From the Raleigh News and Observer (12/17/08): A legislative oversight committee on Tuesday blasted the state's court system for poor management of computer projects that routinely run years behind schedule.
The report so exasperated state Sen. Daniel Clodfelter — who described himself as the court system’s biggest ally at the legislature — that the Charlotte Democrat suggested that the General Assembly strip computer operations from court administrators and let another agency manage the systems.
“If this was a private enterprise, it would be placed in bankruptcy or receivership,” Clodfelter said. “This is appalling.”
Some of the computer projects have an impact on public safety, such as a magistrate system to track and issue arrest warrants. Others would decrease drudgery for clerks; for example, it would let them drop a 1980s system and enter case data on a modern Web-based network.
The report examined six court computer programs; all are behind schedule. Computer officials at the Administrative Office of the Courts cannot put a completion date on four projects started in 2005 or 2006.
Another program, NCAWARE, was featured in a recent News & Observer series on the state’s troubled probation system. The statewide warrant system will let officers print arrest warrants in the field and give magistrates full information on all warrants and orders for arrest.
The $13 million program, started in 2000, was supposed to be running statewide in July 2004. Court officials expect it to be running statewide in September 2010. It is currently operating in one county.
“Thirteen million dollars, eight years and one pilot county,” Clodfelter said, raising his voice. “I don’t think we have a [darn] thing to show for it.”
Ralph Walker, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, said that management of the computer systems should stay with court officials.
Walker disagreed with large pieces of the report. He said he has never heard from unhappy users of court computer systems, which would include clerks, prosecutors, magistrates and other law enforcement officials. He blamed IBM for the implosion of a project that would allow district attorneys to share documents with defense attorneys electronically. And Walker said the General Assembly has not funded these projects sufficiently.
“The key is an even, dedicated source of funding,” Walker said.
The Administrative Office of the Courts has had a steady stream of computer revenue apart from General Assembly appropriations. The courts have collected $16 million since December 2002 for selling court records to private vendors. The vendors repackage the data to make it user-friendly, and then sell the public records for a profit.
The courts do not make criminal records available to the public on the Internet. Citizens wishing to look up court records must use antiquated computer terminals at the county courthouse.
The N.C. Department of Correction, on the other hand, receives criminal records from the court system and makes them freely available on its Web site. It now lists records for more than a million criminal offenders.
Walker got an opportunity Tuesday to hear from irate users of court systems, including the state’s prosecutors.
Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore complained about the document-sharing system, which is now back to square one after IBM was bumped from the project.
“We have two-and-a-half years and nothing to show for it,” Moore said. “They have no idea of what the solution is.”
District Attorney Tom Keith of Winston-Salem seconded Moore’s complaint, citing a bumper sticker popular in prosecutors’ offices across the state: “DAs don’t fight crime, they fight the AOC.”