Tealeaves from the 2023 SEARCH Winter Meeting

Recently, MCP subject-matter experts, including me, attended a conference presented by SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. For more than a half century, SEARCH

Tealeaves from eCourts 2022

Last week we attended eCourts 2022, a biennial conference that focuses on the technology needs of court systems and the personnel who work for them. Several trends quickly became apparent to us.

Twelve Must-Know Steps for Threat and Vulnerability Management

As individuals, we take numerous protective steps throughout the year, e.g., buying insurance, monitoring credit, getting annual physicals and flu shots, getting dental x-rays and routine

Cybersecurity Threat Advisory: Palo Alto Networks Firewall Vulnerability

A new critical security alert requires the mission-critical community’s immediate attention.

Grant Alert: National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP)

As part of our effort to help clients find applicable grants to achieve their goals, MCP provides alerts about grants that can fund their initiatives. 

Integrated Justice Is Needed Nationwide to Improve Outcomes and Prevent Senseless Tragedies

On July 23, 2007, a home invasion occurred in Cheshire, Connecticut. During the invasion, the family that owned the home suffered numerous horrors — the husband was severely injured when beaten with a baseball bat, while his wife and two daughters were murdered; the wife and one daughter were sexually assaulted. The perpetrators then burned down the house to destroy the evidence.

MCP Grows Yet Again, This Time Adding Critical Cybersecurity Expertise

Over the last several years, Mission Critical Partners aggressively has pursued acquisitions that expand the services and solutions that we can offer to clients in support of their missions. That work continues with the addition of Secure Halo, which is headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland. This acquisition is the fifth executed by MCP in the last four years.

Let MCP Help Your Justice Organization Embrace the Hybrid Hearings Concept

Circumstances exist whereby it is prudent that certain participants in a court hearing are not required to appear at the courthouse. One example concerns those who are in custody awaiting a hearing or trial. A lot can go wrong when transporting a defendant to a courthouse. Further, the logistics are complicated, and the process is time-consuming. Consequently, ma

Effective Data Utilization Begins with Governance — Here’s How Courts Agencies Should Begin

A previous blog explored the advantages that can be gained by justice organizations via “big data” approaches that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This blog examines the importance of data governance.

‘Big Data’ Is Helping Justice Organizations Address Their Biggest Challenges

“Big data” is an approach used to analyze extremely large, extremely complex, unstructured datasets. While the majority of data that courts create, manage, and are responsible for wouldn’t be considered “big data,” courts can benefit tremendously from recent advances in big data tools.

MCP’s Acquisition of MTG Management Consultants: One Year Later

Exactly one year ago, MCP announced the acquisition of Seattle-based MTG Management Consultants, which today is known as our Justice, Management, and Technology (JMT) services team. This acquisition has generated enormous benefits for our clients and the firm over the past 12 months.

An Introduction to Data Lakes for Public Safety and Justice Organizations

Imagine that you're a fisherman, and you need to catch a large volume and wide variety of fish. Now imagine that the fish scatter amongst numerous rivers and streams, a situation that makes your task far more time-consuming and difficult. Moreover, you risk missing some types of fish you need to catch to fulfill your mission, either because you can't find them or you run out of time.

This metaphor describes the environment in which public safety and justice organizations are working today. Many systems exist that generate or store information vital to investigators, prosecutors, judges, and corrections officials. However, many are unable to access the information when they need to do so. That's because siloes exist in these systems, making it incredibly challenging for the individual entities that comprise the public safety and justice ecosystem — the 911 community, law enforcement, prosecutors, the courts, and jails/prisons — to exchange data. Siloed systems are analogous to the rivers and streams in our metaphor.