If Chief Justice Daniel Wathen’s vigor in campaigning for a computer system seemed unusual in 1994, it makes complete sense in 1999. That’s because Maine’s court system, after five years of effort, still needs funding and support to finish its centralized computer system for all cases and records. Quick access to this information is not mere convenience, but often a matter of effective law enforcement.

A police officer who wants to know whether a driver has a history of traffic violations can get the information instantly by computer. Same for looking up outstanding warrants. But if an officer in, say, Washington County is called on a Saturday night to investigate an instance of domestic violence, he or she cannot easily check to see whether the alleged perpetrator has a protection-from-abuse order against him in York or Cumberland or any other county. The problem exists statewide. Expanding access to civil information is important both for police and for bail commissioners, who often are called late at night to set bail on suspects about whom they have too little information.

A bill by Rep. Michael Saxl of Portland puts a plan for a centralized computer system on a schedule to be finished by Nov. 1. By then, the bill would require the system to contain all criminal and civil records, with the added requirement that all agencies that need access to the information have computers and appropriate technology. The court system already has a target of mid-September to complete the criminal-record side, partly in response to Y2K problems in its old computers, but adding the civil information is another important step in Justice Wathen’s long-running fight to increase the abilities of the court system’s limited budget and number of employees. With the hardware already in place, this bill gives a push and a deadline for getting even more information on-line.

The data available to law enforcement through the Saxl bill would cover more than domestic violence, but that is a major reason for the legislation. Not only is it the only crime to show an increase in recent years, domestic violence led to 57 percent of the murders in Maine last year. It’s the dangerous call that police are most likely to take at 2 a.m. and the reason that the Legislature will consider this session two dozen bills aimed at stopping it. Access to information is a vital part of controlling the problem.

The estimated cost of this proposal is a relatively modest $190,000, but the payback in increased safety to victims of domestic violence far exceeds that. Lawmakers should support the bill as an important next step in the court system’s lengthy computer project.