Failure To Apear (FTA) Program
Participation in the FTA program requires the participating jurisdiction to have an appropriate computer. For other than a few large jurisdictions, participation requires:
- Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or later version of a Windows operating system
- IBM PC or compatible with a minimum 486 processor
- 16 megabytes of Random Access Memory
- 500 megabyte or larger hard drive
- Hays compatible (non-USB) modem
The Vendor will provide the software necessary for the jurisdiction to participate in the FTA Program, at no charge. The software is referred to as Remote Entry System (RES) software.
If the jurisdiction uses a third-party court software vendor, (i.e., OCA, CSI, HCS, etc.) the court software vendor's application will manage the database, do the reporting of offenses, make corrections on denied/rejected records and export them to RES. Accordingly, the jurisdiction may be able to avoid the double entry of violations and only use RES for the transmission of the offenses to the Vendor.
The jurisdiction will use its computer to upload data through a modem to the Vendor's server. Each business day, the Vendor will download the data received from jurisdictions and export the data to a 3480 data tape. The tape is delivered to DPS daily where it is processed against driver license records. After processing, DPS provides confirmation or a rejected status of the records that were transmitted the previous day. The Vendor retrieves the daily tapes and processes the confirmations and rejections into the Vendor database server for the jurisdiction to download the next time the jurisdiction transmits.
RES will report all records rejected by DPS. The jurisdiction may correct and retransmit the records that were rejected.
An alternative means of transmission may be available to large jurisdictions that have a mainframe or server and are expecting to transmit a large volume of cases each day. These systems may either use the RES system or transmit records directly to the Vendor server by modem or the Internet. This alternative would probably require special programming by the jurisdiction and would be at the jurisdiction's own expense.
This summary is intended to provide a general description of the technical application of the Failure to Appear Program. For more specific information on the technical systems, jurisdictions may contact the vendor, OmniBase Services of Texas, LP, at (512) 346-6511.