NCJ Number
200023
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 30 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2003 Pages: 106-109
Date Published
April 2003
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the Arrest to Arraignment Monitor system used by Queens County, New York District Attorney’s offices.
Abstract
Queens County arrests, totaling more than 50,000 last year, are being processed more quickly. Queens County has the fastest arrest to arraignment time of any county in New York City. An arrest last year took 18.2 hours to get arraigned in Queens County. The citywide average last year ranged from 19.6 to 24.7 hours. Before using the system, Queens County’s arrest to arraignment time was 19.1 hours. Overall efficiency has been improved. The Arrest to Arraignment Monitor tracks all arrests made in the past 48 hours. Without the need to track down the status of arrest, intake staff members are better able to focus on the legal issues involved in drafting complaints. An interactive complaint process was initiated in 2000 in each of the 16 New York Police Department’s precincts and is linked to headquarters. Because it is a shared system, it can be interactively viewed and edited by both the arresting officer and assigned assistant district attorney. The Arrest to Arraignment Monitor application allows the district attorney’s office to maintain understanding of what is happening in this decentralized process. About 600 people have access to the approximately one million cases in the database using the office’s various applications. These applications range from case inquiry programs to sophisticated crime mapping programs. In addition to receiving arrest-related data from the police department, the Queens County District Attorney’s Office receives court data from the Office of Court Administration and jail-related data from the jail system. Future plans include sharing complaint and indictment charge data with the courts.