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Prisoners Freed After Cops Struggle With New Records Software
itwbennett writes Police in Dallas are scrambling after difficulties using a new records management system caused more than 20 jail inmates, including a number of people charged with violent crimes, to be set free. The prisoners were able to get out of jail because police officers struggling to learn the new system didn't file cases on them within three days, as required by law.
...I'm actually supposed to be getting *out* of prison.
You're in the wrong line, dumbass! Let this dumbass through!
Sounds like a typical bollix-up: the system was a drastic change from the existing one and difficult to use, and has performance problems on top of that, but management still sent it live and turned the old system off without making sure everyone had thorough training. On top of that they didn't have any extra resources on hand to help with the extra workload as people learned the new program on the job and didn't have anybody familiar with the program on hand to help the users. End result: the entirely predictable train wreck occurred. But of course the management responsible for this will never be held accountable for it. Instead the blame will be put on "the software", instead of the management who signed off on the software being acceptable when it manifestly was not.
The damned thing keeps resisting and all their tried and true methods (bashing, shooting, tazering) just seem to make the problem worse.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's a good thing that the prisoners rights were respected, regardless of the problem being an IT one at root.
It's a bad thing that an IT problem is causing cops to be unable to file paperwork that would result in proper processing of prisoners
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Doesn't mean it's not stupid.
IT problems don't abridge that right. Police officers having a tough day don't abridge that right.
No, but they should have a backup system to meet the 3 day requirement, regardless of any IT issues.
What's that mythycal backup thing you speak of.
A word processor/printed file, or even legibly written handwritten file that is filed so as to be easily accessible, with instructions for its retrieval on the standard system until the file can be stored properly within the standard system?
i was going to mod up your captcha, but the mod points have been mistakenly set free!
You are correct that nothing abridges that right. (I take the highly deviant and unpopular line that rights are inalienable, that that is why we don't just call them permissions.)
To say that it is an unmitigated good is, though, perhaps not a conclusion you can safely draw. It carries the implication that all contributing causes were also good, which is self-evidently false. The right is good. The requirement that things be properly documented is good. The staffing levels are bad (police officers should be providing the raw information, not reconstructing it to fit a specific system - have data entry specialists handle data entry). The system sounds very very bad - and unstable (who wants HAL running a criminal justice system?).
Releasing the individuals was correct, but correct for the bad reason that every level of the system failed.
That they couldn't manage in three days what police in Britain were once expected to do within 24 hours (now expanded to 48, as computer technology has been added, which seems kinda weird) shows that the wrong people are doing work that is wrong. If a manual system could do the job in one day, a computer-based one should be faster. Yes, there's more complex analysis to be done, but mass spectrometers can be thrown into the back of a van and give you results in minutes. DNA analysis for a tiny handful of markers (typically 12 for criminology, versus the 150 often needed for genealogy) can be done in an hour, tops. In-the-field DNA sequencers designed to look for specific information can also be thrown into said van.
Actually searching and finding things is the slowest part, but you shouldn't be looking for evidence to convict someone, you should be looking for evidence in order to determine who it is who should be convicted. In that case, search and lab time should only ever precede an arrest, which means everything that matters will already be known and in the computer.
In that case, the only new information is that surrounding the arrest and any supplemental information provided by the suspect. Confirming that supplemental data should not be relevant to the case, if the case warranted bringing the person in at that point. Even if it is, you're looking at three or four hours in parallel with the data entry. Raw data is raw data, that can be delivered live from a mobile lab or detective, so it's merely the time to get there, find the supplemental evidence and run the analysis.
With a modern setup, the time between initial arrest and completing the filing should never exceed 6 hours. Three days is stupid.
If six hours isn't enough time to do everything, do more (much, much more) beforehand and parallelize the shit out of everything after. If you don't have the money, find it. If necessary, reduce coverage until you can afford it, then demand taxes pay to cover everyone else correctly. If a couple of extra people get robbed or murdered, you've reduced false convictions by far more than that, so there's a net reduction in deprivation and death. You trade a negligible bit of extra crime in the streets for a massive reduction in crime by cops and/or in prisons. You get a miniscule dash of extra cynicism in the populace, but carve vast chunks of cynicism and contempt within the constabulary.
