FL- Fugitive tracking software coming to Lee courts

9-9-2008 Florida:

Lee County will become the first in Florida to implement a computer program that will alert court personnel if a defendant with an active warrant from any county enters the courthouse for a hearing.

Court officials signed a contract late last week with Metatomix, a Boston-based computer software development company, to create a program that will connect court dockets with judge's calendars, state and national databases to check for warrants. It is supposed to be operational by Nov. 1.

The $150,000 pilot program is designed to prevent a similar situation to that of Fort Myers police Officer Andrew Widman, who was fatally shot July 18 after breaking up a fight. Widman's killer, Abel Arrango, had a warrant out of Collier County - that had called for his arrest - and he had appeared in a Lee County courtroom since it was issued weeks before shooting Widman.

G. Keith Cary, 20th Judicial Circuit Chief Judge, said Lee will be the first county in the state with this type of system.

"This is going to be state-of-the-art," he said. "You're going to see this in every county in Florida."

Lee County sheriff's officials have said they don't have the staffing or time to conduct a national background check on every person who appears for court in the Lee County Justice Center, so they check only warrants issued out of Lee County.

Collier County sheriff's officials said they didn't know Arrango had been arrested in Lee County, but would have alerted them that they were searching for him had they known.

The miscommunication between agencies and criticism from the public prompted court officials to find a solution.

"I think everyone said, 'We've got to get this done,'" said court spokeswoman Sheila Mann. "Obviously, this has great potential benefits."

Cary said the program will link 13 judge's calendars, court dockets, the Lee County Clerk of Courts office and sheriff's databases to state and national databases, including the Florida Department of Corrections. The program will run overnight before a morning docket and flag people who are expected to appear in court the next day.

"This fix had to be done," Cary said.

Fort Myers interim police Chief Doug Baker said any step taken to track down people with warrants is a good step.

"It saves a lot of money doing it this way, too," Baker said. "Law enforcement spends a lot of money trying to find these people."

Cary said the Lee County Sheriff's Office contributed $50,000 for the program, while the court system added another $100,000. Cary said court administrators will petition Gov. Charlie Crist's office to reimburse the cost of the $150,000.

In a time of budget cuts, Cary said agencies had to come up with the money to create this program.

"We made it an internal policy to find the money in the budget," Cary said.

Lee County Sheriff's Col. Michael Waite said finding the money was necessary.

"You cannot put a price on losing another law enforcement officer," he said. "Preventing this from happening again - you can't put a price on that."

Court officials said they will begin training on the program in October with a goal of implementing the software Nov. 1. If all goes well, Cary said, the program will work in all the circuit's five counties next year.

That will cost $450,000, Mann said. She said administrators will seek state and federal grants and contributions from agencies throughout each of the five counties.

"I don't want to see it end here," Baker said. "This is going to be a long journey." ..News Source.. by PAT GILLESPIE