Domestic Violence Information System
In 1998, ASG was funded by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy to develop a prototype web-based system for managing and providing ready access to document images of police incident reports and orders of protection for domestic violence cases. The Domestic Violence Information System was a new system to help coordinate the criminal justice community to address, prevent, and reduce the problem of domestic violence by enhancing communication among police, prosecutors, and courts to ensure victim safety and offender accountability.
The system benefited the criminal justice community's ability to respond effectively to domestic violence cases because it expedited the reporting of incidents, improved accessibility to orders of protection, and promoted monitoring of case histories by tracking prior abuse incidents. It also was an innovative, affordable, and efficient solution for these justice agencies. The system was only funded for deployment and testing at three police departments out of more than 260 in South Carolina.
How It Works
System technology was based on the personal computer, the common fax machine, and the World Wide Web. The system itself was maintained on a central server equipped with a large relational database. Criminal justice agencies could use personal computers with Internet service and web browsers to access the system, and fax machines to submit information to the system. Since most individual agencies already owned such equipment, the Domestic Violence Information System was affordable because it required the purchase of little or no new, expensive equipment.
Using a password supplied by a system administrator, a user logged on to the Domestic Violence Information System website. On a web form, the user entered and submitted specific index information from the police incident report or order of protection, such as the case number, incident location, and name and address of the victim.
The system created a fax cover page with a barcode that contained the index information, and the user printed this cover page. The user then faxed the cover page, followed by the original police incident report or order of protection to the document server.
The document server received the fax, returned a confirmation receipt, and used the barcode information on the fax cover page to store the document image in the database. Thus, the system was extremely efficient because very little information was retyped from the original police incident report or order of protection.
Importance of Document Images
After the system stored the document image, a user such as a police officer, judge, or victim, could perform a search for the index information to view the original document image on the Domestic Violence Information System website. The user could access a particular document by entering the case number, or a criminal justice user could perform a broad search using more general index information.
The system’s storage of the actual document image allowed better service to the victim and accountability of the offender because the original report narrative could be easily accessed. Victims and criminal justice personnel also benefited because these important legal documents could be retrieved from any computer with web access whenever and wherever they were needed.
An investigator also could use the Domestic Violence Information System website to track prior abuse incidents and monitor case histories. The user could perform a search for the address of the incident or for the name or address of a victim or offender to retrieve dated lists of incident reports and orders of protection corresponding to the search query. The user then could access any of the original documents in the list to study the history of a particular case of domestic violence. This feature allowed a criminal justice representative to understand and therefore to respond properly to the needs of a victim of domestic violence.
The Domestic Violence Information System used some of the most advanced, powerful, and state-of-the-art development tools available on the current technology market. The document server used Microsoft Windows NT and was developed in C/C++ using Microsoft Visual Studio. The server interfaced with an Oracle relational database, an extremely secure and powerful development tool. The system also used Kofax software to scan document images and interpret barcodes.
Project Success
The system was tested and positively reviewed by three criminal justice agencies in South Carolina. The project funded law enforcement personnel to receive training to use the system, along with education in proper methods of domestic violence response and case management. The information system was evaluated by the consistent utilization and positive review contributed by users at participating agencies. More than twelve hundred domestic violence documents were stored in the database.
The Domestic Violence Information System was a successful component in the advancement of criminal justice community response to domestic violence. By electronically storing and organizing police incident reports and orders of protection, the system enabled a victim, judge, or police officer to obtain images of these documents from any Internet-connected personal computer whenever they were needed. The system was an innovative, affordable, and efficient solution to enhance and expedite communication among law enforcement, court systems, and victim service providers to benefit victims of domestic violence and hold offenders accountable for their actions.
