Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co

Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (variously abbreviated PMM, PM&M, PMMC, and PMM&C in contemporaneous government documents) was an international accounting and consulting firm founded in the late nineteenth century. By the mid-1970s it had grown to more than 25,000 U.S. clients across over 300 offices in 50 countries, making it the largest accounting firm worldwide by some measures, with 21,000 employees and 1,400 partners globally. Sixty-five percent of its revenue derived from audit, 20 percent from tax, and 15 percent from consulting. In 1978 the firm restructured into Peat Marwick International, and in 1986 it merged with KMG to form KPMG.¹

Role in PROMIS Development

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. held federal contracts developing computerized management systems for multiple government departments including the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, and the Small Business Administration, in addition to the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.²

In 1969, the Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia administered a $60,000 LEAA grant (70-DF-047) to the firm to design a computer-based case management system for the DC U.S. Attorney's Office, at the direction of U.S. Attorney Thomas A. Flannery. The project team was co-directed by Joan E. Jacoby (Director of the Office of Crime Analysis) and Charles R. Work (Deputy Chief of the Superior Court Division of the DC U.S. Attorney's Office), with Bill Hamilton serving as project manager. Hamilton was then a senior consultant at the firm and a former NSA analyst. The resulting system -- the Prosecutor's Management Information System (PROMIS) - was deployed January 1, 1971.¹²

By 1972 the LEAA had paid PM&M $667,400 in aggregate grants related to PROMIS and related criminal justice programs. After PROMIS was deployed and declared an LEAA "exemplary project," the firm received further grants to create training manuals and technical documentation to facilitate adoption of the system by other jurisdictions.¹