We learned via an article and video report from KSAT television news in San Antonio, Texas titled “Enormous justice system gap closed, allowing courts to communicate better” about a new system in Bexar County, Texas to make “firearm bans now more visible to more judges”.
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As many of you know, it is always a challenge for information to be shared, even within the judicial branch. This is a story of cooperation between Judge Rosie Speedlin-Gonzalez and her clerk, Teri Benavidez in the county’s court hearing domestic violence matters, County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark, and Judge Peter Sakai, a civil district judge who hears protective orders, custody cases and divorces. The new procedure uses the capability in their county Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) that allows for red “flash codes” to be displayed. In this instance, it is used to share an “AFFIRMATIVE FINDING OF FAMILY VIOLENCE” along with “NO FIREARM” to be shown in the system that both courts use.
While this isn’t the most “high tech” solution, it is one that is both a practical procedural change that uses existing tech capabilities. There are many such instances where the systems exist, the courts just need to look for and implement simple changes.
The other “takeaway” from this article is the simple idea of highlighting important/critical information. Looking into this concept I found an excellent article posted by the Interaction Design Foundation titled “Visual Hierarchy: Organizing content to follow natural eye movement patterns”. It is an interesting read.
Congratulations to the Bexar County judges, clerk and staff.
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