Congress has approved a measure that calls for $1 billion in interoperability funds to be made available to public safety agencies in 2007, a year earlier than the money would have been disbursed otherwise. The measure means public safety entities can apply for the $1 billion in interoperability funds soon instead of waiting until after the 700 MHz auction (the funding source) is completed. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will continue to oversee allocation of these funds but questions still remain, such as who NTIA will allocate the money to and how does the money get allocated? Public safety officials have suggested that the interoperability funds be allocated using existing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) criteria and procedures. One condition attached to the funding measure is that the money be used to deploy systems that interoperate with the 700 MHz band that will be available nationwide after TV broadcasters vacate the airwaves in February 2009.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) has released a comprehensive, user-friendly guidebook entitled: Law Enforcement Tech Guide for Communications Interoperability. This guidebook provides strategies, best practices, and recommendations for public safety agencies seeking to develop or already engaged in interagency communications projects. It explores current and emerging technologies in voice and data communications, and provides planning tools to help achieve interoperable communication initiatives. It is intended to serve as a companion to the COPS-funded “Law Enforcement Tech Guide: How to plan, purchase and manage technology (successfully!), A Guide for Executives, Managers and Technologists.”

New Jersey State Police (NJSP) are moving away from previous “community policing” strategies and taking a different approach. Referred to as intelligence-based policing, this new approach focuses on the gathering, analysis, and sharing of information to pinpoint -- then target -- the most dangerous threats and pervasive criminals. Furthermore, the state’s new state of the art intelligence center, which will house representatives from several different agencies, including the New Jersey Departments of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) and Transportation (NJDOT), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the New York (NYPD) and Philadelphia (PPD) Police Departments, will help facilitate interagency cooperation. Officials say that this new approach has already seen great success in the arrest of nearly 100 of the most dangerous gang members in the state.

South Carolina has successfully begun linking law enforcement data between multiple agencies throughout the state, providing quicker access to records and warrants while saving participating departments' time and investigative manpower. This article explores the resources, planning, obstacles, lessons learned, and future outlook of what began as a small six-department project to a project that is now a nationally recognized law enforcement information sharing endeavor, known as the statewide South Carolina Information Exchange (SCIEx).

Nlets-The International Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing Network will host its Fourth Annual Implementers Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, on January 10-11, 2007. This year’s conference will include two tracks in order to address topics relevant to both technical developers and managers. Current and future Nlets Extensible Markup Language (XML) and web services initiatives will be discussed and implementers will share their experiences and lessons learned. Notable conference speakers include Kshemendra Paul of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Presentations featured at the conference will include XML standards, service oriented architecture, web services, security, privacy, performance, image handling, testing, and centralized services.

The National Incident Management System (NIMS), which is run under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is pressing law enforcement organizations across the country to switch from the '10 codes' to plain English. The 10 codes were developed in the 1920’s and are used as a communications system that allows law enforcement authorities to quickly relay information, but according to the Associations of Public Safety Communication Officials (APCO), over time, agencies have changed the codes to fit their department. The switch from 10 codes to plain English would make use of common terminology that would help all responders communicate clearly with each other during emergency situations.

The latest edition of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative's (Global) Global Highlights has now been released and includes a wealth of information about the Global Initiative. Results of the Global Advisory Committee’s (GAC) recent leadership elections, including brief biographies on newly-elected Chairman, Robert Boehmer, and Vice Chairman, Lieutenant Colonel Bart Johnson, kick-off the issue. A variety of key initiatives are highlighted, such as upcoming Global events and Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) success stories. Global Highlights is designed to provide useful updates on the quality work being done on the Global Initiative while giving insight to its future vision and direction.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, are pleased to announce the deployment of the Justice Information Exchange Model (JIEM) Release 3.4. JIEM now enables users to export their JIEM data elements directly into the Schema Subset Generation Tool (SSGT). The SSGT provides developers the ability to map JIEM data components to the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) and then develop GJXDM-conformant schema documentation. Other major features include the ability to associate multiple receiving agencies within one exchange and a new auto-renumbering capability. Release notes and a slideshow presentation highlighting the enhancements in this release can be found at www.jiem.search.org.

Indianapolis, Indiana, police have begun monitoring specific street corners via surveillance cameras in an effort to help them combat crime. Eventually, 27 cameras will be deployed in the city. Some will be placed in areas the city considers hot spots for crime. Police will be able to view camera pictures using their in-car computers and on monitors at the station. The cameras also will be able to record up to three days of footage. The cameras have a 360-degree range of motion and are bulletproof. Police say they want to be a visible presence, not only in their patrol cars but also through the technology.

Police in Cleveland, Ohio, say they are more frequently using event data recorders, commonly called ''black boxes,'' to help determine how crashes occurred and whether drivers should face criminal charges. The devices are enabled to record speed, throttle pressure, and indicate whether the brake was applied and if the driver was wearing a seat belt immediately prior to the crash. Officials consider these readings along with traditional evidence, such as car damage and skid marks. Not all automakers install the data recorders, which are mostly found in newer vehicles. About 64 percent of 2005 model year vehicles are equipped with the technology.

The National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) has released Strategies for States to Achieve Public Safety Wireless Interoperability to help governors address the urgent need for reliable communication in emergency situations. The ability of public safety agencies to share information using radio communication systems to exchange voice or data in real time has become more evident following the events of September 11th and Hurricane Katrina. This brief provides guidance to governors by outlining strategies governors can use to improve communication interoperability capacity, including institutionalizing a governance structure that fosters colaborative planning, encouraging the development of flexible and open architecture and standards, supporting funding, and supporting the efforts of the public safety community to work with the Federal Communications Commision to allocate spectrum bands.

Robert Mocny, acting director of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program, within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has outlined a proposal under which the United States would begin exchanging information internationally about individuals who pose terrorist threats. Initially, information about terrorists would only be shared with closely-allied governments in Britain, Europe, and Japan, and then progressively extend the program to other countries as a means of avoiding terrorist attacks. In remarks to the International Conference on Biometrics and Ethics, Mocny stressed DHS’s commitment to observing privacy principles during the design and implementation of its biometric systems.

