Forseti
Uniting the Criminal and Social Justice Systems to Help Those in Need

To affect change, all functions of an organization and members of a team must work together towards a common goal and purpose. Forseti’s goal – Help save lives.

Forseti’s founders, Warren and Walter Lautz, were raised in both the United States and Sweden. Sweden is a bastion for social justice. The United States on the other hand has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world.

“Sweden’s criminal justice system is focused on health and rehabilitation over arrest and incarceration. As proud Americans, we believe a similar approach will benefit the United States,” says Walter.

Three questions have been the driving force behind Forseti’s pursuit of this goal.

Where are we today?
Where do we want to be?
How do we get there?

Where are we today?

According to statistics compiled using Dr. Campbell’s Danger Assessment, “every year 3-4 million women in the U.S. are abused and 1,500 – 1,600 are killed by their abusers.” (1) These are very humbling statistics.
The death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, the Defund the Police Movement and the social upheaval that followed, served to lift the veil from the American people’s eyes to examine policing in the United State of America. Members of law enforcement wake up, day in and day out, and willingly put their lives at risk to help those in need.

It is easy to blame others when something goes wrong.

We have all heard of the TV series “CSI” and are under the assumption that law enforcement is this high-tech and efficient apparatus of society that can solve crimes in 30 minutes.

The reality is that information sharing between agencies requires data entry duplication, scanning, faxing, emailing, and physically handing off pieces of paper to counterparts.

Bureaucratic red tape discourages meaningful change, not out of malice, but out of sheer complexity and inefficiency.

The lack of a multi-agency coordinated response has led us to where we are today.

Forseti has spent years gaining a comprehensive understanding of the current landscape within the United States’ justice systems. The criminal and social justice systems are intended to serve, protect, and assist those who need help the most. To do this they must communicate and work together.

Where do we want to be?

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” - Michael Jordan
Multi-disciplinary task forces encompassing members of both law enforcement and social services (teamwork) equipped with 21st Century software solutions (intelligence) will be able to identify the root-causes of social injustices and coordinate a multi-agency response (championships).

Most people have one degree of separation from someone who has been affected by either domestic violence, homelessness, substance abuse, or mental illness. One doesn’t necessarily lead to another, but oftentimes are intertwined. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “80% of unsheltered women self-report trauma or abuse as the cause of their homelessness.”(2)

The Security and Privacy of Data is Non-Negotiable

Forseti initially got started in the City and County of San Francisco responding to a multi-agency grant to digitize a lethality assessment for domestic violence incidents. It consulted with multiple agencies including the Office of the District Attorney, San Francisco Police Department, the Mayor’s Office, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, the Department on the Status of Women, as well as local service providers to develop software that would benefit all parties involved. Forseti has since expanded its software to include a more detailed domestic violence incident report, homelessness and animal abuse assessments, field arrest, and an analytics platform. The Honest Assessment Response Tool ™ (H.A.R.T.™) is the driving force behind this coordinated response.

Unfortunately, substantial budgetary cuts are affecting the domestic violence space.

Washington State, for example, will see a 20-30% reduction in their state funding effective July 1, 2023. (3) The Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services has seen a decrease in their budget from $61 million in 2018 to $26 million in 2022, a 42% decrease. (4) Meanwhile, demand for services has never been greater. Now couple this with the aftermath of Defund the Police and we have a national problem. This isn’t sustainable. Insert Forseti.

How do we get there?

Forseti is politically and ideologically agnostic. Forseti is focused on solutions.

Through its partnership with the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence (MNADV), Forseti will be deploying its H.A.R.T.™ assessment module to 1,000+ agencies in 39 states.

“Cost should not prevent agencies from accessing lifesaving technology, which is why we are providing MNADV’s LAP subscribers our software at no cost to the agencies,” says Walter.

Forseti is working with some of the largest police agencies, service providers and research institutions to standardize the way information is collected, streamline the referral process, and automate any reporting requirements local municipalities have to state and federal data aggregators.

“Cost Should not Prevent Agencies from Accessing Lifesaving Technology, Which is why we are Providing Mnadv’s Lap Subscribers our Software at no Cost to the Agencies”

Any agency with a need-to-know automatically receives the pertinent information, leaving no stakeholder in the dark. In accordance with guidance from the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW), information can be redacted or removed prior to sharing, safeguarding victim confidentiality.
“The security and privacy of data is non-negotiable,” says Walter.

Forseti hosts customer data on Amazon Web Services Government Cloud to ensure the integrity of that data, while meeting the industry’s compliance requirements, such as CJIS, NIBRS, SOC-2 and HIPAA.

Despite the political discord in the country, one thing we must all agree on is the need to protect the most vulnerable members of society. This is accomplished through cooperation and input from all stakeholders. Hillary Clinton once said, “it takes a village to raise a child,” and in the same way, Forseti believes it takes a unification of the criminal and social justice systems to enact meaningful change and ultimately save lives!