ICOTS Code Release 29.5 - Duplicate Offender Management Enhancements

ICOTS 29.5 code release went into production on April 29, 2015 and implemented the development items below:

Since the launch of ICOTS, the creation of duplicate offender records has been a serious issue. Duplicate offenders cause confusion, invalidate data, and waste valuable time and resources. The functional enhancements in code release 29.5 aim to minimize the creation of duplicate offenders.

Offender Search Screen

The offenders tab no longer offers the option for "Add Offender."  Instead, users must first search using demographic information prior to adding a new offender record. Using more identifiers in a search, provides more accurate results. Identifiers should include the DOB, FBI number, SSN and/or State ID if known.

Offender By Demographics Search Results

The offender search criteria displays at the top of the screen above the search results for easy reference. New columns appear on the table for DOB and Demographics.

Improved search results provide exact matches on first name, last name and one of the following - DOB, SSN, FBI Number, or State ID. Matches show higher in the results when multiple exact matches exist.

Adding Offenders

If no matches are returned from the search, the user has the option to add a new offender right away.

If matches exist for the offender search, several steps must be performed before adding a new offender.

1.) The user must click the arrow that appears at the bottom of the search results. The arrow is not obvious and was made small intentionally. Some users ignore whatever search results they get and immediately scroll to the bottom of the page and click to add a new offender anyway.

2.) After clicking the arrow, a confirmation message and check box is displayed. The message states that an offender matching the search criteria already exists in ICOTS.

3.) To add an offender at this point, the user must click the check box that reads:

"I, {User Name}, certify this offender is not a match to any of the offender records included in the above search results. Pursuant to the ICOTS User Agreement, I confirm this is a new offender that does not already exist in ICOTS."

Once checked, an "Add" button will appear next to the confirmation message.

4.) If the user clicks the "Add" button at this point, they will see the offender demographics screen where they can fill out additional information on the offender. If the user used a date of birth in the search criteria, then that field will be grayed out. The reason being, any additional DOBs should have been used in the initial search to determine if any existing offenders were a match. The same goes for both FBI Number and State ID. If either of those identifiers are known, they should have been used in the initial search to determine if a match already exists.

Outstanding Bugs

One outstanding issue was also addressed in this release:

1. Problem #110474 - Case Closure Notice PDF breaking incorrectly in middle of 'Reason for Closure' text boxes