Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
Fiscal Notes June 2, 2006
Greg Mt.Joy

Web site lets constable focus on primary duties

When Travis County Constable Bruce Elfant put his office on the Web, he cut his phone traffic in half, freeing employees to focus on more complex issues.

Elfant’s Precinct 5 was getting 1,000 phone calls a month from attorneys, paralegals and their clients. By adding a Web site, www.constable5.com, the office moved many requests online. The site gets more than 2,500 unique visitors a month, Elfant said.

"We found that 30 percent of our hits are either after-hours or on weekends," he said. "They are able to get real-time information regarding the status of their cases. This is especially critical in family violence cases where victims need to know when protective orders are served so they can know how they should proceed."

Low cost, no cost

The constable’s office developed and maintains the site, and a private sector Web server hosts it, according to Bob Graham, a business analyst with Precinct 5. The cost is about $17 a month.

The precinct managed to set up the site using existing hardware and software or by acquiring necessary equipment for free, Graham said.

"We use Apache, a popular, free, open-source Web server software," he said. "Our department tracking system is written in dBase Plus, a programming language well suited to work with the Internet. So we were able to use our current development platform to serve up data to the Internet."

Travis County Assistant Attorney Linda Magee said the site cuts about 75 percent of the time it used to take to check on applications for protective orders and other paperwork.

"It’s just outstanding," said Magee. "I realize how good it is when it’s offline and I have to return to what I used to do, calling someone and waiting for them to call me back when they have the information."

The site allows a quick turnaround on subpoenas as well, Magee said.

"We have a two-week turnaround on cases," she said. "Everything is a quick turnaround for us. Now we can track subpoenas on the Web site to see if they’ve been served."

The Texas Attorney General’s Office has two Austin child support field offices that use the Web site every day, according to spokeswoman Janece Rolfe.

"It has very quickly become a valuable tool for tracking the status of child support cases," Rolfe said. "We have many cases going to court each month, and it is very important that we know the status of each case. With the site, we can handle more cases and help more families receive the child support they deserve."

The site helps free Attorney General employees to focus on other duties, she said.

"In the past, an employee would have to call Precinct 5," she said. "It was a manual process. It would tie up our staff and take away from other important functions, such as preparing the case for court, searching for custodial parents, meeting with parents to work out payment agreements, and many steps related to establishing and enforcing child support orders."

Car computers next

Next, Elfant said the precinct will place laptop computers in its vehicles and automate deputy activity sheets, mileage logs and officer returns, which will free up support staff and enable deputies to spend more time in the field.

Graham said customers will be able to see each attempt by deputies to serve process on the Web site.

"Our deputies will spend more time in the field because our support staff will be able to do much of their paperwork," Graham said. "Our supervisors will be able to better manage the deputies’ activities because it will be recorded in our tracking system in real time."

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