NCJ Number
209160
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 72 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 29-30,32,36
Date Published
February 2005
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article examines a number of current initiatives regarding the integration of Federal, State, and local criminal justice data.
Abstract
The importance of the ability of government to collect information, analyze that information accurately, and share it appropriately has been brought to the forefront by the recent terrorist activities. The establishment of systems for sharing accurate and timely information is being put into place so that effective responses can be activated and resources deployed effectively. The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is the most used national database providing access to data concerning fugitive, missing, and wanted persons, criminal histories, and stolen property. However, there is no national database for sharing information among criminal justice agencies concerning criminal activity and information contained in law enforcement incident reports. These incident reports contain most of the intelligence and investigative information. This article examines Federal, State, and local initiatives in the integration of criminal justice data which include: (1) the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative; (2) Search, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics; and (3) the Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council. In addition, specific Federal, State, and regional/local initiatives are outlined. Under the Global initiative, the use of the Extensible Markup Language or XML has been determined to be the technology of choice among the many initiatives. However, the progress of several of these initiatives has been slowed due to legal restrictions on the sharing of intelligence data. Federal regulations and State laws in some cases prohibit agencies from participating in a data warehouse that commingles criminal and intelligence data or sharing local records with the Federal Government.