Criminal History Records Audit: Disposition Reporting in Cook County, September 1999

• NCJ Number: 188358
• Author(s): Sharyn B. Hisler; Mark Myrent; Karen S. Levy McCanna; Gerald F. Ramker; James D'Archangelis
• Date Published: September 1999
• Length: 63 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-DB-VX-0017; 96-DB-MU-0017; 97-DB-MU-0017
• Sponsoring Agency: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services; Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This audit examined the 1996 reporting of arrests and final dispositions from Cook County to the Illinois State Police, and addressed the problem of incomplete records in the Computerized Criminal History database.

Abstract

There were 3,501 arrests, 3,998 court cases, and 5,029 charges with final dispositions in the audit sample. Among the major findings were: (1) 51.7 percent of reportable dispositions were not posted to the Computerized Criminal History (CCH) database; (2) 53.9 percent of property offenses, 51.5 percent of offenses against the person, and 49.5 percent of drug offenses did not have a reportable disposition in the CCH database; and (3) 43.1 percent of the disposition guilty and 56.9 percent of the disposition stricken off call with leave to reinstate were not posted to the CCH database. The report recommended that the Illinois State Police and the Clerk of the Circuit Court acquire dispositions from all court cases since 1996 that were not posted to the CCH database and attempt to add them to the database. Also, it recommended that local law enforcement agencies and the Circuit Clerk review internal information processing and reporting procedures and set up a forum for reviewing interagency computer programming issues that affected criminal history reporting. Notes, tables, figure, appendixes