Portal allowing King County crime victims to track their cases goes online

King County is giving victims information about their cases through a new secure online portal. And this morning, Alicia Manion and Leticia Figueroa are here with the King County Prosecutor's Office to share a little bit more. Good morning, ladies, and thank you for joining us. Good morning. Thank you so much for having us. Okay, let's talk about this. Why is this so important? Well, this is really important because it is a new tool, the first of its kind in our state, that really gives victims and survivors real-time access to information about their cases. It is an app that victims can sign up to get email or text notifications about hearings, about information on their case. They can fill out forms and submit restitution documents online as opposed to receiving a paper form, filling out a paper form, and mailing a paper form. It's really modern day customer service. And why now? Why is this coming about now? Why is it taking maybe this long? Some folks say, why didn't we do this earlier? Well, it's taken a while to develop the technology and we also did the important work and Leticia did the important work of getting feedback from victims, from advocates, from prosecutors to make sure that this tool was useful. So why did your office decide to create this? I know you got the feedback. It's probably took some time, like you said, to do this, but it seems more an effective way for people to get information. Well, it really supplements the work that our advocates do in person. Victims often want information, but rather than have to take the time to call or wait for a phone call or send an email or wait for an email, they have the information right at their fingertips. And Leticia, that's so important to especially victims, to people out there who feel vulnerable and don't feel like they're being seen or heard, right? Absolutely. tool that's going to allow victims to be able to stay more engaged within the process. It's a very overwhelming process, and this gives them the ability to be able to have information and to be able to contact and connect with their office. And as we talk about this a little bit more, this is a first of its kind in our state and elsewhere, correct? Correct. Okay. Do you hope to be the leaders that push this through not only more spots in our state, but across the country, for people to get their information. Well, I hope others copy us, simply because in my way of thinking, this is part of the good governance of being a public service and making sure the victims have access to the information that they need. And why are you so passionate about continuing to effort this, either one of you? Well, because it's one of, it's another tool for victims in their toolbox to be able to get more information. Well, we cannot change the harm that they have experienced. We can remove barriers and make sure that they have easier access to information as they're navigating the legal system process. And in this process, I'm sure you've received feedback from both sides. Have you received positive feedback from other agencies or other areas or other states looking to you guys as leaders? Right. Well, we have just made this public, and so I suspect we will receive feedback. We have received feedback from victims who have signed up for the portal, and the feedback has been positive. So we want to talk about, too, this builds on the King County's online protection order portal. Or are you hoping that this evolves to help build more resources like, you know, just even extended on beyond looking at their filings and their documents. But resources as far as where they can get help, where they can seek maybe mental health or counseling or things like that. Is that something, a branch that's, you know, you're looking at moving forward? Well, we're seeking victim input and survivor input because we're always on the path for continuous improvement. And anything that we can do to make service easier, to make access easier, to remove barriers, we're 100% in support of. Yeah, have you received specific feedback from any one person or so that has just made you say, yeah, this one feedback is making it all worth it? Because we're getting positive. Having the ability for victims to update their contact information has been huge. And that's so important for our office to be able to have updated contact information for our staff to be able to contact victims. So that has been a huge, huge thing for us. And that in itself makes it so much worth it for us. All the work that has been put into this, to have the ability to have the correct contact information for victims is crucial. And this has got to feel, I can't imagine being a victim of something like this, but to have that extended relationship feels like someone cares, right? Exactly. Exactly. And also, you know, sometimes criminal cases pen for a very long time and the ability to ensure that our victims and our survivors are kept up to date all along the way is super important to us. Anything else you guys want to add this morning about this, this, this portal? You know, I would just say it's an important tool. I'm so happy to offer it to our community, and we are still going to fight to protect victims rights both in Olympia and also protect funding for victim advocates. Well, Lisa and Leticia, thank you so much for being here this morning and letting us know about this. Thank you so much for having us.