DIGITAL RECORDS SPEED LEGAL PROCESS
Posted By: Marsha Bills
DIGITIZED PROTECTIVE ORDER ENABLES CONSTABLES
TO PICK UP DEFENDANT WITHIN HOURS RATHER THAN DAYS
In a legal process that, prior to the instigation of digitized records, would have taken days, four different law enforcement agencies in North Texas were able to communicate with electronic documents and pick up a man against whom a protective order has been filed in a protracted divorce.
According to Records Manager Stan Tungate, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office contacted him at 8:30 am, September 24, to verify the existence of a protective order a woman now living in that county was seeking to have enforced.
Within five minutes, Mr. Tungate had located the digitized order, emailed it to the Kaufman County authorities, who in turn were able to issue a warrant for the man’s arrest, and Dallas County constables picked up the man within hours.
“This speedy resolution to a potentially violent confrontation illustrates the way the electronic management of court records is supposed to serve law enforcement agencies and the public,” adds Mr. Tungate. “Before digital records, we literally would have had to search by hand in courts, case records and other locations, then fax or mail documents necessary to produce the result we got in a matter of minutes.”