NCJ Number
251567
Date Published
2017
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This paper discusses policies and practices regarding information-sharing in collaboration between community law enforcement and corrections agencies.
Abstract
Although informal working relationships among law enforcement officers and probation and parole officers have proven beneficial and are encouraged, the benefit of such interactions are magnified if there is a formalized memoranda of understanding (MOUs) between the involved agencies. MOUs specify the goal of the cooperation, the responsibilities of each agency in cooperative activities, and performance measures. MOUs are particularly important in the information-sharing between the involved agencies. MOUs facilitate understanding of information-sharing capabilities and capacities of the involved agencies. Attention should be given to who can access various types of data and when, the format through which data can be transferred, and what data fields can be shared, along with reports that will be produced from the data. The types of data shared between police and corrections agencies may include parolees' addresses after their release; neighborhood and block-level crime data; data on sex offender registration; any gang affiliation; maps that overlay probationers' addresses and time-bounded crime data; criminal history reports; and probation and parole case databases. Some anecdotal success stories of information- sharing among corrections and police agencies are provided. 3 online information resources