Client Success Story: MCP Supports Overhaul of New Orleans’ Justice-Technology Infrastructure

The city of New Orleans is the largest city in Louisiana and the third-largest city in the Deep South (behind Atlanta and Memphis) with a population of about 383,000. It is known worldwide for its tourism that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. Major attractions include the historic French Quarter, the Bourbon Street entertainment district, the New Orleans Saints professional football team, and the New Orleans Pelicans professional basketball team, and the city periodically hosts the Super Bowl. New Orleans also is a major port and is coterminous with Orleans Parish.

City officials determined that the criminal-justice technology infrastructure that supports the local criminal-justice system needed an overhaul. Mission Critical Partners was selected to partner with the city on the project.

The Challenges

The multiyear Justice Tech Modernization Program (JTMP) was launched in 2023 by Mayor Latoya Cantrell. It is supported by a $30 million American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) grant. The city’s core systems — i.e., the records-management system used by the law-enforcement agencies, the case-management system used by the courts, and the jail-management system — were built on legacy technology dating back to the 1980s, leading to inefficiencies and a lack of flexibility to adapt as statutes and requirements change.

Specific challenges included the following:

• A shared server that supported both jail and court operations was using antiquated programming languages and was approaching end of life, which made maintenance more challenging.
• Reliance on paper-based processing and homegrown applications hindered efficiency.
• Lack of integration between the disparate records-management, case-management, and jail-management systems prevented real-time data sharing, resulting in delays, errors, and redundancies.
• Outdated interfaces failed to meet modern expectations and thus inhibited personnel hiring and retention.
• Inconsistent definitions pertaining to criminal-charge statutes led to confusion and inefficiencies.

What MCP Is Doing

Since August 2023, MCP subject-matter experts (SMEs) have been working closely with Nathaniel Weaver, JTMP’s program director, to replace decades-old computer systems with advanced, cloud-based technologies. A critical element of the project is to enable the myriad data systems used by law-enforcement agencies, court systems, and jails operating in the city and Orleans Parish to seamlessly share information in real time with authorized users whenever needed. Such information sharing has not been possible because the systems in question were implemented independently with very little, if any, thought given to integration and interconnection.

“This project opens the door to process change — it is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reexamine how the criminal-justice system in New Orleans and Orleans Parish operates through better communication and more-focused data integration,” said Jim Pingel, MCP’s vice president of digital justice transformations.

An enterprise data model was created for this purpose. The work involved modeling the data possessed by the individual user agencies, which include the New Orleans Police Department, Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, and the jail operated by the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office. The enterprise data model essentially establishes a common language that will be used to translate disparate datasets so that the information they contain can be shared and leveraged effectively by all user agencies. The data-modeling effort was supported by substantial input from each user agency, as well as the technology experts who had built and are maintaining the legacy systems.

“Think of the common language as this project’s Rosetta Stone,” Pingel said.

The next step is to finalize the common language. Development work already has begun on a cloud-based integration hub (an enterprise service bus[1]) that will facilitate real-time sharing of data that is formatted in that common language. In addition, Interfaces are being developed to connect each user agency’s data system to the hub.

The data-modeling milestone is the first step toward achieving the goal of the planned justice-technology upgrades. Additional tasks being executed by MCP’s SMEs in collaboration with city project managers include the following:

• Supporting JTMP’s program-management office (PMO), which provides project management, coordination, and communication across all modernization efforts.
• Supporting the implementation of new records-management, case-management, and jail-management systems.
• Reengineering end-to-end workflows for all justice processes, from arrest to case resolution.
• Developing a shared charge table to unify definitions across all justice entities.
• Leveraging the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM )version 6.0 standard to create consistent models for seamless data exchange.
• Creating governance frameworks to ensure data accuracy and system consistency.
• Developing strategies for sustainable funding and ongoing system support.
• Supporting vendor-led training for end-users across departments to ease the transition from legacy systems to modern platforms, specifically familiarizing users with new interfaces and functionalities.
• Guiding the transitions from standalone, homegrown applications to the new systems.
• Implementing robust organizational change-management strategies, including regular stakeholder-engagement meetings to track progress and gather feedback.

