Office of the Attorney General
Attorney General's Office Launches Electronic Warrant System in the 23rd and 33rd Judicial Circuits

Attorney General Jack Conway today announced that his office has completed implementation of an electronic warrant management system (eWarrants) in the 23rd Judicial Circuit (Estill, Lee and Owsley counties) and 33rd Judicial Circuit (Perry County).  This brings to 68 the number of counties that have received the eWarrant system under a $3.9 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant awarded to the Office of the Attorney General in 2009.

"I am pleased that we are able to provide this important law enforcement tool to Kentuckians living in the 23rd and 33rd judicial circuits,” said General Conway. “With this successful launch, more than 2.8 million, or about 67 percent of the state, now live in counties with eWarrants.”

Working with local officials in the 23rd and 33rd judicial circuits, the Office of the Attorney General, in partnership with the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the Kentucky State Police, the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and Open Portal Solutions, Inc., provided training and support for the new system.

The eWarrant system facilitates the sharing of information among all law enforcement concerning active warrants in jurisdictions throughout the Commonwealth. It replaces the manual protocols for processing warrant information with an electronic method for making warrants available via the Law Enforcement Information Network of Kentucky (LINK), the system administered by Kentucky State Police and used by law enforcement to transmit and retrieve information on active warrants.

Service rates for warrants rise from as low as 10% under the old system to roughly 50% immediately after implementation of eWarrants, and as high as 80% in the long-term. There are more than 456,000 warrants/summons currently in the eWarrants system. This includes urban areas not covered by the ARRA grant. 

Since the first roll-out under the Attorney General’s ARRA Grant in October 2010, more than 259,000 warrants have been served or recalled in the eWarrants system.

“eWarrants will be a big help to us,” said Maudie Standafer, Chief Communications Officer for the Hazard Police Department. “We’ll be able to print out an eWarrant ourselves without having to call post and have them fax it to us. It will really speed up the whole system. We are very excited about the new system.”

Kentucky's eWarrant system began as a pilot project in 2005 to address a backlog of nearly 300,000 un-served warrants in the state. A backlog in the service of warrants, or a misplaced or lost warrant, could allow a person charged with a violent crime to evade arrest and continue to victimize Kentucky citizens.

The ARRA grant, which provided funding for implementation and training in the 23rd and 33rd judicial circuits, was awarded from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance under the category of Facilitating Rural Justice Information Sharing. Under this category, the Bureau of Justice Assistance makes awards to help law enforcement in rural areas to improve the criminal justice system by aiding communities in combating crime and drugs.

The eWarrant program is being offered to Kentucky’s rural counties at no cost to local communities.  In addition to modernizing law enforcement infrastructure, the ARRA grant has created 16 jobs for citizens of the Commonwealth.  Individuals may obtain more information about eWarrants by filling out the eWarrant contact form on the Attorney’s General’s website, at http://ag.ky.gov/ewarrants

* This project was supported by award No. 2009-SD-B9-0067, awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs.  The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice.