Justice Technology Modernization Project

The Cantrell Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) program includes an unprecedented $30-million commitment to overhauling technology in the City’s criminal justice system. Outdated hardware and software - in some cases dating back to the 1980’s - force agencies to rely on paper forms and in-person interactions for routine operations, leading to delays, mistakes, and waste.  Modernizing the parish’s court, jail, and law enforcement systems will cut time spent on manual paperwork, freeing police officers and other justice professionals to focus on protecting the community and delivering just outcomes. Case parties and the public at large will benefit from swifter justice and a reduction in the frustration and heartache often inherent in interactions with the justice system. 

By the end of ARPA funding in 2026, we aim to realize a world-class justice technology infrastructure.

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Explore This Page:

  Current Criminal Justice Tech Landscape   Future Criminal Justice Tech Landscape   Modernization Progress   Frequently Asked Questions   Stay Informed

 

ARPA Priority: Public Safety 

Background

Like most of the country, New Orleans saw a dramatic rise in crime during the COVID-19 pandemic. Violence increased while staffing shortages led to reductions in public safety and law enforcement personnel. Changing priorities stalled necessary maintenance and equipment updates.

Investment

Current Criminal Justice Tech Landscape

 

Local justice information sharing has improved dramatically in recent years, yet the current landscape still falls short of achieving a fully integrated Criminal Justice Information Sharing (CJIS) environment:

  • They do not adequately support the needs of users.
  • Criminal history, case status, scheduled court events, and other important information is often exchanged in hand carried, hand-written paper form.
  • Agencies do not share the same terms, identifiers, and definitions.
  • System-wide performance data is only partially available to managers, policymakers, and the public.

Tech Deficiency

  

Example

Redundant data entry/paper driven exchanges

                                                                                

At booking, jail employees re-enter arrest charge information previously entered by police from written, hand-carried paperwork. Consequently, NOPD officers are unnecessarily delayed during the booking process rather than returning to patrol duty.

Inability to link key records for cross-system defendant/charge tracking

  

NOPD cannot track the outcome of arrest charges made by officers due to the absence of common identifying information across all systems.

Requirements to help systems interact massively inflate cost and difficulty of replacing key older systems.

  

The last effort to replace the jail management system was abandoned in part due to insufficient documentation of more than 10 jail system interfaces with external systems. Once documented, the integrations increased the estimated implementation costs for the jail management system by more than 35%.

Users need documents and images from across the system but can only get those stored in their agency’s environment.

  

District Attorneys and Public Defenders waste countless hours at the Clerk of Court’s Office awaiting paper copies of case documents that have already been scanned and stored on a network, but not one to which they have access. 

 

Path Forward

  • Design and Implementation of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
    An ESB is a type of central processing software that allows information to be easily shared across different systems.
  • Adoption of a Uniform Charge Table (UCT)
    Agencies in Orleans Parish maintain distinct “charge tables” to store current information on state and local criminal charges. This leads to duplication of effort and confusion in key justice processes such as charging decisions, custody intake, and sentencing.
  • Cleansing and Improving of Older (Legacy) Data
    Historical data in existing systems contains numerous false identities, duplicate records, and logical discrepancies. We can fix this issue ahead of future projects by employing third-party data-cleansing services that draw upon public sources to de-duplicate records and flag those requiring further review.
  • Design and Implementation of a Cloud-Based Interagency Analytics Platform
    Such a platform will give criminal justice professionals consistent, timely and accurate data from across agencies. We have established a framework for transforming raw data, but we need further work to expand the data sources, ensuring nothing is lost in the changes during the next phase (Track 2), and make sources more accessible to external agencies. Most importantly, the analytics environment must be fully validated by all parties and supervisory personnel to help law enforcement see patterns that could lead to crime solving and prevention.
  • Securing Adequate Networking, Storage, & Security of Physical and Broadband Infrastructure
    Obsolete workstations and poor internet connectivity must be upgraded or replaced with modern tools to streamline processes and secure data. This will secure that time is spent on actual crime fighting and not redundant data entry and waiting around to hand carry paperwork.
  • Replacement of the Criminal Court Case Management System
    New software will offer key features absent in the court’s legacy software, including electronic filing, workflow automations, improved case scheduling tools, and electronic discovery management. The City will provide data conversion, hosting and configuration assistance, and the technology to fully integrate the shared infrastructure.
  • Replacement of the Jail Management System
    The jail currently operates on custom software applications developed by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office (OPSO) in the 1980s. This obsolete system has prevented OPSO from developing business processes to make the jail more efficient and responsive to changing criminal justice requirements. The evaluation and implementation of a jail management system, connected to all criminal justice agencies that rely on records in the jail system, will create more efficient technology-based interaction among the agencies.
  • Evaluation of Other Remaining Systems
    Replacement of other legacy systems will be evaluated on an agency-by-agency basis with the leaders and staff of each agency. Replacement of the court, jail, and police record management systems will result in an environment free of those systems dating from pre-2010. Evaluation of remaining systems will center on the strengths and weaknesses identified by agencies in addition to opportunities for improved customer service and justice efficiency.

