Criminal Information
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If you have issues viewing or accessing this file contact us at NCJRS.gov. ._-- -------- THE LEGIS~l\Q~E - STATE OF NEW YORK ~,,-.. ~~ 1'~, 138695 U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice This document has been reproduced exaclly as received from the fh~rson or organization originating It. Points of view or opinions stated In IS document are those of the authors and do not necessarily ra resent the official position or policies of the National Institute of JUStlC~. Permission to reproduce this copyrighted material has been granted by . New ~or~ State/Legislative Comm~ss~on on Expenditure to t~~MiJn~F6rlmlnal Justice Aefefence Service (NCJRS). F'further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires pe'mlssion o the cOPYright owner. ' Criminal Justice Information Systems Program Audit February 1992 STATE OF NEW YORK LEGISLATIVE COMMISSION ON EXPENDITURE REVIEW 111 WASHINGTON AVENUE· - ALBANY, NEW YORK 12210-2277 518-455-7410 FAX 518-449·5907 SHELDON SILVER JAMES J. HAAG Chairman Acting Director TARKY LOMBARDI, Jr. Vice Chairman MEMBERS RALPH J. MARINO Temporary President, Senate SAULWEPRIN Speaker, Assemb1y TARKY LOMBARDI, Jr. Chairman, Senate Finance SHELDON SILVER Chairman, Assemb1y Ways and Means JAMES R. TALLON, Jr. Assembly Majority Leader RONALD B. STAFFORD Senate Deputy Majority Leader MANFRED OHRENSTEIN Senate Minority Leader CLARENCE D. RAPPLEYEA, Jr. Assembly Minority Leader DONALD M. HALPERIN Minority Member, Senate Finance JOHN C. COCHRANE Minority Member, Assembly Ways and Means DAVID S. MACK Partner, The Mack Company RICHARD A. BERNSTEIN Chairman and CEO Western Publishing Group, Inc. t criminal justice information systems. SIFECS was intended to realize these improvements through in creased automation, improved data quality and more Criminal data exchange among criminal justice agencies. Justice SIFECS progress toward its three goals has had both successes and failures. On the positive side, auto Information mation oflocal criminal justice agencies' operations was Systems enhanced by SIFECS information systems while an automated fingerprint identification system has pro vided law enforcement with an important crime solving tool. ASIFECS supported information system increased the amount and timeliness of criminal history informa tion in New York City. Relative to data exchange, standard data definitions were widely accepted in the law enforcement community while SIFECS developed the structure for a consolidated State criminal justice telecommunication system. These successes were tem pered by delays in implementing the fingerprint identi fication system and in consolidating State criminal jus tice telecommunications including linkages between Program Audit criminal justice agencies and State criminal justice data February 1992 bases. Also significant problems remain in the com pleteness of criminal history information outside New York City. Insufficient interagency cooperation and coordination has adversely affected the telecommunica tions and criminal history information projects and must be overcome iffurther criminal justice information SUM::MARY AND CONCLUSIONS system improvements are to be fully realized. New York's criminal justice system encompasses PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND nine State agencies and thousands of local agencies including the courts, police and sheriffs departments, AUDrr SCOPE district attorneys, public defenders, probation depart ments and local correctional facilities. In 1989, this SIFECS formally began in 1985-86 under the over system handled 1.1 million arrests, 653,978 arrest case sight of the State Division of Criminal Justice Services filings, 78,377 felony indictments, 26,046 State prison (DCJS). DCJS worked with many State and local crimi sentences, 53,688 probation sentences and 143,510 ad naljustice agencies developing and overseeing program missions to coUnty jails. implementation to achieve the following goals: Given this substantial volume of work, the ability of -To automate and streamline the administra criminal justice agencies to accurately collect, store and tive aspects of criminal justice agencies; transmit information in a timely manner is crucial. Decisions about bail, case disposition and subsequent -To improve the quality of information pro sentencing depend upon the information contained in vided by State criminal justice agencies; and documents such as criminal· histories, arrest reports, ~ and pre-sentence reports. -To promote the exchange of data among crimi naljustice agencies. Responding to a 1982 report criticizing New York State's criminal justice information systems, the Gover From 1985-86 to 1989-90, SIFECS received $54.6 nor proposed and the Legislature approved the