In an effort to reach predetermined goals of enabling police and fire departments in multiple jurisdictions to communicate in real-time during a major incident, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff announced that 46 U.S. cities are planned to have interoperable communications in place by the end of 2007. DHS will assist the 46 U.S. cities, receiving grants through the Urban Area Security Initiative, in obtaining digital equipment and technical specifications to achieve interoperable communications by December 31, 2007. DHS plans to extend the initiative to all 50 states by December 31, 2008.

The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have announced that citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Bermuda will now be required to present a passport to enter the United States when arriving by air from any part of the Western Hemisphere. This requirement will take effect in January 2007. The new travel document requirements are part of the Departments' Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), which will be implemented in two phases. The first phase involves travel by air. On January 1, 2008, the requirement will include all air, sea, and land-border crossings.

Two Iowa State University (ISU), Iowa, professors are working with law enforcement officials to develop a better way to detect steganography, hidden messages in photos, passed over the Internet. ISU professors have developed software to detect hidden messages that child-pornographers and terrorists have slipped into innocent-looking photographs found online. ISU is now waiting for approval to distribute the technology from the ISU Research Foundation. The foundation handles intellectual property rights issues. The professors hope to distribute the software to law enforcement professionals for free within the next few months.

This report, collaboratively developed by the IJIS Institute and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), provides recommendations and standards for planning, implementing, and operating an effective Statewide Automated Victim Information and Notification (SAVIN) program. This document provides direction to help states establish a vision, mission, and goals for their SAVIN programs. These guiding tenets are based on victim-focused principles of victim/survivor safety, confidentiality, and autonomy. Included is key information to develop a program plan and proven strategies for effective management. Finally, this document provides a set of technology standards to ensure that SAVIN programs conform to national criminal justice information sharing standards.

The Dallas, Texas, City Council has given final approval for Dallas departments of police, fire, and aviation to be the first subscribers to a national interoperable communications service. Through a multi-year contract, the agencies will have access to an encrypted network allowing them to communicate voice, video, and data seamlessly with one another using their existing radios and networks. Police officers, firefighters, and aviation department personnel can also securely access the service from end-user device interfaces, such as laptops or personal data assistants (PDAs). The system integrates with wireless carriers, extending service access and enabling mobile devices to communicate voice, video, or data across the network. Users are able to converse with their colleagues, as well as other local, state, and federal agencies on the network, to share critical information during emergency situations or for normal day-to-day activities.

Indianapolis, Indiana, Mayor Bart Peterson and Marion County, Indiana, Sheriff Frank Anderson have announced a $37 million upgrade to Indianapolis’s public safety radio communication system. The project includes several new communication sites, an upgrade of existing towers, improved backup power systems, more than 6,500 new radios, and 80 dispatch consoles for public safety and public service personnel throughout Indianapolis. In addition, the new upgrade will provide: improved coverage and liability, increased interoperability, enhanced voice clarity, and, most importantly, a higher level of safety. The new state-of-the-art digital voice system will continue to serve both public safety and public service users.

The Director of National Intelligence, John D. Negroponte, has submitted to the U.S. Congress the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) Implementation Plan Report. ISE is an approach that facilitates the sharing of terrorist-related information among local, state, federal, tribal, and private sector entities, as well as our foreign partners. The Implementation Plan Report includes a description of ISE functions, capabilities, resources, and conceptual design; a plan for the ISE's design, testing, integration, deployment, and operation; and, a process for measuring progress made towards ISE implementation, as well as its performance once established.

For the fourth year, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is sponsoring the Rural Law Enforcement Technology Institute. This technology institute will be held March 26-29, 2007, in Coronado/San Diego, California, and is designed for the command staff of rural and small law enforcement agencies containing less than 50 sworn officers. Law enforcement personnel will learn about and discuss technology initiatives and issues affecting the rural and small law enforcement community. There is no registration cost and all travel, food, and lodging expenses are paid. Only 35 individuals will be selected to attend. A completed application must be submitted by December 31, 2006, for consideration.

Washington, D.C. police are using new technology to help them respond quickly to shooting scenes. The new technology is a system called Shotspotter that not only allows police to save time and resources, but has already been used to help catch a murder suspect. Using digital audio technology and street maps connected through a global positioning system (GPS), Shotspotter allows officers to pinpoint the exact location where gunshots have been fired. The technology consists of a number of radio transmitters placed in crime hotspots throughout the District of Columbia that detect and differentiate loud sounds and instantly relay the information to a monitoring station at police headquarters. Currently, approximately half of the city has radio coverage. Complete coverage is expected within the next few months.

The U.S. Coast Guard has published a free resource compact disc that provides comprehensive chemical information to fire and safety service personnel responding to a hazardous materials incident. Users can search the database by substance color, odor, and physical appearance and can use the data to plan for a safe and effective response. The resource, known as Chemical Hazards Response Information System Plus (CHRIS+), contains several databases of chemical, physical, thermodynamic, toxicological, and fire properties. The disc also includes incident response advice, guidelines, and forms, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Response Plan.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is seeking applications for funding to research, develop, and demonstrate emerging digital evidence recovery technology solutions for public safety agencies. This program furthers DOJ's mission by sponsoring research to provide objective, independent, evidence-based knowledge and tools to meet the challenges of crime and justice, particularly at the local and state levels. All interested applicants should submit their proposals by November 16, 2006.

This Officer.com article highlights the current efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of justice information sharing among law enforcement, criminal justice, and other public saftey organizations since the tragic events of 9/11. These endeavors include the development of intelligence fusion centers, the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -sponsored Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) program, the National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center (NCIRC); the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM), and the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). These initiatives provide standards, resources, best practices, and more to law enforcement, criminal justice, and other public safety organizations whose information sharing contributions aim to increase national security.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) Knowledge Base and Help Desk has been expanded to include support for the new version of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). The enhanced help desk is now called the National Information Sharing Standards Knowledge Base and Help Desk. New articles are being written for inclusion in the knowledge base to answer the frequently asked questions about NIEM, as well as Global JXDM. Existing entries are being reviewed and recategorized according to their applicability to both NIEM and Global JXDM. National Information Sharing Standards Knowledgebase will provide assistive information on Global JXDM/NIEM using a topic search. Additional support is available via an online ''Ask a Question'' option, by telephone, or e-mail.

