The citation information is used by law enforcement in the identification of areas that could benefit from emphasis patrols. The collision information is used by transportation agencies in the identification of potential highway or bridge work to reduce roadway dangers. Most states are researching potential electronic processes that will provide efficient, timely, and correct data to facilitate the needs of law enforcement and transportation entities. SECTOR replaces the need for paper based issuance of citations and collision reports. It provides an automated electronic service for completing the same task and is reserving community resources. SECTOR helped to streamline the process and reduce data entry issues caused by the states paper process it replaces, further eliminating the re-entering of data repeatedly in different databases. The adoption of the unique governance structure to manage and direct the future of SECTOR provides a cohesive team to review requests for modifications from the SECTOR user community, and regulators such as, legislature mandates or new federal regulations to determine priorities and feasibility of requests to direct modifications. The implementation of SECTOR has been a highly collaborative multi-agency effort. Projects of this magnitude require strong executive-level sponsorship and leadership, cooperative interagency governance, and stakeholder commitment from all engaging entities after the initial implementation. It is 9 also very important to solicit ongoing input and feedback from the user community to their key business requirements are met with the product. This, in turn, will instill confidence in the application and increases acceptance among the user community.

10 10 NASCIO All partner agencies need highly skilled application developers, server and architecture support staff, as well as and project managers. Statewide uniformity of collisions and citation reporting standardization is an effort that shall be required to maintain continuous growth with an application similar to SECTOR. Washington has a statewide court case management system which allowed one interface to be created and used by all courts. Without that individual courts would need to build interfaces to receive the tickets electronically.