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The 20th Judicial Circuit, Lee County Courts in collaboration with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Office of State Court Administrator and the Florida Association of County Clerks has implemented new technology that will enable law enforcement to conduct more extensive background checks on all defendants appearing for criminal court events, both misdemeanor and felony. The system, dubbed AWACS (Active Warrant Alert Calendaring System), allows the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies (State Attorney, Public Defender, Clerk of Court) to receive daily calendar warrant alerts for 13 judges’ calendars. The system accesses up to 13 state and national databases and within minutes identifies defendants with active warrants on the court calendar system so that law enforcement can execute the warrants and take the individuals into custody when appropriate.

November 17, 2008 marked the first day the system began operating within the Lee County Court System. The technology made a seamless transition into production after a testing phase in October into early November. The results have been astounding: Previously, it took at least a day to run background checks on criminal court dockets for any given day; now it takes as little as 10 minutes. Between November 17th-25th, 2,972 names were run through background checks and 141 were "flagged" for having active warrants.

Lee County is the pilot program in the state for this new technology which Governor Crist’s office has been monitoring closely. Chief Judge G. Keith Cary hopes to involve other law enforcement agencies within the circuit to incorporate this technology into their processes. His goal is for every county within the circuit to have AWACS. "This active warrant alert initiative demonstrates the commitment of the courts and law enforcement to ensuring public safety," said Chief Judge Cary. Sheriff Mike Scott, Lee County Sheriff’s Office, echoed this sentiment: "Investment in this technology provides another level in safe-guarding the public and does so in an expeditious and cost-effective manner."

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Court Administration will have a demonstration of the AWACS system for interested members of the media on 12/9/08 at 10:30am in the Court Operations Division of the Lee County Justice Center.

Media inquiries are directed to Sheila Mann, Court Operations Manager, Communications, at (239) 533-1723 or the Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer at (239) 477-1340.