As we look to improve the way the many law enforcement and judicial entities in Ohio communicate with one another, Gov. Mike DeWine’s office has announced the launch of an eWarrants system designed to streamline and improve the accuracy of state and federal background checks, and the filing of warrants and protection orders.

The shared information technology system is free for use by courts and law enforcement and simplifies the process of uploading warrant and protection order information into the state’s Law Enforcement Automated Data System and the National Crime Information Center.

Wonderful. Any tool we can give law enforcement and the courts that will make their jobs easier is to be applauded.

But the search for such a system was spurred when Ohio’s Warrant Task Force discovered too many arrest warrants and protection orders were delayed in being uploaded into LEADS or the NCIC. The reason? “Fragmented, inefficient, and technologically obsolete warrant entry practices in use by many courts and law enforcement agencies in Ohio,” according to a news release by the governor’s office.

What good is a fancy new system if we are not sure stakeholders have the means or the will to use it?

Such a tool is nothing but a waste of time and money unless the state’s law enforcement agencies and courts use it. It is easy for a workplace set in its ways to reject or ignore new technology, particularly when someone else is telling them to use it.

That cannot be the case now.