Municipal Clerk Manual – Courts without JIS - Chapter 3 - Citation Case Processing Procedures: OCN Clarification Scenarios/Tips

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Municipal Clerk Manual – Courts without JIS

		Section/Rule:	3.3b
Subject:	Chapter 3 - Citation Case Processing Procedures	Publication / Adopted Date:	July 2012
Topic:	OCN Clarification Scenarios/Tips	Revised / Effective Date:	October 2015

Municipal Clerk Manual
Courts without JIS
Chapter Three - Citation Case Processing Procedures

3.3b - OCN CLARIFICATION SCENARIOS/TIPS

References:
Statutes: 43.503, RSMo
Publication: July 2012
Revised: October 2015

Introduction

The following scenarios are provided to assist court clerks in ensuring an Offense Cycle Number (OCN), is obtained for each case. OSCA, in conjunction with the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Criminal History Services Unit, has provided a variety of scenarios that could occur and the recommended practice for each. For additional information, please refer to section 301.11, Criminal History Reporting in the Court Clerk Handbook.

If you have any questions or comments please contact the Office of State Courts Administrator (OSCA) Help Desk at 888-541-4894 or the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) Criminal History Services Unit at 573-526-6345.

Quick Index

Scenarios
Orders for Fingerprinting

Orders for Fingerprinting (Section 43.503.8, RSMo)

A law enforcement agency ordered by the court to fingerprint a subject shall be responsible for obtaining a set of fingerprints on persons for which the court has a pending case or pronounced sentence but no OCN is available, and when the court determines that the person has not been previously fingerprinted.

The law enforcement agency named on the Order for Fingerprinting shall use the information on the Order to fill in the ORI, charge(s), date of offense, and the date fingerprinted as the date of arrest on the card. If the ORI listed on the Order for Fingerprinting is different from your agency, list your agency ORI as the booking agency. The Law Enforcement agency responsible for the order shall forward/submit the completed fingerprint card to the Central Repository and also forward the prosecutor action copy to the prosecuting attorney and to the court or jurisdiction along with the court copy of the OCN.

If a law enforcement agency determines a valid OCN has been previously submitted to the Central Repository and is in the criminal history system, a new set of fingerprints does not need to be completed. Printing the subject a second time will result in a duplicate arrest record. The Order for Fingerprinting should be returned to the court with the original OCN listed on it. A copy of the Order for Fingerprinting should be forwarded to the Prosecuting Attorney to allow for reporting to the Central Repository of the prosecutor action.

Scenarios

A valid OCN should be entered for every Criminal History Reportable case, however, it does not have to be a different OCN for every case. Different cases can have the same OCN. The OCN becomes the tracking number for that arrest in which the subject is fingerprinted. If a subject has multiple warrants, one OCN (filled out correctly) would be all that is required.

In scenarios below where a ticket was issued, but no OCN was obtained, it should be noted that, from a law enforcers prospective, if an incident occurs many miles from the location of the fingerprinting “station” (Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Detention Center, etc.), it is likely for the law enforcement officer to only issue a ticket. It is during these instances where the Order for Fingerprinting can be utilized at the time the DFT appears in court.

Although it is the discretion of the arresting agency to fingerprint the individual when arresting on a warrant, here are some common scenarios that could occur.

Scenario #1

July 2008 – Jack Jones is taken into custody for shoplifting but an OCN is not created. Jack Jones does not show up for court (case #1) and a warrant is issued.

Sept 2009 – Jack Jones is pulled over and given a ticket for Driving While Suspended (DWS), but again, no OCN is created. Jack Jones does not show up for court (case #2) and a warrant is issued.

Dec. 2010 – Jack Jones is pulled over and arrested for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). And OCN is created for this incident. The OCN created for this DWI charge can also be used for the charges on the shoplifting warrant (case #1) and the DWS warrant (case #2).

Because the shoplifting and DWS charges were in the past, and already had two pending warrants (for two separate cases), law enforcement does not have to fingerprint Jack Jones three times during the DWI incident (creating three OCN’s). Charges from previous incidents can only be added on a new OCN if warrants were issued and the warrant number is included on the new OCN.

Scenario #2

Jan 2011 – Bob Smith is arrested and an OCN is created for DWI (case #1).

Feb 2011 – Bob Smith is involved in a domestic assault and given a ticket but an OCN was not created (case #2). When he appears for a hearing – an order for fingerprinting should be signed by the judge and an OCN should be created for the domestic assault charge.

March 2011 - Bob Smith is pulled over for DWS and is given a ticket and a ride home. No OCN is created. He doesn’t show up for court and a warrant is issued (case #3).

April 2011 – Bob Smith is again involved in a domestic assault and this time is arrested and taken in to be processed. An OCN is created for this assault charge. The charge of DWS for case #3 (along with the warrant number) can be added to this OCN.

Scenario #3

Jane Doe is arrested on a warrant for passing bad checks (she wrote 10 checks on 10 different dates). During her arrest, an OCN is created and even though each charge could be treated as a different case (with different offense dates) but only one OCN needs to be created as she was only arrested one time.

Note: If Law Enforcement fingerprints Jane Doe for multiple passing bad check charges that span multiple years, it is possible to have different charge codes for those offenses if the charge code has changed or modified any during the timeframe the offenses occurred.

Scenario #4

A court clerk is preparing a file for a case that has a scheduled hearing soon and notices the OCN card is not present, nor has it been entered into JIS. The clerk creates, and has the judge sign an Order for Fingerprinting. At the time the defendant appears in court, an OCN is created from the information taken from the Order for Fingerprinting. This OCN is added to the case in JIS and successfully reports to MSHP (as no other errors appear on the case). A few months go by and the court clerk receives an email from OSCA Court Services advising them that due to research performed by MSHP and/or OSCA staff, it was discovered that the OCN that had been previously entered into JIS is invalid and is being replaced by another OCN.

It is common for a defendant to be fingerprinted more than once for the same offense during the criminal justice process. For instance, if an OCN was created during the arrest, but was not properly passed on to the prosecutor and/or court, an Order for Fingerprinting could create a duplicate OCN. In many instances, the original OCN was reported to MSHP by law enforcement (creating a Criminal History record), but not forwarded on to the prosecutor or court. The subsequent OCN created by the Order was also reported to MSHP via OSCA at the time of the charge(s) being filed or disposed. MSHP and OSCA research reveals the valid OCN, and emails are then sent to the court locations regarding the update of the record in JIS.

OSCA also emails court personnel when it is necessary to delete what appears to be valid OCN out of JIS and not replace it with a different valid OCN. In these instances, it is possible for the original OCN to be rejected by MSHP due to poor quality, or the OCN was never properly reported to MSHP. Meanwhile, the prosecutor and court copy of the original OCN has been forwarded on to the respective agencies, resulting in records reporting (both case initiation and case disposition) to MSHP that have no arrest record on file. Deleting the invalid OCN from JIS will prohibit invalid charge filing and/or charge disposition from reporting to MSHP.