District Attorney Transcription Process Reengineered

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office (DA) receives recordings or evidence from law enforcement agencies about an alleged crime by an individual or individuals. The DA must review this evidence and decide whether to proceed with prosecution of the case. In most criminal cases, law enforcement’s evidence includes DVD’s, CD’s or tapes of recordings of defendants or witnesses. These recordings must be transcribed to written form so the attorney is able to review the evidence. Department wide, the county estimates that in one year they receive from law enforcement over 7,100 hours of recordings, with each hour of recordings equaling five hours of transcribing and three hours quality review. A comprehensive streamlined approach was developed to ensure an accurate reproduction of evidential recordings while reducing costs and having positive impacts to the workforce related to repetitive motion injuries and stress. The approach included re-engineering the county's internal process by improving request forms, training attorneys to delay transcription requests until service is necessary, using a transcription company that trained and hired technical experts to be more sensitive to the department's needs and meeting quality and accuracy demands.