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Committee hears progress report on Montana Criminal Justice Data Warehouse; pilots underway in three counties
Summary
Border Crime Control staff told the Senate Judiciary Committee that three pilot counties are being onboarded to the state criminal justice data warehouse and that preliminary data from corrections and public-defense systems are flowing; agency said AI tools have not yet been purchased.
Sen. Barry Usher presented Senate Joint Resolution 43, proposing an interim study of the Montana Criminal Justice Data Warehouse and related policy questions. The committee heard informational testimony from agency staff during a hearing that emphasized rollout and data governance details.
Natalia Bowser, director for Border Crime Control, said the warehouse implementation is running as planned with pilot projects spanning Ravalli, Gallatin and Cascade counties; MOUs were pending a final signature in at least one locality. Bowser said the project secured a large vendor contract to standardize records-management inputs and that data from the Department of Corrections and Office of the Public Defender are already being integrated.
“Right now, we are getting everything from the time of arrest through the end of the criminal justice system,” Bowser told the committee, adding the warehouse is intended to let analysts trace a person’s path through multiple agencies to evaluate programs and outcomes.
Janice Friess, statistical analysis center director at the Montana Board of Crime Control, said her unit hosts the warehouse and stands ready to answer technical questions. On a question about artificial intelligence, Bowser said the agency has not purchased AI tools because it believes it lacks the necessary volume and maturity of data and is cautious about buying analytics prematurely.
Senators asked about data types, MOUs, and analytic plans; the sponsor asked the committee to treat the proposal as a study vehicle if policy changes are needed. No final vote on SJ43 occurred at that hearing.