Micah Kimo Johnson, a doctoral student at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, has developed tools that can help forensic analysts detect digital image forgeries. The three techniques Johnson developed are illumination direction, specularity, and chromatic aberration. Illumination direction analyzes light sources in a photograph, using a mathematical approach. Specularity examines reflective highlights in images. Chromatic aberration uses the principles of a camera lens and Snell's Law to examine the distortion consistency throughout an image. While none of these tools are 100 percent effective on their own, when the three are used in concert with forensic analysis they may contribute a great deal to investigations and verifications of forged images.

A new terabyte (TB) server (tera server), purchased with a $2,500 grant from the North Cable Road Wal-Mart in Lima, Ohio, is now providing support for the Lima Police Department's Technology Crimes Unit. The server is about the size of a car battery, has a tremendous amount of storage space and operates at high speed. The server holds large data files that are entered as evidence and stored on a network that is accessed by law enforcement and prosecutors in an eight-county region. Prior to the acquisition of the tera server, large data files would have to be copied onto multiple discs and reloaded onto each officer's computer. Lima police have indicated that the new tera server will be particularly useful in Internet predator and child pornography cases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt has announced the publication of the 2006 edition of the Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines. This resource, which includes over 40 new or updated guidelines, has become a primary resource for government and other Web communicators. The updated guide is being published by HHS in partnership with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). Since the introduction of the guidelines in 2003, they have been used widely by government agencies and the private sector, implemented in academic curriculum, and translated into several foreign languages. This resource now contains 209 guidelines for effective Web design and usability.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Gerald Bailey and Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Jim McDonough have announced the launch of new Rapid Identification (ID) technology in Florida's probation and sheriff's offices. The Rapid ID system is a new function of FDLE's Integrated Criminal History System, known as FALCON. The system enables officers to biometrically confirm the identity of offenders who are required to report in by matching them to criminal history information already on file. The Rapid ID system utilizes small fingerprint capture devices to validate a subject's identity. The scanned prints are processed against FALCON, which rapidly returns a positive identification or a finding that no criminal record was identified for the individual. The system also returns warrants on file for the subject. Rapid ID fingerprint readers have been installed in all Florida Sheriff's Offices, and 154 probation offices.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in partnership with the University of Louisville, Kentucky, Shelby Campus has announced the opening of the Kentucky Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (KRCFL). KRCFL is the 14th laboratory to enter the FBI's Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) Program, which is making expert digital forensics services available to approximately 4,000 law enforcement agencies across 17 states. Digital forensics is the application of science and engineering to the recovery of digital evidence in a legally acceptable manner. KRCFL is a full-service digital forensics laboratory and training center devoted entirely to the examination of digital evidence in support of local, state, and federal criminal investigations.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that several airports have installed electronic passport (e-passport) readers and that additional airports will install such technology in the next several weeks. San Francisco International Airport, California, was the first airport to install the readers, and the latest ones are: John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, Los Angeles International Airport, California, Dulles International Airport, Washington D.C., and Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey. DHS, in accordance with legislation enacted in 2002, is requiring that passports issued by Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries, as of October 26, 2006, must be e-passports. Such passports contain various security features, such as a contactless chip with the passport holder's biographic and biometric information along the lines of a digital photograph of the holder. Under VWP, citizens of 27 countries can travel to the United States for tourism or business for 90 days or less without obtaining a visa.

San Francisco, California, Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced the launch of Alert San Francisco (AlertSF), a new text-message emergency alerting system for the public. This new system will provide post-disaster information and tsunami alerts in the event of an earthquake or major disaster to those who sign up for free at www.alertsf.org. Text messaging has proven to be a reliable means of communication, especially when other systems are down, as was the case after the tragic events of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The AlertSF system allows users to identify specific zip codes and addresses in the city that concerns their neighborhoods. In the future, the system may be expanded to include other types of information, such as traffic delays, power outages, and road closures. AlertSF messages can currently be sent in English and Spanish.

In November 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought together a group of public- and private-sector specialists to explore privacy technology. This group, the Privacy Technology Focus Group, was chartered to examine privacy implications in the exchange of personally identifiable information, focusing on justice and public safety data. A report released by the group includes a summary of the focus group’s activities as well as a number of recommendations, some of which relate to the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM). The report also discusses funding and training issues and encourages local and state agencies to implement Global JXDM. Global JXDM is an XML standard designed for criminal justice information exchanges. [Executive Summary]

On October 5, 2006, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) completed installations of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system in all land border ports in the state of New York. ACE is the commercial trade-processing system being developed by CBP to enhance border security and expedite legitimate trade. The system provides CBP with the ability to collect electronic manifests (e-manifests) for trucks. It also provides the trade community with additional capabilities to comply with Trade Act of 2002 requirements for the electronic transmission of advance manifest information to CBP. CBP will begin implementation of a mandatory e-manifest policy on a port-by-port basis beginning in 2007. Truck carriers are encouraged by CBP to establish ACE truck carrier accounts now, and to begin filing electronically before e-manifests become mandatory. There are currently 49 ACE ports in the states of Arizona, California, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Washington and New York.

The National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released their latest Research Brief entitled Keeping Citizen Trust: What Can a State CIO Do to Protect Privacy? A product of the NASCIO Security and Privacy Committee, this brief examines how privacy in the state government context has evolved as a defining issue in response to rapidly changing technological advances and the complexities of a fast-paced world. The brief further explores initial areas in which a state chief information officer (CIO) may encounter privacy issues, such as in the context of information technology governance, enterprise architecture, policy, and security and business processes, and offers some potential ways of addressing those issues.

The release of two of the National Center for State Courts' (NCSC) most popular annual publications—Examining the Work of State Courts and State Court Caseload Statistics—now include added features that make the publications more accessible. Leveraging Web navigation and search functionality, the interactive versions of both publications allow users to download the data represented in tables, charts, and graphs, and navigate to related reference documents on the Web. Hot-linked icons found throughout the text take readers to more in-depth information. The two publications are annual products of the Court Statistics Project in conjunction with the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the Conference of State Court Administrators. [Related Article]

North Dakota Governor John Hoeven and Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem announced they will propose legislation to further strengthen North Dakota laws dealing with sexual offenders and the laws governing background checks. The measures will enhance the civil commitment process for high-risk offenders and require thorough background checks for all government employees who deal with security matters or with vulnerable people. ''We are proposing that every first-time sex offender who commits a violent sexual crime gets a mandatory sentence of twenty years incarceration followed by lifetime supervised probation,'' Hoeven said. Legislation is also being proposed that would make it clear that judges have the ultimate authority to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to commit a person as a sexually-dangerous individual. ''This legislation removes the requirement that two psychologists reach this conclusion,'' said Hoeven, ''and makes it clear that the judge is responsible to decide whether to commit an offender, based on all the evidence presented in the case.''