 

Who? What? When? How?

Who?

… is running the program?
  • Gilbert Montaño, Chief Administrative Officer
  • Shelbi Flynn, Director of Innovation
  • Nathaniel Weaver, Justice Tech Modernization Program Director

… is getting contracts?

Following state, local, and Federal guidelines for employment of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises and local businesses and the indicated competitive bidding process, we have partnered with Mission Critical Partners (MCP) and Major Services, Inc.(MSI) as well as 22nd Century Solutions for top PMO staffing needs.  We will continue in the same vein for the best available, most cost-effective technology to accomplish the job.

… is benefitting at agency level?

The immediate areas of concentration are those of highest need:

  • New Orleans Police Department,
  • Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office,
  • District Attorney’s Office,
  • Criminal/Municipal/Traffic/Juvenile Courts,
  • Public Defender’s Office,
  • 911

What?

… projects are being implemented?

Case Management Systems for NOPD, DA, Courts, Public Defenders; a Jail Management System for OPSO, 911 Computer-Aided Dispatch link to Budget Breakdown, Q 4 above

… technology is being used?
  • Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) (link to description of each)
  • Uniform Charge Tables
  • Cleanse and Improve Older (Legacy) Data
  • Cloud-Based Interagency Analytics Platform
  • Adequate Networking, Storage, & Security of Physical and Broadband Infrastructure
  • Replace:
    • Police Records Management System
    • Court Case Management System
    • Jail Management System
  • Evaluate other systems for upgrade to post-2010 systems as needed.

 

 

When?

… will this be accomplished?

We have set a tentative date of completion for December 31, 2026. 

How?

… are you following best practices?

By beginning with the setup of a Project Management Office and strategically partnering with Mission Critical Partners (MCP) and Major Services, Inc. (MSI), we have ensured that we are following best practices from the outset.

… much will be spent on each sector?

See the investment graph at the top of this webpage

  

Modernization Progress

 

Since 2023 the JTMP team has partnered with justice agencies to assess existing software and networks and upgrade or replace them with advanced, cloud-based technologies.  Above is a summary of the program’s accomplishments and the remaining efforts needed to achieve its justice technology goals.   

Future Criminal Justice Tech Landscape

There are over a dozen organizations that make up the New Orleans/Orleans Parish justice system. Advanced, cloud-based technologies will make it possible for these groups to collect, track and share information as a case moves through the justice system.

Future of data entry:

  • Data is recorded in real time as users perform routine duties. 
  • Data entered by the initiating agency is not reentered by downstream agencies.
  • Cases transfer electronically, triggering processing at the receiving agency.
  • Defendants are identified biometrically, and other elements (charges, cases, and incidents) are assigned unique, trackable identifiers upon creation.

Future of data access:

  • Users have access to information at their locations (patrol car, office, courtroom, etc.).
  • Relevant agencies receive automatic electronic updates as needed rather than having papers hand carried.
  • When personnel need information about an individual, case or entity, a single request retrieves and formats all relevant information.

Future of data reporting:

  • Data is staged in a business intelligence environment for accurate, timely reporting.
  • Cross-agency analytics are readily accessible by each agency.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

We have learned, from current business models and the slog of past programs that keeping on top of the potential for inefficiency and waste can best be avoided by having a team of people who understand, not only efficiency and effectiveness, but also duty and honor. To this end, we have set up a system known as a PMO (Project Management Office) whose job it is to balance the budget, wants, and needs of the agencies that will be involved in this Justice Technology Modernization Project to ensure we have the most effective and efficient system possible so that efforts of our justice professionals avoid duplication and human error in data entry and paperwork and can be concentrated in maintaining a balance of civil rights and civil order, public safety and public justice . 

Due to the many problems, such as a steep rise in crime and shortage of manpower during and following the pandemic, COVID recovery is the main cause for the availability of the funds. Recipients may use ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act)/SLFRF (State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds) funds to: 

  • Replace lost public sector revenue, using this funding to provide government services up to the amount of revenue lost due to the pandemic 
  • Respond to the far-reaching public health and negative economic impacts of the pandemic, by supporting the health of communities, and helping households, small businesses, affected industries, nonprofits, and the public sector recover from economic impacts 

These funds come directly from monies already allocated to the US Treasury. The people of New Orleans profit from less property lost and damaged, and more crimes solved and lives saved--besides higher tourism revenue. Because modern systems populate information among agencies without hand writing, copying, re-entering, etc., they streamline reduplicative efforts like data entry and paperwork.  Instead, our criminal justice professionals can concentrate on their true mission: public safety and public justice. 

