Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services

Technology

DASHBOARD

In 2008 DPSCS created the Local Law Enforcement Dashboard – a web-based clearinghouse of information on a criminal subject’s history that is accessible to cooperating local, state, and federal law enforcement. Now, law enforcement can find criminal and background information that exists about a person in minutes instead of hours.

MAFIS

In 2008 DPSCS’ Information Technology and Communications Division (ITCD) completed a three year, $12 million improvement project that brought Maryland’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System (MAFIS) into the 21st century. Now, using the latest in fingerprint technology, MAFIS drastically improves the state’s ability to rapidly and positively identify known criminals and perform background checks.

Through the new MAFIS, 99% of criminal and non-criminal fingerprint submissions can now be matched digitally. MAFIS also gives Maryland law enforcement a new palm search capability never before possible. Most importantly the new latent print search capabilities will help with the State’s caseload of unsolved crimes.

In the month of November 2009 alone, law enforcement agencies were able to identify the suspect in 79 criminal cases, including several homicides and suspicious deaths, thanks to the new, sharp images, which allow previously difficult-to-read prints to be matched to prints from new crime scenes for comparison purposes.

Live Scan Machines

In order to collect fingerprints in the digital format now used by MAFIS, 142 high-tech Live Scan machines, have been added to law enforcement, Parole and Probation, and other offices in every county in Maryland, as well as in Baltimore, Annapolis, and several other cities.

These machines are in use for private providers and school systems to run background checks; law enforcement to screen potential haz-mat drivers; and police, detention center personnel, and Parole and Probation agents to perform crucial criminal identification duties.

GPS Monitoring

The Division of Parole and Probation (DPP) ramped up its use of limited GPS monitoring for certain offenders entering into state supervision after the Parole Commission authorized the use of GPS for all parole and mandatory releases in February 2009. GPS monitoring for probationers must be ordered by the court.

This GPS monitoring technology adds an additional dimension of surveillance on an offender population already subject to the State’s strictest supervision model, the Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI). A DPP agent reviews an offender’s location and travels during the prior 24 hour period, looking for possible violations. If an offender violates, a warrant is immediately requested by the agent.

Different from active GPS monitoring, this system does not rely on cellular technology to relay an offender’s location in “real time” back to a tracking station.

DPSCS Community Escape Alert System

In October 2009, DPSCS unveiled a new Community Escape Alert System, a web-based inmate escape notification process. This technology can alert any citizen within a five state region should an inmate escape. It issues alerts through a telephone, cell phone, via text messaging or e-mail. Any citizen can simply visit the DPSCS website to sign up.

The system allows for notification about escapes from any DPSCS-operated facility in the state of Maryland. It far surpasses the old siren and whistle alerts in various parts of the state, which remain operational for the time being.

Parole and Probation Kiosks

In 2010, DPP plans to greatly expand the use of supervision check-in kiosks to enhance and make more efficient the management of its low-risk clients.

Thanks to a grant from GOCCP and a deal with the state of New York which will provide Maryland with free software, the DPP is in the process of purchasing a check-in kiosk for every single field office in the State. New York’s copyrighted software will tie right into our enhanced case management tracking system now under development.

The kiosks free up agents to deal with more pressing needs. The system captures a handprint, identifies personal information in seconds or minutes, and asks the offender a number of questions. Any “wrong” answers or discrepancies send up the warning flag, automatically alerting the agent via email.