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TextCourtroom Technology Office (CrTO)
The Courtroom Technology Office (CrTO) coordinates research and facilitates automation and technological enhancements throughout the court system; to include the Circuit Court, General District Court, Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, Office of the Sheriff and the Bar Association. Substantial opportunities exist by centralizing courtroom technology between the three courts and sharing resources and infrastructure. The CrTO was recommended to devise and provide a means of developing, coordinating and implementing courtroom technology and automated information systems to improve and streamline court management and operations for the future 43 courtroom facility and related support offices. The CrTO is a Department of Information Technology function supporting all three Courts, managed by a Courtroom Technology Officer, under the direction of the Chief Judge, Clerk of the Court and the Fairfax County Chief Technology Officer.
High Tech Courtrooms In Action
Fairfax County’s
recent investments in high-tech courtrooms for the Circuit Court, General District Court and Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court provide
solutions to many types of legal and logistical challenges:
- What can you do with an elderly witness too feeble and frail to travel to court and provide testimony?
- How about a child witness afraid to confront his/her accuser in the courtroom?
- A plaintiff is about to lose her divorce case because her resident country is unwilling to issue her a visa to return to the United States for a court appearance.
- A judge is out of town but needs to conduct prisoner arraignments within the time constraints required by the Code of Virginia. A judge from another locality needs to arraign a prisoner held by the Fairfax County Detention Center.
- An overcrowded courtroom in a high profile case does not have enough seating capacity to handle the amount of spectators.
Read more about the high-tech courtrooms in action.
CrTO Goals and Objectives:
The primary objectives are to improve citizens access, internally and externally, to the Courts; facilitate trials and hearings in the most effective and efficient means possible; allow for all three Courts to share common resources and provide for flexibility and adaptability to incorporate future changes in technology and court proceedings; and assist the Courts to keep up with increasing demand and docket backlogs.
The Courtroom Technology Office (CrTO) will ensure that all judges, support staff and administrative personnel of the 19th Judicial Circuit have complete and reliable access to the information they need and the technological support required for high-tech trials and proceedings. Courtroom Technology must be closely aligned with state and local agencies to facilitate the flow of information to the Court system and to broaden the spectrum of information sources available to the Courts.
The goal of the CrTO is to provide management and technical information services in a prompt, accurate and efficient manner where appropriate for the judiciary to achieve its goals. An area of high priority is the completion of 17 new courtrooms and renovations of 26 existing courtrooms. The overall themes of CrTO's goals and objectives are customer service, cost containment, improved productivity and greater competence.
CrTO's responsibilities include:
- Strategic planning for effective use of the court's information resource.
- Liaison with County Department of Information Technology and Supreme Court Office of Technology.
- Project Manager for completion of Courthouse technology roll-out and implementation.
- Acting as an advisor/consultant throughout the Judiciary on computer/information systems-related matters.
- Providing oversight and facilitating improvement of operations through system enhancements or new system development.
- Developing the technical needs of the judiciary through the implementation of new technologies such as video conferencing, wireless networking, and video streaming.
- Development, implementation, and enforcement of standards and procedures relating to computer/information processing.
- Recommending computer/information services related policy for top management and/or Policy committee approval.
- Serving as support staff to the Judiciary and affiliated organizations.
- Evaluating and selecting hardware/software and serving as the primary vendor contact.
- Maintaining state-of-the-art expertise on the technology and informing user groups of how the technology can be applied to enhance operational effectiveness.
Please e-mail Courtroom Technology Office (CrTO), if you have any questions.
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