The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) kicked off Domestic Violence Awareness Month today by announcing the implementation of a statewide victim information and notification service—the Washington Statewide Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) service. Washington Statewide VINE, the 40th state to join the VINE network, is a service that allows victims of crime to obtain timely and reliable information about an offender's custody status 24 hours a day via telephone, Internet, or e-mail. Users can inquire about the current status and register to be notified automatically upon an offender's release, escape, or transfer. To date, more than two-thirds of the nation is using the VINE system to keep victims informed about offenders. While domestic violence survivors will experience a significant benefit from this service, it is available to any victim, regardless of the crime. [Related Article]

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and the National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology, and the Law, Stetson University College of Law, will host the National Conference on Science, Technology, and the Law, November 2-5, 2006, in St. Petersburg, Florida. The conference will present emerging trends in the use of scientific evidence in the courtroom. Given the explosion of scientific evidence litigation, this conference will help improve attendee's understanding of the interaction of science, technology, and law and will educate them to meet these legal challenges. The conference is designed for criminal justice professionals, including prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, investigators, law enforcement, forensic scientists, the academic community (including psychologists, molecular biologists, and biotechnologists), and expert witnesses.

The European Union (EU) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have reached a final agreement regarding Passenger Name Record (PNR) data. Under the agreement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will have new flexibility to share PNR data with other counter-terrorism agencies within the U.S. government, carrying out the President's mandate to remove obstacles to counter-terrorism information sharing. The new flexibility will apply to agencies within DHS, as well as to the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and others. Sharing will be allowed for the investigation, analysis, and prevention of terrorism and related crimes. The U.S.-EU agreement promotes a joint goal of combating terrorism while respecting a commitment to fundamental rights and freedoms, notably privacy.

A new digital video recording system installed in Rockville City, Maryland, Police Department cruisers automatically activates an in-car video system when officers turn on emergency lights. The digital video's functionality and ability to integrate with other systems are key reasons many police departments are moving to digital versus the former tape systems. One of the constraints of analog video tape is that each tape must be logged and saved as evidence for a prescribed amount of time. The number of tapes that must be stored leads to an unwieldy collection. With the digital system, a 20-gigabyte hard drive can store eight hours of high-resolution video or 16 hours of extended-play recordings. The new system includes a forward-facing camera and a low-light infrared camera that faces the back seat, as well as an optional rear-facing camera. Fire departments are also using the system for training, recording high-speed emergency runs and offering fire truck drivers visibility behind their vehicles.

A one-day police symposium, entitled ''Strengthening Partnerships in the Fight Against Crime,'' held in New Providence, Bahamas, highlighted the importance of partnering with private security firms. Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson stated ''I believe that the private security [industry] has a tremendous reservoir for intelligence and intelligence sharing.'' More than 40 representatives from security firms were present at the event. Bahamas Chamber of Commerce president Tanya Wright praised the efforts of the police to partner with private security. Ms. Wright said the symposium was essential to members of the business community so that they could be educated on the full capabilities of security guards.

The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), in partnership with the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Ohio Attorney General's Office, Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Buckeye State Sheriffs' Association, has accomplished what few states have-justice information sharing locally but on a statewide scale. Through the Ohio Local Law Enforcement Information Sharing Network (OLLEISN), located at the Ohio Attorney General's Office, an unprecedented 580 local law enforcement agencies are interconnected and electronically sharing justice information throughout the state through a unique grassroots effort initiated by private, public, and non-profit entities. OLLEISN is considered one of the most complete exchange models for law enforcement information sharing in operation today. Through grant funding made possible by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, provided by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant, Ohio local law enforcement leaders pooled their resources to build OLLEISN to connect local law enforcements' records management systems together into a central store. The OLLEISN endeavor was facilitated by the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) for multiple exchange schemas.

At a hearing of the House U.S. Department of Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment, state fusion center officials told Congress that numerous federal information sharing systems and programs do not mesh with local and state information sources, which in turn are not connected with one another. Colonel Kenneth Bouche of the Illinois State Police cited the importance of state fusion centers in helping local, state, and regional agencies pool their resources, especially within their own areas. Cities, regions, and states have already established or planned some 42 fusion centers, which merge information from multiple agencies to respond to all types of hazards.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division is laying detailed plans for a comprehensive revamping of its massive fingerprint database that will enhance interoperability with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) biometric records and clear the path for adding additional types of biometrics. CJIS assistant director Tom Bush noted that new biometric techniques, such as facial recognition, iris scans, palm authentication, and even DNA, now are gaining importance, and CJIS officials want their system to be ready to process them. To mark the major changes, the bureau plans to change the name of its Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System to Next Generation Identification (NGI).

A comprehensive analysis of the federal Real Identification (ID) Act, entitled The Real ID Act: National Impact Analysis, reflects findings from a survey conducted by the National Governors Association (NGA), National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). The Real ID Act creates national standards for issuing state drivers licenses and identification cards. The report sets forth the most critical challenges facing states and consumers as the act's implementation deadline approaches and includes costs of implementing the act and recommendations. A costly aspect of this requirement is estimated to be the reissue of drivers licenses and identification cards to all 245 million current holders within five years.

Semantic technology is poised to become the next evolutionary step in helping law enforcement agencies automatically analyze and collect pertinent information on suspects and criminals from a wide range of data sources. Semantic technology can be a shortcut to finding and sharing relevant data across agencies in a more intelligent way using ontologies—models that describe information and the full range of relationships among pieces of data. Experts say the use of semantic technology is growing among consultants and application developers. The World Wide Web Consortium's adoption of two semantic standards—the resource description framework (RDF) and web ontology language (OWL)—has further spurred the use of the technology in the past two years.

