Two blog posts written for NOPJF regarding recent technological advancements within the New Orleans Police Department.

1. OPISIS: Bringingthe NOPD into the 21stCentury
What Is OPISIS?
The OPISIS is a collaborative effort among local law enforcement agencies to
improve the criminal justice system by improving the timeliness, quality and
completeness of information at all stages of the criminal justice process.
The OPISIS operates on the basis of Collaboration, Consensus and Coalition-
Building.
This is done through:
•Improving information sharing across and within criminal justice agencies
•Leveraging modern technology to achieve new efficiencies in the criminal justice
process
•Replacing outdated applications with modern, state-of-the-art software
Who Makes Up the OPISIS?
Executives from each of the participating criminal justice agencies form the OPISIS
Executive Board. This includes the Orleans Parish Public Defender Executive,
Orleans Parish Sheriff, Orleans Parish Chief Judge and Superintendent of Police.
The Executive Board sets the overall direction for OPISIS, articulating agency needs
and business priorities.
The Technology Committee is made up of managers and IT professionals from
member organizations.
It is responsible for designing and implementing projects to address the priorities
identified by the Executive Board.
How Do OPISIS and NOPJF ?
The New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation acts as the Project Management
Office for OPISIS, facilitating project development, technology procurement,
technical assistance and project implementation.
NOPJF also manages the administration of grant funds used to implement OPISIS
projects.
Why is OPISIS Necessary?
Information critical to informed decision-making throughout the criminal justice
system still isn’t adequately available to everyone who needs it, including:
•Complete criminal history data
•Up-to-date warrant information (currently of limited availability)
•Probation and Parole information

2. We have yet to adopt a single set of standards and uniform enterprise architecture
for the future criminal justice information environment.
Too much information is still manually entered into individual systems, leading to
delayed access to information, wasted resources and inaccurate data
As the OPISIS continues to modernize the technological infrastructure behind the
NOPD, they are still facing potentially impenetrable challenges. The absence of a
stable source of revenue already threatens to undo the progress that has been made
to-date.
Joshua Portin
Rye Brook, New York
Tulane University

3. The “MuchNeeded” Miracleof OPISIS:
What has OPISIS Done?
The OPISIS program has implemented major initiatives that improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of the Orleans Parish criminal justice system. This includes:
Cutting-edge crime analysis and investigative case management tools for NOPD...

4. ….an online resource for residents to track crime occurring in their neighborhoods.
A cross-agency, automated software application to track the transfer and storage of
evidence throughout the justice system.
Electronic exchanges of information between NOPD and the District Attorney’s
Office…

5. …and a platform for exchanging critical information throughout the broader
criminal justice system.

6. What’s Next?
Before OPISIS, the New Orleans Police Department’s primary record management
software was built in the 1970’s.
While we’ve come a long way under OPISIS…
We still have much further to go to achieve to achieve a truly integrated, state-of-
the-art criminal justice information system.
Joshua Portin
Rye Brook, New York
Tulane University