Seems an acceptable price to pay in order to have acceptable cops and acceptable standards.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
" "was outdated, antiquated, not easily worked on, but it was familiar," Brown said. "This is a new system and very unfamiliar." "
this being said, I can't really see filing the charges as being more cumbersome than doing the paperwork for letting them go.
on top of that, once they do get around to filing the charges they'll need to go arrest them again. but many of the coppers just skipped the training and perhaps maybe, just maybe, didn't give a fuck if the charges were put into the system or not.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Well, they can hire you and you will work overtime for free. Between the work, coffee and donuts, they barely have time to file the reports, have day? You are assuming they just handle that case and nothing else.
Only labeling them terrorists does. Maybe they should have thought of that.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
damn automatic dictionary corrections...
It is what we in the business like to call requirements.
"The law is real simple," Judge Rick Magnis from the 283rd Judicial District Court told the paper. "The Constitution in America says you can't hold people without charges."
Except in Guantanamo.
It's even worse that the cops didn't escalate the issue after two days had passed and they were running out of time.
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After all, they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
What's to escalate? When the schedule flat out doesn't work, and your calls to customer service get handed over to a customer svc agent's voice mail, unless they want to talk to you, and they don't... that was what happened with us, I have no idea what happened with them... escalate doesn't help.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
> this being said, I can't really see filing the charges as being more cumbersome than doing the paperwork for letting them go.
I'm afraid it's not uncommon, especially at first. Handwritten documents have room for describing circumstances, many automated systems do not, or lack the necessary categories and wind up with the documents miscategorized or misdirected when first used. It's certainly common with trouble ticket and budget systems: I'm facing several such cases right now.
If you can't get support then whoever made the purchase signed up for the wrong SLA, escalating in that case would be to your superiors and not support
Scrambling
Struggling
"including a number of people charged with violent crimes"
Won't someone please think of the children?
What's to escalate? When the schedule flat out doesn't work, and your calls to customer service get handed over to a customer svc agent's voice mail, unless they want to talk to you, and they don't... that was what happened with us, I have no idea what happened with them... escalate doesn't help.
In that case, an intelligent man wouldn't just have called customer service. They would have called customer service and told them that if the software provider doesn't send help, twenty violent prisoners will get released, and the prison admin will give these prisoners the addresses of anyone they can find at software company to say "thank you" to them in person.
This wasn't an IT problem. This was a learning problem by people. IT is a tool. If you don't know how to use the tool, well, that's your own damn fault.
That said, if the LEO's weren't given adequate time to learn the new system, and/or there wasn't a grace period for use of the system, then that's the States fault.
And if it's the States fault, since the 'State' is a non-physical entity, nothing will be done about it.
That would be a threat. But no problems, 3 days later you'd be released and have their address.
From the ITWorld article:
Problems will likely crop up "for a few more weeks" as officers become fully familiarized with the software and fixes are applied, according to Brown.
So, if there are any banks that you've been thinking of robbin' or violence you've been wanting to commit, better make sure to get it done within the next few weeks.
What's that mythycal backup thing you speak of.
A mechanical typewriter a photocopier, and a manual courier to bring copies for manual filing to all concerned parties, if necessary.
Guantanamo, Cuba, that is.
Ok, technically he wrote "The Constitution in America", rather than "The Constitution of the United States", so yes, if you include north, south and central America, Cuba would be an exception (among many, I believe). But if you read it as the US Constitution (as likely was the intended meaning), Cuba is not really an exception, because Cuba was never a part of the United States.
Which, btw, is why Cuba was chosen in the first place.
You didn't think a test run was a good idea?
If you deploy new software where it does not improve the user experience, then it's valid for the userbase to punish that move to a reasonable extent.
Not to the end result in this article of course, but sharing the pain inflicted by 'change for change's sake' with those who inflict it makes a lot of sense. Sometimes there are requirements to be fulfilled that do matter that make life harder for the users which justify inflicting pain upon the userbase, but in my experience the vast majority of change is a false sense that something must evolve or else it is dead. That sentiment should be punished.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Why do you think violent criminals released from jail due to crappy software would be somehow mad at the software company?
If you don't file charges within the deadline, there *is* no paperwork required to let them go. That's the whole point. You need to file the paperwork to *keep* them.
I think it's ridiculous that they be imprisoned for that long without cases filed against them. This is how 3 months in solitary confinement with no charge happens.
