NCJ Number
205617
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 71 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2004 Pages: 167-168
Date Published
April 2004
Length
2 pages
Annotation
This article describes the features and benefits of Minnesota's CriMNet, a system that will give 1,100 police departments, sheriff's offices, jails, prosecutors, probation agencies, and other jurisdictions access to critical criminal justice information on a secure intranet.
Abstract
In linking the State's criminal justice information systems, CriMNet will allow authorized personnel to view information entered in a database anywhere in the State on a desktop or laptop computer; eventually, this can be done from a patrol car. The components of CriMNet that make it unique are the integration of local jurisdictions, which makes data from even small police departments available on State databases, and the partnership developed with the Minnesota business community. The Target Corporation and a trade association called the Minnesota Business Partnership have provided leadership, expertise, staff support, and funding to help the State develop CriMNet. After more than 5 years of development, the first pilot project has been launched; it incorporates nearly 600 users across the State, and 6 statewide databases are currently accessible through the CriMNet. These six databases contain information on court cases that are open, closed, or archived; offenders under supervision throughout the State; information used by the county and city attorney's offices to prepare documentation for filing criminal cases in the courts; information on every registered offender in the State; a repository of digital photographs taken at arrest or booking; and more than 50,000 prison records. Minnesota will soon be prepared to share CriMNet technology and lessons learned in the course of developing this project.