A disposition is a decision of the court (i.e. guilty, not guilty, no file, etc.) in a specific case. Disposition matching is the process of connecting the disposed court case with an arrest on the defendant's RAP sheet. Colorado defines Disposition Matching as a ratio of disposed court cases matching a fingerprint-based arrest, divided by the total disposed court cases for a given time frame.
In the beginning, Colorado had a very low Disposition Match Rate - however it was in line with the national average. CICJIS has been formally measuring felony Disposition Match rates since January 2000. The current Disposition Match Rate is averaging about 98% (over the last 12 months). CICJIS tracks the missed opportunities by county and requires the counties to fix those that should have matched but did not, usually due to a human element in the process (i.e., bad fingerprint, incorrect docket number, incorrect originating or arresting agency). Disposition Matching reflects the accuracy of CICJIS information.
Without CICJIS, the Disposition Match process, and continual monitoring, Colorado would see the rate decline to something closer to the pre-CICJIS rate of around 8-10% (April 1998). A lower disposition match rate indicates inaccurate CICJIS information. Additionally, a lower disposition match ratio increases the chance of citizen litigation against the state.
CICJIS measures disposition data for:
- Adult (felony) - since January 2001
- Juvenile (felony/misdemeanor) - since April 2004
- Misdemeanor (adult) - since August 2009