Systems million of appropriations and expended $38.9 million. Improvements for Enhanced Community Safety Pro The underspending was principally due to the failure of gram (SIFECS) in 1985-86. This audit reviews the the State Automated Fingerprint Identification System progress made by SIFECS in improving State and local to progress as quickly as anticipated so that $10.3 S-1 million was not spent and a reduction of $4.3 million from appropriations to the State Division ofthe Budget's CHARTS·1 •allocation. SIFECS EXPENDITURES BY OBJECTIVE SIFECS funded a variety of State and local projects 1985·86 TO 1989·90 to realize its three principal goals. Chart S-l and Table S-l divide SIPECS expenditures by goal and by agency. Automation and Projects whose primary goals were quality of informa Administrative tion ($20.0 million) and data exchange ($7.9 million) Streamlining consumed 72 percent of total expenditures. As Table S- $2,951,137 (7.6%) 1 demonstrates, SIFECS funds were expended by eight ~ agencies. DCJS (26 percent), project support (21 per cent) and the Department of Correctional Services (17 percent) expended almost two-thirds ofprogram dollars. Reflecting the diversity ofSIFECS funding, we used several audit methods. W~ conducted case studies of , ~, selected State agency projects (Exhibit S-I) through interviews, data requests and document analyses supple mented by field work. 'ro assess SIFECS support for local criminal justice agencies, we visited nine counties and New York City observing program operations, inter viewing representatives of 68 criminal justice agencies and gathering documentation on SIFECS local impact. In addition, we assessed six SIFECS local information TABLE S·1 STATE AGENCY SIFECS EXPENDITURES Percent of Agency Expenditures Total Expendit~s Division of Criminal Justice Services $9,916,763 25.5% Project Supporta 8,118,448 20.9 Department of Correctional Services 6,535,319 16.8 Division of State Police 4,227,448 10.9 CRIMNETb 3,826,607 9.8 Division of Parole 3,041,094 7.8 Division for Youth 1,209,887 3.1 State Commission of Correction 802,159 2.1 Department of Probation and Correctional Alternatives 769,327 2.0 Office of COUlt Administration 468,415 1.2 Total $38,915,467 100.1% aProject Support Tepresents DCJS expenditures for SIFECS project support staff and local assistance. -bCRIMNET is the Criminal Justice Telecommunications Network. S-2 EmmIT S-I SIFECS STATE INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROJECTS EVALUATED 1985·86 TO 1989·90 Agency-Project Expenditures Overview DOCS-Mainframe Acquisition and $5,720,780 Mainframe was acquired and PMS was operational. Population Management System (PMS) DOCS did not complete evaluation measures on PMS software. nOP-Development of Management In- 2,875,676 Main system is operational in select offices around formation System State. Of two prototypes, one was sllccessful in provid ing timely information about parole violators while the second documenting parole officer contacts was aban doned. DCJS-Remedial Efforts to Improve Dis- 2,545,134 Three projects collecting or verifying disposition infor position Reporting mation were somewhat successful though efforts to collect missing dispositions from 1978 to 1984 were abandoned as not cost effective. DCJS-OCA Criminal Records Informa- 468,415 CRIMS provided increased disposition information. How tion Management System (CRIMS) ever, a lack of sufficient testing and documentation contributed to high error rates after implementation. DCJS-State Automated Fingerprint 6,568,914 SAFIS helped law enforcement agencies identify SUI;! Identification System (SAFIS) pects from crime scene prints. System elements were delayed from one to three years because of over optimil? tic schedules and vendor staffing problems. DCJS-State Criminal Justice Telecom- 3, 826 ,607 State agencies' linkage into shared telecommunications munications Network (CRIMNET) pathway grew slowly until 1990-91. Direct access of criminal justice agencies to State criminal justice data bases ran into technical problems. systems. We also surveyed the police departments and State Agencies localjudges in the nine counties and all users ofSIFECS software for probation departments and district attor SIFECS entered into agreements with six State ney offices. agencies to fund improvements in agency information systems. SIFECS projects were governed by agree STATE AND LOCAL AUTOMATION ments between DCJS and the agency specifying the scope, time schedule, reporting requirements and mea This section reviews SIFECS programs to increase sures to evaluate the project's impact on agency opera automation in State and local criminal justice agencies. tions. Technical assistance provided by DCJS varied 8-3 widely among the a:gencies. However, the agencies were rates of 28 percent for Personnel Management