Alright! Time for a crime spree! /Chester Turley
An audit found this after the murder of Corrections Chief a couple years ago by someone let out early. The error rate is mostly due the complexity of readjusting sentences for new infractions in prison and good behavior credit. The errors are both longer and shorter.
That assumes that "anyone they can find at software company" is anywhere near the jail.
Go on, citizen, stamp the vote card. R or D, your choice.
What about !@!& paper? The police ought to be able to file these things by paper within 24 hours. Electronically, it should get there in 5 minutes. An expedited form on paper is at the least, a requirement in the event of a blackout. Who are the idiots who came up with this "system" anyway?
If they only would have used an Apple product, or better yet an iPad, this never would have happened in the first place...
Texas cops used to just keep people locked away until they had their paperwork and in order. And if somebody spent a week there while they were working on it; oh well.
Management where I work (large non-profit daycare & before/after school) listened to someone who wanted to replace our main childcare database with a modified salesforce implementation. The result was clumsy, lots of extra data entry, and had hard-coded fields that didn't apply. It ended up getting ignored and dropped by all the end users.
Great post. I think there may be cases where 6 hours is pushing it, but you're absolutely right that 24 hours should be a limit. If people are getting arrested where it takes more than 24 hours to gather enough evidence to charge them, then the police should be doing more research and collecting more evidence BEFORE the arrest.
Suspect fell down the stairs.
Have gnu, will travel.
What a good idea make training on an essential system to do your job voluntary. Given it's the police I'm also going to assume that anyone who couldn't do their job because they didn't bother with the training is going to get promoted rather than sacked. And whomever decided to make it voluntary is also getting a promotion or two.
How can there not be a pen and paper backup? All someone has to do to get out of jail is arrange for the police IT systems to be offline for a few days after they are arrested? Now I realize most criminals aren't super villain masterminds but that seems silly. How did they manage to hold gangster types in the 1920s?!?
Given this is America if someone is released from jail due to this and assaults/murders someone is the software company going to feel the lawsuits? Or the police department? The officer who decided to skip training because it clashed with half price day at Dunkin' Donuts?
Republicans...
don't believe in punishing criminals.
I know I'm feeding a troll, but.. seriously? The political party most associated with the death penalty does not believe in punishing criminals?
If you've got a bone to pick with Republicans, that's fine. I know I've got plenty. But at least stick to actual facts instead of blatant lies.
They only believe in punishing _some_ criminals.
The poor ones, who get the death penalty. Not the rich ones who get to pay a small fine and then carry on.
Due process and speedy trial could be argued as including additional processing time due to a new records management system. Obviously a reasonable amount of time should be considered, I'd think that some additional time, especially for a violent crime, would not be considered unreasonable.
What's to escalate? When the schedule flat out doesn't work, and your calls to customer service get handed over to a customer svc agent's voice mail, unless they want to talk to you, and they don't... that was what happened with us, I have no idea what happened with them... escalate doesn't help.
For starters, they could have filed their paperwork without using the new software. It stands to reason there was a system in place before this upgrade. I'm sure they had a plan B, right? If not, then I hope they learned a lesson.
15 years ago this story would have been about how some buffoon had released prisoners because they put a tick in the radio button that said "not a prisoner."
lose != loose
Less regulation, more get out of jail free!
What's to escalate? When the schedule flat out doesn't work, and your calls to customer service get handed over to a customer svc agent's voice mail, unless they want to talk to you, and they don't... that was what happened with us, I have no idea what happened with them... escalate doesn't help.
1) Escalate to the purchasing decision-maker on your end.
2) As purchasing decision-maker, call one or more decision-makers on the other end. Service, but if you don't get through right away, then whoever at the company you have a relationship with (sales rep? development engineer?), who will know who to call.
3) If that fails, call and email company CEO. 3a) if that fails, company board of directors.
4) Document, document, document, succinctly, what occurred in terms of the company's response. If they are still being unhelpful, send them that document.
5) If they continue to be unhelpful, point out that it will be necessary to share said document in your press release about why prisoners are free.
6) If they continue to be unhelpful, do so. Run press release past your lawyers first to be sure you will win any defamation lawsuit to follow.
Why do you think violent criminals released from jail due to crappy software would be somehow mad at the software company?
Oh, the terror! "Emergency improve your implementation beyond what I probably paid for or else I'll send over fifteen guys to buy you beer!"
to hear the excuses why they couldnt do some data entry within 72 hours to make sure a violent criminal remained behind bars.