National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Australia (NICTA) scientists are developing advanced surveillance technologies including software algorithms to track inappropriate behavior in public places. The focus of the Smart Applications for Emergencies (SAFE) project, which aims to prevent, detect, and predict acts of terrorism, is to provide as much information to front-line decisionmakers as possible when responding to an incident. ''Identifying a particular person is one thing but we are focusing on looking at unusual behavior in an open environment,'' said Chris Scott, research director of NICTA's Queensland laboratory. ''There is technology available to alert people when, say a briefcase is left unattended in a public place, but we are working on algorithms not just to search for a person based on facial recognition, but to analyze the level of threat based on their actual behavior, [and] to gather preliminary information to see if anything unusual is happening which would increase the probability of detecting an actual threat.'' Scott said NICTA has been working with Queensland Transport and Queensland Rail that have about 6000 surveillance cameras on their networks. Eventually, satellite images, photographs of buildings, and images of surveillance cameras will be integrated on one image with real-time data integrated with historical images for real-time mapping.

Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, during a demonstration with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS), introduced new license plate readers (LPRs) that are being utilized to instantly detect stolen and suspect vehicles. LPRs have been in use at DPS for only a few months and are capable of reading 1,500 plates during an officer's standard eight-hour shift. By comparison, an officer can input approximately 40 in the same time period. As of August 2006, LPRs had read more than 110,000 plates. The devices are mounted to the front bumper of five DPS police interceptors with a keyboard and monitor system installed in the front seat of the car. The system is capable of instantly reading and scanning a database of plates and alerting the officer if a vehicle is stolen. LPRs are able to photograph the driver of a suspect vehicle for charging and prosecution purposes and can pick up the plate of a vehicle being sought in an AMBER Alert case.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Intelligence Working Group (GIWG) has developed Law Enforcement Analyst Certification Standards for intelligence analyst certification programs and the analyst certifying process. The recommendations reflect Global’s continued efforts towards instituting standards for the intelligence analysis process to ensure that intelligence products are accurate, timely, factual, and relevant, while also recommending implementation of policy and/or action(s). The certification standards incorporate the Law Enforcement Analytic Standards, developed by the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA) with support from the GIWG. This booklet contains 25 recommended analytic standards separated into two parts. The first section provides guidance to agencies and organizations that offer analyst certification. Recommendations include the development of a code of ethics, development of policies and procedures for the certification process, and resources for persons assigned to the analyst function. The second section offers guidance regarding instituting the analyst certification process. Recommendations include completion of a certification application, successful completion of a certification examination, and adherence to the standards outlined in the Law Enforcement Analytic Standards.

In 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in partnership with DOJ's Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global), and the IJIS Institute (IJIS), chartered a group of public and private sector specialists to focus on privacy technology, charging the group to examine the use and exchange of personally identifiable information (PII) in the context of justice information systems and in the dissemination and aggregation of justice and public safety data. The focus group identified prominent issues in privacy policy and technology, narrowed issues to readily addressable areas, outlined tangible, targeted technology solutions, and developed specific recommendations for action. The results of their recommendations were published in a formal report, Privacy Technology Focus Group: Final Report and Recommendations, and a companion Executive Summary addressing access and authentication, data aggregation and dissemination, identity theft, and personal safety and protection. The published recommendations are currently being leveraged by the Global Security Working Group's (GSWG) newly-formed Technical Privacy Task Team.

Developed by the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) in partnership with The Justice Management Institute (JMI), DOJ's Global Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Policy Templates for Justice Information Systems is a practical tool for justice system practitioners that provides templates for drafting comprehensive policies to protect privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties principles. The policy templates were developed for use by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, courts, or other justice system agencies or jurisdictions at the local, state, regional, tribal, territorial, or federal level. They were designed to cover a range of computer-based justice information systems that seek or receive, store, and make available information in support of activities associated with the justice system, public safety, and health. The templates are relevant to the administration of justice, strategic and tactical operations, and national security responsibilities and are intended to address all types of public safety and public protection risks and threats, whether criminal or from natural disasters.

An identity theft task force, created by President George W. Bush, has recommended making nationally accepted police reports available for victims to fill out online, as well as recommended a change in U.S. law that would require those convicted of such crimes to pay victims for the time used to clear up identity problems. The President's Identity Theft Task Force, which met recently, also recommended that U.S. agencies examine whether their use of Social Security numbers is necessary and called on an interagency working group on identity theft to develop best practices for data security in government. The task force's recommendations are an interim list, with a full plan of how to attack identity theft to be released in November 2006.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and the GJXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC) are pleased to announce two new specialized training events on DOJ's Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM). The Executive Briefing will be held on November 28, 2006 and the Practical Implementer's Course will be held November 29 to December 1, 2006. Both events will be hosted at George Washington University in Ashburn, Virginia. The Executive Briefing is a high-level overview specifically geared for executives, managers, information technologists, and policymakers who want to learn more about the benefits of implementing Global JXDM. The Practical Implementer's Course is a new and improved course designed to provide 17 hours of training, presented over three days, to implementers, developers, and practitioners in the field and will present practical implementation strategies for data exchanges and methodologies for using Global JXDM.

The New York City, New York, Police Department is launching a third update of a massive data warehouse that officials hope will one day become a hub for data from dozens of area law enforcement agencies. When the latest update is completed, the warehouse will add real-time alerts and links to several new data sources while boosting capacity from 80 Gigabytes (GB) to about 400GB. The update will also add a link for the first time to the department's 12-year-old Computerized Statistics crime-mapping tool, known as CompStat. The third phase of the project, which is about to commence, calls for linking the data warehouse to additional data sources from within the department and to sources from outside agencies.

In a recent weekly radio address, New York City, New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg discussed the technology enhancements made for the city's first responders since Sept. 11, 2001, such as the Real Time Crime Center, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's syndromic surveillance system, the Automatic Vehicle Location program, and the recent selection of a contractor for a citywide mobile wireless network. 'We've improved command structures, upgraded equipment, and refined emergency and evacuation plans to be carried out in the event of a natural disaster, a public health epidemic, or another terrorist attack,' said Bloomberg. 'And every step of the way, we've used technology to improve communication within and among our emergency service agencies.' The wireless system will greatly enhance coordination among police officers, firefighters, and emergency management workers, and will provide them with a wealth of essential information while they are responding to an incident. It will take about 20 months for the network to become fully operational, but the first functions are expected to be activated in Lower Manhattan as early as this January.

