Cops, courts, crooks, and computers: a database management system for fighting crime

The use of a prototype database management system of pre-sentencing criminal investigation data is combined with a prototype expert probation officer knowledge-based system for the State of Ohio Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas Adult Probation Department. The objective was to shorten the typical 28-day wait before sentencing and to help probation officers reduce errors in their recommendations to the judges. The expert probation officer knowledge-based system simulates the intelligence of a probation officer during pre-sentencing investigation. The previously existing manual database was automated to provide faster, more accurate, and more widely applicable information for better-informed managerial decisions. The expert probation officer system recommends candidates for probation or sentencing or special handling. A plan to link the Ohio counties with the state to enable the local county data to be accessible from the state level is also discussed