Category  Description  Estimated Cost (Rounded) 
New Software Applications & Integration Tools  Upgrading and replacing antiquated software applications across the criminal justice system.    $12,500,000  
Strategic Integration and Implementation Oversight  Funding for a team of subject matter experts who refine the strategic vision for coordinated criminal justice system technology investments, develop scalable cloud infrastructure for system-wide integration, and oversee implementation of new applications and infrastructure upgrades.   $2,500,000  
Infrastructure - Networking, Storage, & Security  Upgrading existing network infrastructure to adequately support new software applications; expanding cloud-based and backup storage capacity; investing in comprehensive cyber security tools that comply with CJIS security standards.    $7,700,000
Agency Implementation Support Staff  Allocation of project management and business analysis support staff to each agency for a two-year period to support deployment and adoption of new applications, integration tools, training, etc.   $7,300,000
TOTAL  $30,000,000

Leadership 

  • Gilbert Montaño, Chief Administrative Officer 
  • Shelbi Flynn, Director of Innovation 
  • Nathaniel Weaver, Program Director, Justice Tech Modernization Program 

Governance of ARPA Justice Tech Overhaul Funding

The City, along with the Criminal Justice Information Sharing (CJIS) Subcommittee, will develop fair and transparent rules for the allocation and use of ARPA funds in compliance with federal restrictions and requirements. This monumental investment of resources ensures that agencies affected by new systems participate in the planning process and consider the City's risk exposure in all decisions.

Existing Criminal Justice Information Sharing Governance Structure

The Sanford “Sandy” Krasnoff Criminal Justice Council unites criminal justice stakeholders including elected officials, agency heads and community members to share insight and align objectives throughout the local criminal justice system. The Council is the highest advisory body on criminal justice issues in Orleans parish. The SKNOCJC is convened and staffed by the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Coordination.

  • Membership as assigned by City Council Ordinance No. 21456, includes executives from each criminal justice agency, the Mayor’s office and the City Council.
  • Plans strategic goals for the criminal justice system.
  • Receives reports on progress of subcommittees, including the CJIS Subcommittee. 

CJIS Subcommittee

  • Comprised of managers and technology staff from each criminal justice agency.
  • Identifies information and technology needs/priorities.
  • Identifies technology and business process solutions to improve justice information integration.
  • Addresses data quality issues.
  • Determines rules for justice information sharing.

Data-Sharing Program Users' Group (DSPUG)

  • Comprised of appointed lead data coordinators of each agency and their appointed alternates.
  • The Data-Sharing Program Users Group (DSPUG) forms a partnership between the City and various agencies charged with maintaining the technological functioning of the criminal justice system.
  • This partnership will establish a technological program where agencies involved in the criminal justice system can communicate effectively, engage in more streamlined operations and information sharing, bolstering improved experiences and increased efficiency for criminal justice employees, victims, and the accused.

Justice Agencies Technical Advisory Committee (JATAC)

  • Recommends and takes recommendations on technologies and solutions.
  • Provides help/resources for DSPUG agencies who have no IT person at the agency.
  • Sets up a SharePoint to collaborate.
  • Standardizes outage/restoration notifications.

The City of New Orleans will be safer with police manhours spent on police work rather than data entry and paperwork, waiting for papers to be transported, and other time consumers that are not investigating and prosecuting crime. Another benefit is the storage and availability of historical/statistical data used to trace hotspots and causes, thus, helping to prevent crime. Finally, and most importantly, are improved public experiences with the justice system, such as victims not being required to retell their stories repeatedly because of poor data connection and tracking due to antiquated, non-communicating systems, some dating back to the 1980s.    

The intended completion date is the end of 2026.

Timeline

The wide variety of, sometimes conflicting, needs among 11 or more agencies we eventually intend to serve, means one size would never fit all.  We have to marry very different systems so necessary, accurate information gets to the right place at the right time. For that reason we are developing a piece of communicating software called an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), a type of central processing software that allows information to be easily shared across different systems. It will carry the right bits of information to the right stops in the network as needed.  

Stay Informed 

On occasion the JTMP sends information to justice agencies, related organizations, and individuals interested in learning about specific projects and program outcomes. We encourage you to subscribe to our email list to stay informed!

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Previously Issued Program News:

  • April 2025 Bulletin –  the Criminal District Clerk & Court’s new system benefits all court cases’ stakeholders.
  • March 2025 Bulletin – general information on the JTMP and an overview of the data sharing goals.