The San Diego, California, Police Department recently received a $1 million donation that will be used for wireless technologies and to purchase handheld broadband communication devices with geographic-based location capabilities. The new equipment and technology will enable officers with secure, on-the-street access to critical information such as advanced global tracking applications that were originally only available through laptops or desktop systems at police facilities. Additionally, global positioning equipment will provide dispatchers the ability to identify police units that are closest to an incident and, if necessary, call an officer off lower priority calls to respond to high-priority incidents. This new technology will position the department as an industry leader in patrol communications and broadband applications.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced technology enhancements to DHS and the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) fingerprint databases that will further improve access and information sharing among immigration and law enforcement officials. The enhancements represent the first in a series of three phases to achieve full interoperability of the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) fingerprint database, Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). US-VISIT is transitioning from collecting two to 10 fingerprints to enable greater accuracy when identifying travelers and to complement IAFIS' 10-fingerprint system. The first phase of enhancements will provide local and state law enforcement officials with access to immigration history that is based on biometric and biographic information through a single biometric submission to these databases. An automatic alert will also be sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Law Enforcement Support Center when the fingerprints of a suspected criminal, being processed by local law enforcement, are found to belong to someone with an immigration violation. During the second phase, DHS and DOJ plan to further increase the amount of data they exchange. The third and final phase will provide a complete view of a person's criminal and immigration history, thereby enhancing the ability of local and state authorities to develop comprehensive criminal and immigration histories and threat assessments. [Related Article]

Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher announced a new project—the Kentucky WINS (KYWINS) Messenger—that will provide first responders across the state with instant messaging communications capabilities. KYWINS Messenger will allow all public safety users on the state's wireless data system to exchange messages with one another from mobile data computers inside response vehicles or from a stationary computer. The program can also quickly broadcast a message to all users within seconds. Mobile data messaging technology provides a redundant form of communication for public safety officials if voice communication is unavailable. The program is in its final stages in southeast Kentucky as a pilot project and is expected to be accessible to all public safety agencies throughout the commonwealth later this fall.

A unique partnership, consisting of local, state, and federal government agencies in Alaska, has built the Alaska Land Mobile Radio (ALMR) system—a new $120 million wireless network for emergency communications. The system uses emerging Internet protocol- (IP) based standards to give local police and fire departments, all state agencies, and federal agencies a common communications infrastructure. Components of the system include highway coverage that uses wireless towers and antennas, building coverage, gateways for legacy radio systems as well as maritime and cellular systems, and transportable systems that provide emergency communications beyond fixed wireless infrastructure.

Texas Governor Rick Perry says the state will provide $86 million from U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grants to the Texas Data Exchange System and for electronic fingerprinting equipment. The Web-based data network will link more than 2,000 law enforcement databases in Texas, while fingerprinting equipment will be used in 184 counties. Law enforcement will be able to use electronic scanners to submit fingerprints and receive results in seconds. The database will be accessible to the state's 70,000 police officers, who will also be linked to federal databases.

Criminal justice professionals will now benefit from a new centralized online repository of criminal intelligence resources-the National Criminal Intelligence Resource Center (NCIRC), www.ncirc.gov. Funded through a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grant under the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), NCIRC is a dynamic secured-access Web resource for law enforcement agencies that are developing intelligence operations, expanding current intelligence efforts, or transitioning personnel into intelligence processes. NCIRC was developed to provide local, state, tribal, and federal agencies with the latest developments in the field of criminal intelligence and supplements the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP or Plan).

The Los Angeles, California, City Council has unanimously approved a plan to install digital video cameras on the dashboards of 300 police cruisers by early 2007. The Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) entire fleet of about 1,600 police cars could be equipped with cameras within three to four years. ''There's never been a digital camera program for a police department of this size, and 300 cars, while it seems big to other cities, is not a big number for the city of Los Angeles,'' councilman Jack Weiss said. Under the council-approved plan, the cameras would start recording when an officer turns on the car's lights and siren. The cameras would be virtually tamper-proof and would utilize wireless transfer of digital video to computers at each of the LAPD's 19 stations. The data would be encrypted and accessible only to police supervisors.

The Crime Mapping and Analysis Program (CMAP), located at the University of Denver, National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC-Rocky Mountain), announces the release of the Crime Analysis Unit (CAU) Developer's Kit—a unique collection of documents, tools, and examples to assist in the design, creation, implementation, and expansion of any crime analysis unit. The Developer's Kit includes a variety of articles and publications on analytical processes, procedures, and methods from acknowledged experts in the field, as well as examples of crime bulletins, routine products, work analysis, flowcharts, timelines, job descriptions, mission statements, and other materials that can be used as templates. Also included are several free software applications, including geographic information systems (GIS) programs, geographic profiling utilities, tactical crime analysis tools, link-charting programs, and more. All software is provided free of charge by CMAP for use by the U.S. law enforcement community.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hopes to begin a pilot project next year to record fingerprints from foreign visitors to the United States. A proposed upgrade to the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program will register 10-print fingerprints versus the two-print system currently in place. US-VISIT aims to record fingerprints from each of the 279 million foreigners who enter and leave the country each year and cross-reference that data with 20 or more criminal, intelligence, and immigration databases from multiple federal agencies. Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uses a 10-print fingerprint system, it is not fast enough to keep lines moving at the borders. DHS, along with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) have tasked the private sector with developing a system that can work as fast as, and on a scale comparable to, the current scanners. This upgrade will be part of US-VISIT's Interim Data Sharing Model, a plan to increase information sharing and interoperability with the FBI.

New license-plate-reading technology can help law enforcement officials locate stolen vehicles. The technology scans both moving and parked cars, reads and matches plates with stolen or wanted plate numbers listed in a database, and notifies officers via an alarm—all within seconds. The Ohio State Police Department is one of the first agencies to have deployed the technology, equipping an area turnpike two years ago. Since then, Ohio state police have recovered 69 stolen vehicles due to the system. The Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Police Department has also deployed a mobile unit on a covert patrol car in January 2006 and has recovered 11 stolen vehicles as of late May 2006. Many other agencies are preparing to deploy mobile units on squad cars. The devices add a new dimension to stolen vehicle recovery, such as the capability to identify parked stole cars.

