Prosecutor's office goes high tech with new computer equipment

Vernon County Prosecuting Attorney Lynn Ewing III will soon go into court with different kinds of files -- digital files on computer instead of tall stacks of paper that are heavy and cumbersome.

Ewing has been working on a project that will make a digital image of every document that comes into the prosecutor's office allowing him to access all the information in his files right at his desk in the courtroom.

"If a defendant's lawyer asks me for a file I won't have to ask one of the girls to go into the office to find it and bring it back, I'll be able to look it up on the computer for them and print it out right there," Ewing said.

Ewing said all the details haven't been worked out yet but it will be a joint effort between his office, the Nevada Police Department and the Vernon County Sheriff's Office.

"The city is putting in a fiber optic line from their computers to my office and we'll be able to get information directly from the computer instead of having them print it out and us filing it," Ewing said. "This will save one half of an employee, it will speed up the transfer of information from the city police and the county sheriff because it will eliminate some of the steps in between."

Assistant Chief of Police Gary Herstein said the police already compose their reports on a computer, so the new system should not be too hard to implement.

"It probably won't be that big of a problem," Herstein said. "There might be some minor glitches, but that's inevitable when you start using a new system."

The city will install and maintain a fiber optic link to the courthouse, the jail and also to the city prosecutor; the city will provide its reports in digital format to the prosecutors; the city will maintain space on its server for offsite duplicate storage of data from the county prosecutor's office; the county prosecutor's office will maintain space on its server for offsite duplicate storage of data from the city; the city will acquire additional user licenses for its existing digital imaging software so the prosecutors and the sheriff can use it; the sheriff will tie into the fiber optic link and submit his reports in digital form to the county prosecutor. To this end, the county prosecutor will provide training to the Nevada Police Department and the Vernon County Sheriff's Office about preparation of reports for delivery to the prosecutors.

The project is funded from the fees collected from bad check writers, $2,500, and a $4,000 grant. Ewing estimates that another $6,000 will need to be spent in licensing software and training personnel in the proper use of the system. Ewing said he will be transferring his current computers to the sheriff's office for their use.

An additional advantage of the system is the possibility of using the fiber optic line to create a video link between the jail and the courtrooms to institute video conferencing, saving time for deputies who currently have to escort prisoners from the jail to the courts.