TodayComputer project stays on schedule
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Article RatingComputer system upgrades are not exactly front-page news in the private sector. Even a major upgrade in an enterprise that employs thousands is usually only good for a couple of lines in a trade journal.
No doubt the Pennsylvania officials responsible for modernizing the statewide criminal information database looked at it as just another case of business as usual. The current system goes back to 1981 - a geologic era in computer terms - so the updates are long overdue.
And yet this process has become big news around the state because the projected four-day shutdown necessary to bring the new system online means no background checks for gun buyers during that time - and, therefore, no sales.
Gun dealers and sportsmen are upset because the Sept. 2-6 timeline for the transition coincided with the start of the seasons for dove and Canada goose hunting. One dealer in Western Pennsylvania estimated the shutdown could cost him $10,000 in lost business. A group of plaintiffs has asked Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction to stop the shutdown.
Gov. Ed Rendell quickly assembled a committee to look into the particulars of the upgrade project and make recommendations. Having heard from the committee, he delivered good news and bad news.
The good: The shutdown will only go three days, not four. The bad: It's taking place next week as scheduled. The governor said it now appears there will be no “good” time to do the work, so better to get it done now.
We find it interesting that the only objections to this process have come in connection with the brief disruption to gun sales. The system isn't used only to validate gun customers - it's the state's entire criminal database, which is used to check up on criminal offenders and screen the backgrounds of applicants for jobs in sensitive positions, including teachers, coaches and other child-care workers.
So we're surprised that the database's four-day downtime hasn't raised any concerns among law enforcement authorities or school districts. Perhaps the state did a better job of informing those agencies of the implications. Indeed, the governor said earlier that sportsmen's groups should have been consulted.
Still, there's reason to believe that the situation for bird hunters isn't as dire as has been depicted. The Allegheny County Sportsmen's League notes that state law includes guidelines to continue gun sales should the database be unavailable for more than 48 hours.
And though gun dealers have asserted the shutdown will occur in a critical sales period, state police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that when he checked, he found that gun sales were actually lower in the first week of September. Though dealers may dispute his findings, it's clear to us that if the shutdown is going to cost them sales next week, it's likely to cost them sales whenever it occurs.
Now the issue moves to Commonwealth Court for a hearing Friday. While the court could intervene, we think it's more likely that the interests of public safety, and probably the interest taxpayers have in not expending additional money on a delay, will outweigh the inconvenience to the hunting community.
