Among the aspects of real-life journalism that permeated classroom conversation—and student workloads—was that reporters are expected to juggle several assignments at once because deadlines are constant. Some of my students—including this one—churned out stories from public meetings coverage alongside their capstone papers.
By Julian Moncaleano
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ government audit and oversight committee held a public hearing Nov. 15 about how to improve data sharing among public safety and criminal justice departments—despite a plan that has seen 20 years of mostly stalemate.
The JUSTIS database, which stands for Justice Tracking Information System, is supposed to track behavior such as police stops of civilians, arrests and use of force. The city is looking to invest in technology that would essentially make San Francisco residents feel safer.
But JUSTIS isn’t functioning as planned. In the late 1990s, the goal was to connect the city’s law enforcement offices and eliminate paper. This didn’t happen. The San Francisco Police Department, for instance, still uses paper to issue citations. Because of too little funding and staffing, the records of the police department, the sheriff’s department, the district attorney, the public defender, juvenile probation and adult probation have never been electronically combined under a unified software system.
At the recent hearing, the information-sharing benefits of a unified system like JUSTIS were discussed. Domestic violence cases were one kind of example. There are calls from residents to police complaining of domestic violence, but it is unclear how many of these calls and reports result in arrests. With JUSTIS, the city will be able to monitor and determine how each reported incident was handled.
Susan Merritt, the police department’s chief information officer, explained how JUSTIS would work. “Officers will just enter citations on a smartphone that will be shared to the JUSTIS hub and then to the courts. We’re aiming to make data a tool for crime fighting and for stopping crime.”
Most of the members of the public who attended the hearing seemed to support the idea of database sharing so that the public can more easily access the information.
“It bothers me that they (government agencies) get to choose their own software,” said George Wooden, referring to the current systems of managing and tracking cases. “They should be on the same software so they can share this info to get better results.”
The major issue facing JUSTIS is its technical support. They were expected to work with the city’s department of technology but failed to get priority. Supervisors at the recent hearing kept asking Merritt about the possibility of hackers, but she assured them that data is protected.
The hearing ended without any decisions made.
Reporting with Lydia Lum 
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Hi there — I don’t know if I can help, but to be candid I have had NO problems (fingers crossed….) thus far w/the mobile friendly aspect. Funny enough, I simply punched up my URL on my iPhone, and the “responsive” aspect of the site ends up being “friendly” enough for my tastes. Honestly! I use “Independent Publisher” as my theme and it’s a clean, simple format. I have NO plug-ins (why pay…?) The wraparound aspect of Indie Publisher is a nice one, and I credit my frmr student, Dimitri D Bailey, with helping me select it. If you put MY website name into your phone (remember “s” w http) you will see what I mean. See how the lime green “cloud” of subjects on homepage drops to bottom of iPhone screen? It’s fairly straightforward, so I bet a lot of this involves what format (or theme?) you choose upfront. I think “Button” format might also be a nice, straightforward one that is easily iPhone friendly w/o too many bells and whistles. I kinda think that the fancier format (or theme) that you choose, the more “weird” appearance on smartphones, if that makes sense….? Stick to a no-cost (or low-cost) theme or format from WordPress choices, and I bet you solve the mobile friendly issue. Just my opinion. Hopefully helpful? — Lydia
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Happy to have you join us! You seem familiar too, and I’m not even a gamer nor a gambler (haha). Seriously, though, welcome, and we hope you drop by often. We went live early Feb 2018. If you’re window-shopping for subjects, click HOME and noodle around the lime-green cloud of subject choices on the right. Take care, Lydia
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We appreciate you dropping by, and hope you return often. Perhaps searching terms like “college journalism.”
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Thanks for dropping by, and for the nice words. This site is Independent Publisher theme and I just followed the layout instructions. No one hired except a couple of sympathetic current and former students to get me started in B&W. Under “customizer” on the left are lots of options for color schemes and other bells and whistles. Everything is changeable, deletable and best of all, the site never goes off the rails. It is straightforward, IMO. Thanks again.
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Hi Jermaine — thanks for the nice words, and for stopping by. Come back whenever you like, we are approx two-thirds of the way finished with posting the content. Take care — Lydia
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Hi Ahmad — thanks for stopping by, and for the note. I don’t get many “comments” but they are occasional — everything goes to Spam, and I manually hit “approve” to let the comment “appear,” like yours is. Alas, I have no recommendation for you on the Spam but my condolences. I don’t worry at all about Spam, and I don’t even use Plug-ins bc my WordPress plan is the bare-bones basic, and I tell you, I have been quite happy with the “level” of offerings, and the theme. Sorry I have nothing else to offer you! — Lydia
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