Reconsidering CourTools Measure #6: Reliability & Integrity of Case Files
How do we measure the accuracy
and completeness of an electronic case file?
Harris County (Houston, Texas)
Court Business Intelligence System
Data Information Knowledge Decisions Presented by:
Harry Leverette Assistant to the Court Manager
Harris County Courts [email protected]
Harris County Court Manager’s Office (Houston, Texas)
Harris County Criminal Courts at Law (15)
~80,000 misdemeanor filings/yr
13,334 active cases pending today
Harris County Justice Courts (16)
~550,000 general jurisdiction filings/yr
529,233 active cases pending today
Session Conundrum
• Court Business Intelligence System
• and what else??
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Session Solution
• Reliability and Integrity of Case Records
• B.I. and Data Quality Management
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
0
250,000
500,000
750,000
1,000,000
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2010
Justice Court Cases with Suspect Data: 2003-10
Session Overview
• Business Intelligence and CourTools
• H.C. Court Business Intelligence system
• Data Quality as Court Business Intelligence
• Managing Data Quality for E-Case Records
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
What is Business Intelligence? • Statistical measures of the status and the performance trends
of a business
• The ability to apprehend the interrelationships of presented facts in such a way as to guide action towards a desired goal
• Reports
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
What is Court Business Intelligence? • If we created a new northwest Harris county juvenile justice court for Class C offenses, how big
would its caseload be?
• How much will it cost us if the juror fee is increased from $6 to $40 per day from the second day on?
• How many low risk defendants are being detained prior to trial?
• How many disposed cases still have an open warrant filing?
• Why are there so many more cases on my docket than on Court 99’s?
• How much revenue came from referrals to a collections vendor, and how much of that revenue did the County retain?
• Are Harris County LEAs filing traffic citations equally within JP court precincts as promised?
• What’s the recidivism rate for first offense DWI defendants?
• Do defendants with court appointed attorneys receive the same justice as those with hired counsel?
• How many contempt hearings are held each month?
• And what’s the Average Time to Disposition for traffic cases in J.P. Court 4-1?
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Reporting Problems
• Access to legacy data
– extracts, priorities, and repetitive costs
• Complexity of the data
• Consistency of the results
• Where is that report??
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Reporting Solution
• A system wholly dedicated to the production, distribution and management of reports
• On-line, on-demand delivery of automated reports
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
CourTools
• “Top Ten” set of activity and performance measures from the NCSC (2005)
• Survey-driven measures – Access and Fairness, Effective Use of Jurors, Court
Employee Satisfaction
• Data-driven measures
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
CourTools
Statistical analysis of court case records
• Clearance Rates
• Time to Disposition
• Age of Active Pending Caseload
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
CourTools (KPIs)
Court Business Intelligence
Court Case Management vs. Court Business Intelligence
OLTP
operations
OLAP
analytics
automated data
transfers
On-Line Transaction Processing On-Line Analytical Processing
Court Case Management System
Court Business Intelligence System
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Reporting Solution
• Court Case Management system is for clerks
• Court Business Intelligence system is for judges, court managers, and policy makers throughout the justice community
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Tactics
• Private-to-Public approach (2007-11)
–Data warehousing (with MS SQL Server DBMS)
• Data-driven (bottom up) approach
– No expensive (top down) reporting software (e.g.,
PerformancePoint, Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion, etc.)
– Reports produced instead with SRSS (SQL Reporting
Services)
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
ETL
Justice Data Warehouse
CMS
Midnight 3:40 a.m. 4:30 a.m.
Star
Schema
Database
4:30:20 a.m.
Data
Cube
Staging Area
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Court Business Intelligence System
System Features • Replication of case records into a reporting
database system (refreshed nightly)
• Insulates OLTP from OLAP (system performance)
• Standardized business logic (formulas)
• Re-useable dimensions (e.g., Offense Category, Defendant Status, Attorney Type, etc.)
• Self-aggregating
• Creates a history of measures (trend analysis)
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
More Features
• Supports 4/8 court divisions (73/99 courts)
• Automated, on-demand, web-based
• Interactive – Sortable
– Variable parameters (reusable dimensions)
– Drill-through to case records
– Export to Acrobat or Excel
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Caseload Report (1978)
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
15 filters for drill-down analysis
Reusable dimensions
Reusable dimensions
(Offense Category)
www.ccl.hctx.net
DWI Recidivism: Future Cases by Defendant Age
garbage in, garbage out
Reconsidering CourTools Measure #6: Reliability & Integrity of Case Files
How quickly can the (paper) file be retrieved? Does it meet
established standards for completeness and accuracy?
Who does what to ensure the accuracy and completeness of case files when paper records are no longer available?
How do we measure the accuracy and completeness of an electronic case file?
How do your case records look on the Internet?
Completeness and Accuracy
• Missing data
– Judgment entered with no Judgment Date
– Data validation solutions
• Erroneous data
– Trial date entered for the distant future
– 42 different spellings for Baytown, Texas
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Completeness and Accuracy
• Superfluous metadata
– 702 event codes; 277 never used
• Conflicting data
– Inactive cases with jail status
• Problem indicators
– Active case with no future setting
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Data Quality and Court Management
• Obstructs the timely disposition of cases
• Creates liability from “lost defendants”
• Distorts court management reports
• Exposes our problems on the Internet
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Proactive Data Quality Management
• Activity Logs Exception Reports
– 45 queries for examining the accuracy, completeness and status of individual court case records
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Docket and Caseload Exceptions
Proactive Data Quality Management
• Exception Reports
– “Suspect Data” exceptions
– Performance & status exceptions
• User’s Guide
– Kind, Description, Risks, Possible Causes, Fixes
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Proactive Data Quality Management
• Exception Reports
• User’s Guide
• Trend Analysis
• Report Distribution to Judges
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
“Suspect Data” Reporting in the Justice Courts
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
0
150,000
300,000
450,000
600,000
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
What you measure affects behavior
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
Data Quality Management for Courts
NCSC Notes from the Field
March, 2009
Data Information Knowledge Decisions
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
