ULTRA is a system to assist local agencies in creating and submitting their Uniform Crime Reports. In late 2008, the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) unveiled ULTRA, a software system that was developed by the Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS) with the close guidance and sponsorship of ACJIC. ULTRA is a smart-client software application that allows agencies to create and submit Alabama Uniform Incident Offense (IO) and Arrest reports to ACJIC via the Internet. ULTRA offers a no-cost solution to agencies who wish to be able to enter, search and retrieve state IO, Arrest and Supplement Reports.

Some of the advanced features of ULTRA include:

• UCR data submissions to ACJIC on a near real-time basis;
• LETS searching capability while connected to the Internet;
• Pre-population of forms using “drag and drop” of LETS query results into IO and Arrest reports;
• Spell checking;
• Generation of printable reports;
• Driver’s license reader compatibility; and
• Ability for officers to search and review all of their agency’s reports.

Agencies using ULTRA may create reports while working either connected to the Internet or not. The system will buffer any information that needs uploading and perform the transfer once connectivity is established. The system also allows local agencies to store information on local ordinance violations and non-criminal events for local agency use only.

The page below is the home page of the ULTRA system. Its interface uses a Ribbon control in order to be familiar to users of Microsofts most recent Office suite.

• The small icons at the very top are shortcuts to the same buttons that exist on the ribbon tabs.
• The larger row of icons on the ‘Home’ tab of the ribbon are the ways in which to start or edit a UCR report. You can open an existing report from either your local drive or the server or you can begin a new report of one of the four types.
• By clicking the ‘Recover from the server’ button on the ribbon you will be shown a search screen for retrieving past reports. Past reports can either be used to populate new reports, or they can be retrieved for updating. The top part of the screen contains a filter specification on the left and a quick view of the selected report on the right.

The bottom of the screen contains a listing of all reports that qualify according to the specified filter. Double clicking on a line or selecting the report and clicking ‘Download’ will bring up the report itself.

The screen below is the Administrative Page for an open UCR report.

***To view the image click here.***

Note that there is a panel on the left that allows any sub-section of any currently open UCR report to be accessed.. It also enables a quick view of which sections are completed and which need further action before submission can take place.

The tab currently selected on the Ribbon is specific to the currently open UCR report and allows you to save, validate, submit, etc. These same icons are added to the ‘Quick Access Toolbar’ at the top. The next line contains the Agency ORI (supplied by default from MOVE logon), the case number and the report type (this one happens to be an Incident report). There are a set of tabs across the top of the report on the next line that can be used to jump to any section of the report. As much information as can be provided by default is provided, and but even some of these data items can be altered by the drop-down menus provided. The rest of the administrative information on this screen is self explanatory. The data provided in this example is obviously fictitious to prevent any misinterpretations.

***To view the image click here.***

The screen below presents an example of a search on all reports between December 4, 2002 and December 8, 2009.

***To view the image click here.***

This creates a dashboard of all of the qualifying cases as given on the “ULTRA Report Search Parameters” section above it. The ordering of the list may be altered by clicking on the title label at the top of the list. It is possible to view any one of these reports by double clicking on the line or selecting the row and clicking ‘Download’. This will download and open the report.

***To view the image click here.***

From this screen it is possible to navigate to any part of the (in this example, Offense) report. For example, clicking on the Event button in the second line of tabs next to the Administration tab will give access to the Event portion of the form, given below.

***To view the image click here.***

As can be seen, this screen contains all data to be collected on the time and place of the event that is being reported. There are three other tabs at the top of the main body of this screen that record the Conditions, Activity and further Details. Collectively this covers all of the information that is collected on the event itself.

The Event section is one main section of the ULTRA report. Note the buttons to the right and above the Event button. ULTRA also contains the following major sections:

• Complainant
• Victim
• Witness
• Suspect
• Offender
• Missing Person
• Arrest
• Domestic Violence
• Property
• Vehicle
• Narrative
• Attachments
• Violations

Most reports will not have all of these sections active. If they do not apply they are just left blank.

As a final interesting tool, when the ‘Save, View or Print’ button is clicked on the ‘Document’ tab of the ribbon, on the ‘Quick Access Toolbar’ or on the main menu, the following pop-up will appear on the screen.

***To view the image click here.***

Users can select any number of the sections of the report to save, print or view. The green arrow puts them on the output list to be processed. If mistakes are made, the red arrow will remove them from the list. The blue up and down arrows will reorder the documents in the output list. When satisfied, click one of the buttons on the bottom of the pane. The sections will be merged into one PDF document and, depending on which the user has chosen, will be saved, open or sent to a printer.

In summary, ULTRA is a case management system developed specifically for agencies who do not have vendors providing them with this capability. ULTRA is available at no cost with minimal set up requirements.

For more information or to express your agency’s interest in ULTRA, please contact ACJIC’s Crime Statistics and Information Division at (334) 517-2450.

⇑TOP⇑