The Cherokee County Clerk of Courts office is employing technological upgrades this year to improve efficiency.

Clerk of Courts Patty Baker said she hopes to launch a new case management system as soon as next month.

The current system is "not as current as the technology could be," she said.

The new system will be Web-based and allow for data sharing between the county's superior, state and magistrate courts. It will also be linked to the sheriff's, district attorney's and solicitor's offices, as well as probation and pre-trial services and the City of Woodstock.

"This system has added bells and whistles my current system does not have," she said.

The software for the case management system is free to the county, as Mrs. Baker won a $326,000 data exchange program grant from the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia.

Cherokee County State Court Judge Alan Jordan said the new system will cut down on the number of times information is entered into a computer. This, he said, will streamline the court system and cut down on opportunities for information to be entered incorrectly or be lost.

"Sometimes, information literally gets lost," he said. The new system "is just better for everybody."

Mrs. Baker said this year she also would like to install two flat-screen TV monitors at the Justice Center to display a daily schedule of court activities. The monitors would be placed at each entrance at the Justice Center. Her office currently posts paper schedules throughout the courthouse.

"It would save paper and a lot of time," she said of the monitors, adding it can take as long as 30 minutes to distribute the paper schedules throughout the entire courthouse.

The monitors are expected to cost about $29,000, and the money will come from the clerk of court's technology fund.

She said she hopes to have the monitors in place before the end of the year.

Mrs. Baker also is working on installing an electronic warrant program. It would allow law enforcement officers from a laptop computer in their patrol car or their precinct to communicate with a judge to get search and arrest warrants.

Another project, she said, is to install video conferencing between the Justice Center at Adult Detention Center. This system would reduce the need to transport inmates back and forth from the two facilities and also would be a convenience for staff.

Both programs are being funded by Department of Justice grants: $76,360 for the electronic warrant system and $46,200 for video conferencing.

Mrs. Baker said her goal is to have the both programs operating within a couple of months.

"It will really bring Cherokee County into the 21st century," she said.