CCC: Criminal - Warrants Status - Dated May 15, 2026
Summary
The Department of Inspector General reviewed the Criminal Courts Department's procedures and controls for updating the status of arrest warrants and capias warrants in Clericus, covering the audit period April 1, 2025 through September 30, 2025. Testing included policy review, process walk-throughs, and a review of Clericus reports using a random sample of 30 business days during the audit period.
Overall, controls were found adequate to support consistent, accurate, and timely status updates, but the audit identified seven opportunities for improvement, including instances of non-compliance in creating capias warrants within the required 24-hour timeframe, properly documenting recalls in Clericus, and protecting sensitive information such as Social Security numbers stored insecurely. Additional findings addressed gaps in procedures for reviewing Clericus monitoring reports, outdated or incomplete written procedures, low staff awareness of documented procedures, and reports lacking dates/parameters. Management agreed with all recommendations and outlined corrective action plans with target implementation dates through July 2026.
7 findings
- Finding 1mediumpolicy
Capias warrant not created within 24-hour requirement
Procedure CR-CC219 requires capias/warrants to be generated and sent to the judge within 24 hours. A capias warrant ordered on Monday, November 3, 2025, was not generated by the Courtroom Clerk II until Wednesday, November 5, 2025, exceeding the required timeframe.
Recommendation: Since compliance with agreements, contracts, laws, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures are required, a recommendation was not provided.Management response: Agree. Leadership will review procedure CR-CC219 with the teammate and clarify timeframes, providing training if gaps are identified; a reminder bulletin will be issued to all courtroom clerks reinforcing required time standards. Target implementation April 2026. - Finding 2mediumevidence
Recall documentation not properly recorded in Clericus
CR-001 requires that when updating an Active Process for a recall, the comments section must include 'EMAIL SENT', the date, and the teammate's initials. A warrant recalled on October 21, 2025 had its disposition field updated but the required comments section was not completed.
Recommendation: Since compliance with agreements, contracts, laws, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures are required, a recommendation was not provided.Management response: Agree. Leadership will review procedures CR-CC219 and CR-001 with the teammate and issue a reminder bulletin to all applicable teammates reinforcing documentation requirements. Target implementation April 2026. - Finding 3highdata access
Sensitive personal information not properly secured
A Courtroom Clerk II recorded sensitive information (Social Security number, license number, date of birth) on Capias/Warrant Verification Checklists and stored the completed checklists insecurely under her desk, contrary to compliance training and CR-CC219 requirements to scan, save to the M:drive, and properly handle such records.
Recommendation: Since compliance with agreements, contracts, laws, rules, regulations, policies, and procedures are required, a recommendation was not provided.Management response: Agree. Leadership held a verbal discussion with the teammate, will issue a reminder bulletin on safeguarding PII, and will develop a detailed procedure for handling the Verification Checklist. Corrective actions targeted for completion 11/7/2025, May 2026, and July 2026. - Finding 4mediumpolicy
No documented procedure for reviewing Clericus monitoring reports
Although a Report Tracking spreadsheet summarizing available Clericus reports existed, there were no documented procedures for reviewing those reports or resolving identified issues. A case appeared in consecutive weekly reports (May 19 and May 26, 2025) for a missing arrest docket code, and no documentation existed to show the report was reviewed or explain the delay in processing the capias, which was not signed by the judge until May 27, 2025.
Recommendation: Implement a formal written procedure that clearly outlines required steps for monitoring and reviewing each report, including responsibilities, timeliness, frequency, documentation requirements, and escalation steps, and require documented evidence of review.Management response: Agree. A formal written procedure will be completed defining responsibilities, review frequency, and documentation requirements, with training provided to applicable teammates. Target implementation June 2026. - Finding 5mediumpolicy
Outdated or incomplete procedures for arrest and capias warrants
Documented procedures did not reflect current processes or contained limited guidance for certain steps and key controls. Issues included unused signature lines on the Transmittal Form, CR-CM048 lacking guidance for several data fields and timeframes and case-number burning requirements, a Verification Checklist with repetitive bond-verification steps, and vague recall language in CR-001 regarding when a warrant may be recalled without proper documentation.
Recommendation: Update procedures, forms, and checklists to include detailed procedures and internal controls as described.Management response: Agree. A revised Transmittal Form will remove signature lines; CR-CM048 will be updated with mandatory field guidance, timeframes, and case number requirements; the Verification Checklist will be revised to remove redundancy; CR-001 will be clarified regarding recall authority. Target implementation dates April-May 2026. - Finding 6mediumpersonnel
Staff unaware of or unable to locate current warrant procedures
During process observation testing of six teammates, four either did not reference the current procedure, could not locate current procedures on the M: Drive, or did not know documented procedures related to warrants existed.
Recommendation: Improve language on existing Criminal Department Bulletins (CDBs) to include mandatory review of CDBs by supervisors with their impacted teammates.Management response: Agree. Criminal Department will update CDBs and distribution email language requiring supervisor review with teammates, confirm access to procedures, and reinforce ongoing review expectations. Target implementation April-May 2026. - Finding 7lowother
Clericus monitoring reports lack dates and search parameters
Certain auto-generated Clericus reports used for monitoring warrant status did not display a report date or the criteria used to generate the report, limiting the ability to verify timeliness and scope of review. This affected the Open Active Process Without Corresponding Arrest Docket Code Entered Report (missing report date) and the FTA Event Result with No Future Active Process within 3 Days Report (missing date and parameters).
Recommendation: Update reports to include date and parameters in the report header.Management response: Agree. The Criminal Courts Department will update both reports to display report date and applicable parameters in the header, and communicate updates to teammates. Target implementation April-July 2026.