Illinois governor plots better IT

Illinois fiscal 2005 budget address

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich outlined a fiscal 2005 budget for the state that emphasizes consolidation and better use of information technology, particularly in law enforcement.

One of his top initiatives is to merge all state police functions into a single organization, the Illinois State Police, instead of spreading personnel and resources across three offices. The other two are the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Department of Central Management Services' Police.

The merger, which will take place during the next four years, combined with federal grants, will allow state officials to purchase new information systems or enhance existing ones, Blagojevich said in a speech to the Illinois General Assembly. This includes:

* Providing 600 new mobile computers to field personnel in fiscal 2005.

* Merging the Illinois State Police and Chicago Police Department systems and making the combined system available to all law enforcement agencies through the Illinois Citizens and Law Enforcement Analysis Reporting System.

* Enhancing the Illinois Integrated Justice Information System so that law enforcement officers can share information with the criminal justice system.

Officials statewide anticipate that increased efficiencies in procurement and consolidation of technology should result in savings of $200 million and $70.6 million, respectively, in fiscal 2005. The Governor's Office of Management and Budget has also started a performance review system that will compare Illinois agencies' performance against that of other states' agencies and independent benchmarks.