McLean County Sheriff -- Pantagraph Article

Daily Pantagraph Article Sunday February 17, 2002

Officials say worth high cost By Bob Holliday PANTAGRAPH STAFF BLOOMINGTON - McLean County may have one of the finest integrated criminal justice systems in the nation, but it isn't coming cheap. When completed next year, the system is expected to cost about $6.5 million slightly more than $1 million above estimates and nearly two years late. Despite the cost and time overruns, McLean County Administrator John Zeunik believes it's money and time well spent. The state-of-the-art system re-places the time-consuming and labor-intensive practice of rekeying information from office to office. In the end, it will save the county about $1 million a year in personnel, time and material costs, Zeunik said. The savings result because once information has been keyed into the system at the Sheriff's Office, for in-stance, it doesn't have to be relayed at the state's attorney and then the circuit clerk offices. In addition, the system allows police agencies - with the click of a mouse - to share mug shots and police reports. The criminal justice end of the system should conclude this spring when the county's probation department goes on-line. When civil cases are incorporated by late next year, the system will be complete. While some Illinois counties have streamlined their justice systems for less money, comparisons are difficult because each system is unique. " We're the only county in Illinois doing a fully integrated sys-tem," said Dave Kistner, support services commander for the McLean County Sheriff's Department. "We were one of the first in the U.S. to attempt this." In the early to mid 1990s, there was no off-the-shelf soft-ware doing everything McLean County authorities wanted, forcing the county to build a sys-tem from the ground up. " It's more expensive to develop from scratch, but sometimes that's what you need," said Craig Danekas, director of communications and Information Technology in Winnebago County, which spent about $1.5 million integrating its system. " It's a balancing act between money and functionality," said Danekas, adding that while his county found software off-the--shelf, the Winnebago system isn't fully integrated because the Sheriff's Office is on a separate system interfaced with the remainder of the system. "We have to re-key some information here and there," said Tom Seckler, head of the Infor-mation Technology Department in Peoria County. He didn't have costs for the Peoria system be-cause it was done in-house and in stages. He agreed finding software that fits all needs is difficult. "You either conform or you do what McLean County did," he said. Which is to streamline the en-tire system. " We have one program that we all use rather than a mesh-work of little programs," Kistner said, adding that the McLean County system has been studied by government officials from Sangamon, Cook, Lake and McHenry counties in Illinois as well as by government officials from Australia, Russia and South Africa Tazewell County administrator Dale Claus viewed the McLean County system earlier this year and was impressed. " The McLean County system is the most fully integrated we've seen," he said. Helping make the project possible is a unique public-private partnership with TRW of Denver, Colo. While TRW gave the county a break on its hourly rate, TRW benefits by using the McLean County project as a model. It has marketed models in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas, said TRW representative Todd Thompson. Before the streamlining, information was sometimes re-keyed 42 times as a case made its way through the system. Besides being labor intensive, that increased errors, Thompson said.

Daily Pantagraph Article
Sunday February 17, 2002

Officials say
worth high cost
By Bob Holliday
PANTAGRAPH STAFF

BLOOMINGTON - McLean County may have one of the finest integrated criminal justice systems in the nation, but it isn't coming cheap.

When completed next year, the system is expected to cost about $6.5 million slightly more than $1 million above estimates and nearly two years late.

Despite the cost and time overruns, McLean County Administrator John Zeunik believes it's money and time well spent.

The state-of-the-art system re-places the time-consuming and labor-intensive practice of rekeying information from office to office. In the end, it will save the county about $1 million a year in personnel, time and material costs, Zeunik said.

The savings result because once information has been keyed into the system at the Sheriff's Office, for in-stance, it doesn't have to be relayed at the state's attorney and then the circuit clerk offices.

In addition, the system allows police agencies - with the click of a mouse - to share mug shots and police reports.

The criminal justice end of the system should conclude this spring when the county's probation department goes on-line. When civil cases are incorporated by late next year, the system will be complete.

While some Illinois counties have streamlined their justice systems for less money, comparisons are difficult because each system is unique.

" We're the only county in Illinois doing a fully integrated sys-tem," said Dave Kistner, support services commander for the McLean County Sheriff's Department. "We were one of the first in the U.S. to attempt this."

In the early to mid 1990s, there was no off-the-shelf soft-ware doing everything McLean County authorities wanted, forcing the county to build a sys-tem from the ground up.
" It's more expensive to develop from scratch, but sometimes that's what you need," said Craig Danekas, director of communications and Information Technology in Winnebago County, which spent about $1.5 million integrating its system.

" It's a balancing act between money and functionality," said Danekas, adding that while his county found software off-the--shelf, the Winnebago system isn't fully integrated because the Sheriff's Office is on a separate system interfaced with the remainder of the system.

"We have to re-key some information here and there," said Tom Seckler, head of the Infor-mation Technology Department in Peoria County. He didn't have costs for the Peoria system be-cause it was done in-house and in stages.

He agreed finding software that fits all needs is difficult. "You either conform or you do what McLean County did," he said. Which is to streamline the en-tire system.

" We have one program that we all use rather than a mesh-work of little programs," Kistner said, adding that the McLean County system has been studied by government officials from Sangamon, Cook, Lake and McHenry counties in Illinois as well as by government officials from Australia, Russia and South Africa

Tazewell County administrator Dale Claus viewed the McLean County system earlier this year and was impressed. " The McLean County system is the most fully integrated we've seen," he said. Helping make the project possible is a unique public-private partnership with TRW of Denver, Colo.

While TRW gave the county a break on its hourly rate, TRW benefits by using the McLean County project as a model. It has marketed models in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas, said TRW representative Todd Thompson.

Before the streamlining, information was sometimes re-keyed 42 times as a case made its way through the system. Besides being labor intensive, that increased errors, Thompson said.