Federal Computer Week (FCW) recently featured an article discussing ''semantic technology''—technology that is expected to become the next evolutionary step in helping law enforcement agencies automatically analyze and collect pertinent information on suspects and criminals from a wide range of data sources. Semantic technology, which includes software standards and methodologies, can be a shortcut to finding and sharing relevant data across agencies in a more intelligent way than using ontology models. Experts say the use of semantic technology is growing among consultants and application developers. The World Wide Web Consortium has adopted two semantic standards—resource description framework (RDF) and Web ontology language (OWL)—further spurring the use of the technology in the past two years. Semantic technology acts more like a sophisticated human analyst than a program by relating pieces of information together and inferring previously unknown relationships.

In this Officer.com feature, the law enforcement concept of ''intelligence'' is explored. ''Intelligence,'' defined by the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP), is ''information that has been analyzed to determine its meaning and relevance.'' However, if one thinks information (raw, unevaluated data, often with no context) is intelligence, then they tend to think that collection is the answer. One of the goals of the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) has been to define terms, especially differences within intelligence. From no classification, to official use only, to sensitive but unclassified (SBU), to confidential, there are 50 to 75 different classifications of unclassified information. One way local agencies can help further intelligence sharing is to become familiar with the NCISP and determine action steps they can take to improve their local intelligence efforts. Approximately 75 percent of the law enforcement agencies across the country have less than 24 sworn officers, and more often than not, these agencies do not have staff dedicated to intelligence functions. NCISP recommends all law enforcement agencies, regardless of size, adopt the minimum standards for intelligence-led policing.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has released an NIJ In Short Fact Sheet, entitled Radio Spectrum that provides an overview of the problems associated with the increasingly scarce radio spectrum that both public safety and commercial interests are competing for. The fact sheet describes the basics of radio communications, spectrum allocations and regulations, issues associated with competition for this resource, and also the steps being taken to alleviate them. Solutions include short- and long-term plans to allocate additional portions of the spectrum to public safety use.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has joined the Los Angeles, California, police and sheriff's departments to open the largest-in-the-nation Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC), opened July 27, 2006. JRIC will be staffed with intelligence analysts and investigators from the spectrum of local, state, and federal law enforcement and security agencies, representing some 200 different agencies, covering the 44,000-square mile territory surrounding Los Angeles. JRIC's purpose is to improve coordination and intelligence sharing by putting all the key players together. Some 30 analysts and investigators are already staffed and that number is expected to double in the near future. Using a hub model, JRIC will help eliminate duplication, speed information flow, and make it easier to identify patterns and trends in terrorism and other threats, which is critical in a region that spans seven counties and 18 million people. ''We will all benefit from collective analyses done here and from the ability to quickly share that information,'' said Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief William J. Bratton.

In a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the results of a study sampling 9,000 convicted violent felons found that 56 percent of convicted violent felons in the nation's 75 most populous counties had a prior conviction record. The report, entitled Violent Felons in Large Urban Counties, revealed that six percent of the convicted violent felons were under the age of 18, and 25 percent were younger than 21. The data gathered represented 33,000 cases from state courts and comprised cases dating from 1990 through 2002. Nearly all (96 percent) murderers were sentenced to prison with a majority of those convicted of robbery (69 percent) or rape (62 percent) also sentenced to prison. About one-fifth of the rape and robbery offenders were sentenced to jail. The median prison sentence length was 20 years for murder, 10 years for rape, five years for robbery, and four years for assault.

The September 29, 2006, call for presentation papers submission deadline approaches for the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) Mapping and Analysis for Public Safety (MAPS) Ninth Annual Crime Mapping Research Conference. NIJ's MAPS program is accepting presentation papers on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial data analysis in crime mapping and public safety for research, practical applications, evaluation, or theory testing. The purpose will be to demonstrate the fusing of classical and spatial analysis techniques to enhance policy decisions. MAPS conferences bring together researchers and practitioners to learn about recent innovative research applications of crime mapping, spatial data analysis, and technology. Presentation topics and methods should not be limited to the use of classical and spatial statistics but also demonstrate the unique capabilities of GIS in preparing, categorizing, and visualization of data for analysis.

In Virginia, a criminal tracking and victim notification system, used in Virginia prisons, will be expanded to include offenders held in local jails. The Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE) system informs crime victims about the custody and court status of offenders via telephone, Internet, and e-mail. The enhancement is a partnership between the commonwealth, the Virginia Sheriffs' Association, and the Virginia Community Policing Institute. Users of VINE may call a toll-free number, day or night, to find out if an offender is in jail and register to be notified when an offender is released, transferred, or escapes.

A contributing factor in British law enforcement's recent success in thwarting terrorist plots is the ability of different agencies to share critical information in a timely manner. In the aftermath of terrorist bombings in London in July, police forces across the United Kingdom went live with the Violent and Sex Offenders Register (ViSOR) that allows them to share a wide range of information on the country's most dangerous violent terrorists and criminals. Built by the Police Information Technology Organization, ViSOR provides online, for the first time, complete and up-to-date information on the country's most dangerous offenders, including a photographic library of offenders over time, distinguishing marks and tattoos, and a powerful search and retrieval capability for police in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12) was created to develop a common identification standard for federal employees and contractors to enhance security, increase government efficiency, reduce identity fraud, and protect personal privacy. With the October 27, 2006, compliance deadline approaching, the Homeland Defense Journal is providing assistance to agencies in their compliance efforts by hosting the ''HSPD-12 Executive Briefing: Looking Beyond Compliance,'' held September 13, 2006, in Washington, DC. The briefing will discuss the challenges facing federal agencies and provide updates on the results of the General Services Administration's (GSA) product tests and the federal agencies that have signed up to be shared-service providers (SSPs). Federal employees will get insight into the interoperable and future-proof solutions that will ensure agency compliance and will learn about the strengths and expertise of the newly founded HSPD-12 Interoperability Consortium and how it will provide assurance of compliance and interoperability between the various components required to meet the mandate.

