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posted by n1 on Thursday December 01 2016, @11:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the computer-says-you're-guilty dept.
An Anonymous Coward writes:

People's jobs and freedom are being jeopardized by the roll-out of new software by California's courts.

[..] Odyssey, the new system being rolled out across much of California to deal with case file management.

So far, the problems have seen people wrongfully arrested, held in prison longer than required and in several cases mistakenly told they must register as sex offenders.

The software, created by Texas-based Tyler Technologies, costs about $5m and is set to gradually replace a decades-old e-filing system that looks like something a hacker would use in a Hollywood movie.

[...] Minor driving offences were incorrectly appearing as serious felonies,  meaning if an affected person applied for a job, they are likely to be flagged as having a serious criminal record.

[...] Tyler Technologies provided a statement to the BBC in which it defended its software, and shifted blame back to Alameda County's staff.

It said many factors could impact the software's usefulness, among them training of those who use the technology.

"We are confident that we have the experience to help our client navigate those inevitable headwinds, just as we have done many times before with other complex implementations," spokesman Tony Katsulos said.

Source: BBC News


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:59PM (#435482)

    Maybe you are too young to have experienced this, but back in the day before computers did EVERYTHING, people could end up in a shit situation due to what was known as a "clerical error." Some clerk would misenter information on a paper form or else not file paperwork as required. Agency B wouldn't get their needed info from Agency A and the onus was on YOU to convince them THEY had made an error. It is a proven fact that computers have improved the accuracy of information filing over the old manual paper days.

    The only legitimate complaint is against the laws and rules that make this information keeping required.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:08PM (#435487)

    I should clarify that I am arguing against people who say computers *in general* are the problem rather than *the law*.

    In this *particular* case, it might be that the software is buggy due to incompetence by the contractor, or because the govt gave the contractor bad specs to work from, or because the operators are dense. Nobody on this website knows the answer to that yet.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:14PM (#435491)

      I'll add another possible cause: inadequate budget of money/time allocated to system testing before going live.

  • (Score: 2) by jcross on Friday December 02 2016, @09:45PM

    by jcross (4009) on Friday December 02 2016, @09:45PM (#436241)

    It might be, however, that our perceptions of improved accuracy have outpaced the actual accuracy. In the time of clerical errors, anyone could see themselves making one, and it was an eventuality that had to be accounted for somehow. With computers, it's beyond most users to comprehend the reasons behind an algorithmic error, so they tend to assume the smart people who made the software couldn't possibly have fucked up.

    Also we still have to live with clerical errors because people are still entering the data, sometimes over and over again for no good reason, like with the medical forms I keep having to fill out by hand with the exact same information as last time.