The Criminal Justice System of Ohio stores information of offenders, crimes, victims, cases, suspects and property. In order to effectively share and manage this huge amount of information all through the state, the supreme Court of Ohio, the Attorney General’s office and the Governor’s office have created the Criminal Justice Information System in the year 1994.
As of now the Criminal Justice Information System is coordinated by the Criminal Justice Services. It also works towards developing automated systems in order to increase the sharing of criminal information all across the state. The board created for the development of CJIS or Criminal Justice Information System, includes representatives from state agencies, regional reporting centers and the criminal justice association. The board gets together twice a month to:
- Develop and review the procedures and policies Ohio’s criminal justice information systems;
- Monitoring and reviewing the development of the new systems under development.
- Indentifying the challenges faced by law enforcement officers with the current CJIS;
- Finding ways to make CJIS more accessible and
- Providing technical and management expertise for the tactical initiatives planned for CJIS.
Two major plans for CJIS has been completed by the board since its inception in 1994. The first plan included the development of the computerized criminal history system, which would make the system more accessible.
The second plan included as many as 70 different projects, which the board thought was vital to increase the quality, timeliness, accuracy and accessibility of the justice information systems. This plan was collectively called the CJIS improvement plan.
Incident Based Reporting System
The incident based reporting system of Ohio is the states own version of the Federal Bureau of investigations incident based reporting system. The OIBRS is a voluntary organization, which allows law enforcement agencies in OH to submit criminal statistics to the state government and federal government in an automated way. Many parts of Ohio have implemented the use of OIBRS and have stopped using the older program called UCR or Summary reporting process.
The OIBRS is not limited to providing statistical information of crime in Ohio to the FBI, but it also aims at benefitting the various law enforcement agencies that partner with this program. The repository and mapping of crime has been upgraded to better quality levels by OCJS. As a result of the upgrade, the law enforcements agencies find it easier to navigate through the data provided by the system. Advanced searches can now be made on the data, which is highly helpful in creating meaningful analysis of crime in any part of Ohio. The data processed by crime mapping is also beneficial for analysis. Along with providing easy access to criminal statistics, the Office of Criminal Justice Services also provides training to state agencies which are working towards automating their process of reporting and recording. Software vendors who would like to become OIBRS certified also receive assistance form OCJS.
Law Enforcement Officer’s Toolkit
This is a software program developed by the office of Criminal Justice Services in Ohio. It is used for the management of records by the law enforcement agencies in the state.
The LEOT is capable of providing advanced search capabilities. It effectively manages investigator notes, property room items, crash reports, citations, arrests and offense reports. Law enforcement officers can easily access it while on road by using there laptops. This allows them to enter information, reports and investigator notes in real time, reducing data loss due to human error. The software can also be used by the sheriff’s office and police departments to be directly connected to OIBRS and FBI’s electronic crime reporting.