This bureau was awarded the much coveted Director's Unit Citation

Mission

To provide information services to internal and external DPS customers in support of public safety and to improve department efficiency through automation and the application of new technology.

Overview

The Information Technology Bureau designs, develops, maintains and operates automated computer systems to support the Enforcement, Investigative and Administrative functions of the Agency. These programs include the statewide Criminal Justice Information on-line network utilized by all criminal justice agencies in Arizona.

Goals

1. To improve support to the department and other Criminal Justice Agencies using state of the art technology.

2. Provide professional development for Information Technology employees.

3. Improve customer service.

4. To provide efficient and responsive support to the criminal justice community.

The Application Development Unit is responsible for the computer program development, maintenance and support of criminal justice, law enforcement, criminal investigative and administrative applications for the Department of Public Safety. The Department is also the state’s central message switch for authorized local, state and federal criminal justice agencies to access the National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System and the National Crime Information Center. This message switching system automates the interstate exchange of criminal history, warrants, adult probation, orders of protection, sex offender registrations, drivers’ license and vehicle registration information as well as the national exchange of wanted persons, stolen vehicles, boats, weapons and securities between criminal justice agencies within Arizona, other states and the FBI. Millions of computer transactions are processed each month through this message switch network.

A staff of 14 full-time developers provide the 24 hour, 365 day computer based services for these interfaces to criminal justice agencies statewide and for over 80 custom developed applications for the Department’s day to day operations. This application development group consists of 6 system analysts and 8 programmers who are responsible for all phases of the software development life cycle, the evaluation of commercial software applications, and software development project planning.

The Application Development Unit also has a full-time webmaster responsible for the design and support of the Department's internet and intranet websites.