Internet access to criminal records coming soon

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You will be able to follow a case from the moment someone has been issued an arrest warrant to the time it is settled, State Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said.

Toal said the system will increase accuracy and efficiency. She said research showed that in the past a person's case was entered into a computer system eight to 24 times.

"Just in Greenville, we have pulled together some 24 disparate overlapping databases into one database that will be searchable in one operation," she said. "That is an amazing accomplishment."

Officials said they hope to have the database available on the county's Web site (www.greenvillecounty.org) by the first of the year. For now, the public index is only at terminals at the courthouse.

Toal said it won't be available over the Internet until testing is complete.

"Then you will literally be able to access Greenville's data in these courts 24-7 through access to the Internet," she said.

Greenville is the first of three counties to implement the pilot program. Pickens and Richland counties are still in the process of converting data to the new program, Toal said.

"We carefully picked our pilot county," Toal said. "We had to have can-do people and Upstate people are unique in that way."

The $1.4 million system, paid for primarily by federal grant money, has been in the works for two years, Toal said.

"I didn't become a geek or techie overnight but I'm about to be converted by the marvelous people who helped the develop the system," Toal said.

The goal has been to take a number of databases used by solicitors, law enforcement, judges, clerks and magistrates and combine them into one system.

Under the new program, the file is created the moment of an arrest and accumulating data ranging from bond amounts, the defendant's attorney and new arrests is entered into the same file.

The system manages all cases in criminal, civil and magistrate courts. Family court, which is part of a Department of Social Services program, is not included, Toal said.

The system will also do away with a bulk of paperwork.

Circuit Judge John Few said he's already used the system on two occasions and is convinced that it's a substantial improvement over the old system. "The court's going to be able to save a lot of money in terms of moving files around," he said. "We will be able to deliver the service we deliver more quickly because of this."

It will be just as useful on the civil court side, Toal said.

Toal said the fact that the program is done over the Internet has made it both practical and affordable.

She praised Greenville County Clerk of Court Paul Wickensimer, Chief Magistrate Diane Cagle and Information Technology Director Dale Rice and their staffs, among others, for working long hours to convert the new system.