NCJ Number
241571
Date Published
January 2013
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This report presents the findings of a nationwide survey of 272 law enforcement agencies regarding their use of the "Cloud" in data processing.
Abstract
The Cloud is a public access Wi-Fi provider with thousands of "hotspots" and millions of registered users; it provides simple, fast, and reliable broadband. Sixteen percent of the responding agencies were already using the Cloud, and 38 percent are considering or planning to use it within the next 2 years. Currently, the most popular use of the Cloud app is for email (17 percent), followed by data storage (15 percent); access to a criminal justice information system (11 percent); and crime reporting, analysis, and mapping (10 percent); however, within the next 2 years, respondents are planning or considering using Cloud for criminal justice information system access (51 percent); data storage (50 percent); RMS, crime reporting, analysis, and mapping (47 percent); and email (46 percent). The reasons given for using Cloud are to save money (61 percent); no more software and hardware (52 percent); dynamic provisioning (39 percent); replace old apps (34 percent); new features (33 percent); easier for end-users (19 percent); more secure (16 percent); better tech support (15 percent); utility-based pricing (5 percent); and political mandate (5 percent). The early adopters of Cloud tended to be larger agencies. Other issues addressed in the survey are the greatest Cloud security risk, whether Cloud provider employees should pass background checks, preferred Cloud security standards, who should share the law enforcement Cloud infrastructure, familiarity with CJIS, awareness that CJIS rules apply even to email, who should control Cloud Encryption keys, and whether it is acceptable for Cloud providers to nine law enforcement data. Extensive figures with limited written explanation of survey methodology and findings