Simply put, the Pennsylvania Docket Monitor helps reporters get court information faster.
It's designed to help reporters stay up to date on charges filed -- without waiting for police to issue a press release.
Here's how it works:
The program trolls the dockets entered into the Pennsylvania Unified Justice System, and then adds them to the Docket Monitor database. Essentially, it provides a timeline of every criminal charge filed in every county.
With the Docket Monitor, reporters can spend less time tracking down the name of a murder suspect or discovering whether a warrant has been issued for a suspect in a newsworthy case.
Not only will this help reporters get stories out faster, it will also help them keep government agencies like the police and the DA accountable.
As newsrooms worldwide cope with doing more with less, this tool can be a real time-saver.
With my background working as a reporter in small newsrooms, I understand the pressures and limitations that modern newsrooms face. That's why I created the Pennsylvania Docket Monitor.
I didn't create the tool to replace strong beat reporting, but instead to assist it.
I owe a great deal of thanks to Michael Cermak at
CermakTech for writing the scripts.
The docket monitor is free to use.
This is largely a one person project -- because of this the source code and files have been made available for anyone to use and improve as per the GNU General Public License.
--Joshua Vaughn
email:
info@padocketmonitor.com
