Jackson and Ohio counties began using the Protection Order Registry in their courts today, making them the 70th and 71st Indiana counties to implement the software. But they won’t be the latest counties to begin using the Registry for long. St. Joseph County will go live on Jan. 12, following training for the Mishawaka Police Department, which begins today. All three counties completed their court and clerk training for the POR in mid- to late-December.

In addition to training the Mishawaka P.D. this week, JTAC’s POR staff will be delivering additional training to new staff and new courts in Marion, Floyd, and Tippecanoe counties.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2009, data from juvenile delinquency cases can be sent directly to the DCS Indiana Child Welfare Information System. This information flow will better serve at-risk children and help provide compliance with HEA 1001 which requires the state to pay for child placement services instead of local counties. The new application can also be used for IV-E eligibility determination and federal reporting requirements.

Several Probation Officers and Chief Probation Officers from around the state have assisted JTAC and DCS with program testing. Users will receive an email prior to January 1 with login information and the application will be available beginning Jan. 1.

The application includes a Help Menu with a quick reference guides, detailed user manual and video tutorials.

Floyd County is scheduled to be the first new county to begin using Odyssey in the new year. JTAC staff is working with Floyd County court staff to complete the process of converting existing court data and to train users. As with all Odyssey courts, once the system is live, public information on cases will be accessible 24/7 free of charge through the Indiana Supreme Court’s website.

JTAC will be in Floyd County on 12/30 to train officers from the Floyd County Sherriff’s Department and the New Albany Police Department to use the electronic Citation and Warning System software application. JTAC will also distribute 24 scanner and printer sets to these agencies so that they can scan driver licenses and vehicle registrations and print tickets at the roadside. Funding for the scanners and printers was awarded through a grant from the Department of Transportation in order to coordinate the deployment of Odyssey CMS with the deployment of eCWS. There is no cost to deploy eCWS to law enforcement agencies.

JTAC Help Desk staff have assisted almost 2,800 people since a new tracking system was instituted in late May. The most frequent topic callers have questions about is the Protection Order Registry, with 1,144 calls received. The ICOR (Indiana Courts Online Reports) program was second with 595 calls answered and the Odyssey Case Management System was third with 548 inquiries.

The Help Desk is staffed from 8-5:30 Monday through Friday. Just call 1.888.ASK.JTAC toll free or email help@jtac.in.gov.

Now used in 69 Indiana Counties, court staff are not the only ones benefiting from the Protection Order Registry.

JTAC staff is training law enforcement officers as well as court staff in St. Joseph County. Authorized law enforcement officers will be able to access the registry 24/7 to see if an order is active and if it has been served.

Stakeholders in Ohio County will also begin training to use the registry next week.

Since Odyssey went live in two counties in December of 2007, the number of people accessing public records through the Indiana Supreme Court’s website continues to grow with more than 7,000 different users each month.

December 8 set a new one-day record when 928 unique users went to Odyssey’s public website to check a court file.

Public records from Franklin Township Small Claims Court in Marion County are now available online thanks to the Odyssey Case Management System. Records from this court, Center and Washington Township Small Claims Courts in Marion County and trial courts in Monroe, Warren and Tipton counties can be viewed without charge 24/7. Records from DeKalb County should be available in January.

To access public court data, go online to courts.IN.gov.

Staff that use JTAC’s INcite to transmit infractions to the BMV now have access to more information, and easier to use reports. Some of the highlights include:

• No more separate tabs for different parts of the driver record - they are all listed in one report.
• License types are now correctly interpreted, and will no longer default to Agricultural CDL.
• Suspension histories now include much needed case number information. The old lookup did not provide this, and courts had a hard time telling if a suspension was for their court.
• Courts can see the entire case number for the suspension which should assist them in entering matching Payment/Reopen SR16s to close suspensions.

The old driver license lookup is still available through the Edit SR16 form ‘DLLookup’ button. This will eventually point to the new DL Lookup as we upgrade the Search SR16, New SR16, and Edit SR16 forms to match current BMV SR16 forms and include the OWI fields.

We anticipate upgrading these additional forms within the next month.

2008 - Year in Review. On December 9, JTAC made its final 2008 presentation to the monthly stakeholders meeting held at our office in Indianapolis.

The presentation highlights the milestones in court technology that have been reached this year, including the beginning of the second phase of Odyssey CMS implementation, the growing use of the public access website, new modules and enhancements to Odyssey, and advances related to JTAC’s many other technology projects.

Launch the presentation.