The standardized charge table will have immediate impact, according to Pingel. “When you have different ways of defining charges, you can get this ambiguity about what exactly is being charged — a first-degree burglary or an attempted burglary. Sharing of a uniform charge table eliminates that ambiguity,” he said.

Other ongoing initiatives that leverage the enterprise data model include development of an analytics layer to enable system-wide performance monitoring. This is already providing insights into jail-population management, case aging and processing times, and will generate metrics pertaining to bond decisions and plea agreements.

“These insights will support data-driven decision-making, helping to identify bottlenecks, prioritize resources, and evaluate the effectiveness of innovative programs,” Pingel said.

The Results

Significant accomplishments already have been achieved. Three major system replacements are underway concurrently:

• The Criminal District Clerk of Courts’ case-management system (CMS)
• The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office’s jail-management system (JMS)
• The New Orleans Police Department’s records-management system (RMS)

Each of these initiatives is a once-in-a-generation uplift for the individual agency. To take on all three at once, in one jurisdiction, requires the coordination and communication of the City’s PMO. The common language has been developed, and 16 data exchanges have been created. Specifications for half of them have been published and are actively being implemented with integration partners. The cloud-based ESB is operational and being tested as the vendors build their data integrations.

The records-management system will consolidate incident reporting, field interview logs, and evidence tracking, providing a unified platform for law-enforcement operations. The case-management system will enable clerks and judges to manage cases digitally, reducing paperwork and manual error; key features include automated scheduling, digital access to case files, and integrations with external legal systems. The jail-management system will automate booking, classification, and release processes. Key improvements included digital record-keeping, enhanced reporting capabilities, and compliance with modern data security standards. None of this would be possible without standardization of the data and the integrations among the systems.

The case-management and jail-management systems are scheduled to go live in March 2025, while the records-management system is scheduled to go live six months later. All three systems will be interconnected and integrated to ensure seamless data sharing in real time across the entire law-enforcement/justice ecosystem, to save time and reduce errors.

“So, for example, anything that law enforcement enters into their system should flow through to all the other systems,” Pingel said. “Nobody should have to rekey the probable-cause statement. And once the district attorney charges somebody, nobody should have to rekey the information about the charges they have filed. Anytime rekeying occurs, you run the risk of transposing digits. Entering data once, close to the source, and sharing it seamlessly downstream is one of the key principles on which digital justice transformations like JTMP need to be built.”

The Benefits

Current and anticipated benefits of the Justice Tech Modernization Program include the following:

• Police officers will spend less time filing jail paperwork, searching for records, and waiting to testify in court.
• Sheriff’s deputies, district attorneys, and public defenders all will have up-to-the-minute information on the status of charges and required court appearances for individuals in their custody.
• Fewer court hearings will be rescheduled, relieving victims and witnesses from repeat trips to the courthouse in pursuit of justice.
• Real-time data sharing will reduce delays caused by manual processes, enabling quicker processing of cases and bookings.
  • Streamlined workflows and automated data sharing, case processing times are expected to decrease, reducing backlogs in the courts.
  • Quicker resolutions will help alleviate jail overcrowding and expedite justice delivery.
• Automated workflows will minimize repetitive tasks, freeing up staff to focus on higher-value activities.
• The standardized charge table and integrated data flows will provide prosecutors, judges, and public defenders with consistent, accurate, and timely information.
• Improved visibility into case statuses will lead to better-informed decisions, including more equitable bond determinations.
• Elimination of manual data entry will reduce errors, ensuring consistency and reliability across all justice operations.
• Built-in privacy safeguards will protect sensitive information, aligning with national and local policies.
• Web-based interfaces will replace outdated “green-screen” systems, significantly improving usability and staff satisfaction.
• Improved data flows will improve the timeliness and completeness of the public-facing dashboards[2] that the city publishes. This improved transparency will strengthen public trust in the justice system.