Initiative aims for seamless flow of information from police to courts
The provincial government has announced its plans to expand its eIntake platform for filing criminal charges in six courthouses across Central Eastern Ontario including Peterborough, Newmarket and Oshawa this May and to implement the initiative provincewide by 2022.
The eIntake system aims to benefit the police, the courts’ justices of the peace and the wider community by expediting the criminal charge filing process and by reducing the time spent on paperwork, to allow for a seamless flow of information from the police to the courts and for a more efficient, connected and resilient criminal justice system, said the news release from Ontario’s solicitor general’s office.
The eIntake platform seeks to ensure that frontline police officers can spend more time preventing and investigating crime and can access the tools and resources required to better protect communities. The tool aims to enable justices of the peace to electronically enter their decisions, sign documents and request additional information from police.
The provincial government piloted the eIntake initiative in Barrie and Orillia from November 2019 to September 2020 and launched the platform in Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario.
“This is yet another step we are taking towards building a more connected criminal justice system,” said Sylvia Jones, Ontario’s solicitor general, in the news release.
“Expanding the electronic filing of criminal charges to Central East Region is another step forward in our work to support the essential work of prosecutors, courts and police, including in rural communities,” said Doug Downey, Ontario’s attorney general.
The eIntake platform is one of the provincial government’s digital initiatives seeking to build a seamless, simple and efficient justice system and one of over 30 projects aiming to improve how individuals and businesses interact with government, which make up “Ontario Onwards: Ontario’s COVID-19 Action Plan for a People-Focused Government.”
“We are moving Ontario Onwards by ensuring our critical services are more convenient, reliable, and accessible,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Ontario’s treasury board president, finance minister and minister responsible for digital and data transformation.