The Palm Beach County, Florida, Fire-Rescue (PBCFR) has implemented a new emergency incident management solution that includes radio interface enhancements that provide numerous benefits to first responders to save time and facilitate faster and better coordinated response capabilities. When an operator dispatches an event, a tone alert is automatically sent to every handheld radio associated with the units assigned to that event, making team members aware of the incident. The system also provides automated and manual management of talk groups, allowing users to elevate a talk group to a higher priority and isolate event details and radio traffic. This function helps dispatchers manage high priority events without impacting the normal talk group traffic.

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has received a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to lead a consortium researching advanced information analysis and computational technologies to protect the nation. The university's Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) will head a consortium that will focus on finding patterns and relationships in data, such as news stories, open-source Web logs, and other accessible information, to quickly identify emerging indicators of possible terrorist activity, and rate the consistency and reliability of the sources. Such information could give officials more lead time to investigate and potentially thwart terrorist plans. DIMACS director Fred Roberts stated, ''We will develop real-time streaming algorithms to find patterns and relationships in communications, such as among writers who may be hiding their identities, and to rate information sources for their reliability and trustworthiness.'' Rutgers will undertake nine research projects in its first year and will also create educational programs around the technology it develops.

Members of the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Police Department and the city's business community have been working together to increase partnerships and decrease crime in downtown Minneapolis. Since private security officers in downtown Minneapolis outnumber city police officers by a ratio of 13 to 1, increasing communication between the private security and public police helps the city meet its goals of reducing crime and securing a safer environment for the citizens. The Minneapolis Downtown Security Collaborative has five main initiatives: training for private security by police officers; a common police radio link; internal Web site for submitting reports, suspect renderings, and tips; wireless cameras with direct feed into the precinct; and Safe-Zone patrols. These five initiatives, combined with regular monthly meetings of the collaborative, have helped the city meet its crime-reduction goals.

New York City, New York, has begun a series of podcasts for its 130 million transit riders of the Metropolitan Transit Authority to provide information and tips about public transportation. TransitTrax are podcasts presented in six sections: customer safety, building for the future, promotions, security, advisories, and news. One podcast explains the new $5 million ''Eyes On Board'' program that will install hundreds of digital recording cameras for surveillance on buses. The cameras will be equipped with wireless technology for wireless access points. The images could help law enforcement investigations, as well as provide information on passenger injury claims.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is hosting a series of Regional Information Sharing Conferences, entitled Innovations in Justice, to provide local and state agency leaders, policymakers, project managers, and technical staff with information on how to plan, manage, and implement technology solutions for information sharing systems. Experts will share the latest innovative solutions in justice and public safety information sharing, including key developments in critical areas: information sharing policy, privacy and security, coordinating broad-based information sharing initiatives, DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) implementation, and latest technologies and standards. Keynotes, panel and plenary sessions, case studies, and breakout sessions will feature topics such as the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), fusion centers, and service oriented architecture (SOA).

Earlier this summer, technology vendors presented their products to the Northeast Technology and Product Assessment Committee (NTPAC) and practitioners from the northeast and mid-atlantic states, as well as to national organizations like the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization. NTPAC identifies and evaluates emerging technological advances, products, and prototypes that may have the potential of providing a significant impact within the correctional community. NTPAC is an initiative of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, which shares a long standing collaborative partnership with 13 states from the northeast region. Through its affiliation with the Northeast Association of Correctional Administrators (NACA) and in consultation with the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center Northeast (NLECTC-NE) and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), NTPAC disseminates information throughout the northeast region of the correctional community. NTPAC provides a venue for correctional agencies to discuss their concerns about the tools they need to run their facilities. ''Inmates have little to do all day but outwit officials,'' said Jerald Cook, a criminal justice specialist for NLECTC. ''When a new technology is introduced into a facility, inmates think of new ways to get around it.'' Current challenges include the inability to detect contraband, cell phone detection, disaster preparedness, pandemic readiness, offender tracking, and systems integration.

Registration is now available for the 2006 Annual Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) Users' Conference, to be held September 6-8, 2006, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, California. Geared toward policymakers, justice practitioners, and developers, this conference showcases the most efficient and effective methods to implement Global JXDM. A conference highlight will be presentations regarding the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), which seeks to leverage the work of the Global JXDM to develop a national enterprise-wide framework to facilitate information sharing across all levels of government. The conference is sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in partnership with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) and the Global JXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC).

The Michigan State Police' (MSP) Identity Theft Teams, in conjunction with the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police (MACP), and the Michigan Sheriff's Association (MSA), have offered a new four-hour training course on identity theft investigation to 476 Michigan law enforcement officers for investigating identity theft, credit fraud, and counterfeiting complaints. The free course trained officers in the latest investigative techniques, including the areas of victim assistance, identity theft rings, prosecution of offenders, and criminal law. Officers also learned about the investigative tools available to help them combat identity theft, such as the MSP Identity Theft Team Web site, which contains valuable information and resources to assist investigators.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a two-pronged endeavor to bring precision to computer forensics, including a library of software applications and programs for testing the reliability of forensics tools. Since 2001, NIST has maintained the National Software Reference Library (NSRL), with support from the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice and law enforcement agencies. NSRL is an actual library of CDs for 7,120 software applications. NIST runs algorithms against the disks to generate digital 'fingerprints' of files, for which it then creates a metadata index. The metadata index and the NSRL together form the Computer Forensic Reference Data Set (RDS) for digital evidence. In a trial, if a court questions the RDS, NIST can validate its authenticity. Another NIST effort is the Computer Forensics Tool Testing project designed to ensure the capability of forensics testing tools. NIST began writing requirements for different forensic functions and is developing a list of acceptable and unacceptable tool behaviors and will be using these to test forensic products.

This Government Computer News (GCN) special report highlights the activities of the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) Cyber Crime Center (DC3), a DOD center of excellence to efficiently organize, equip, train, and employ scarce resources to more effectively address the proliferation of computer crimes affecting the DOD. DC3 is one of the largest agencies dedicated to computer forensics in the world and the Pentagon's go-to source when there is a particularly complex forensics challenge. In fiscal year 2005, the center closed 492 cases, and DC3 is on pace to break 500 cases this year. DC3 has three divisions, which provide one of the world's most comprehensive sources of digital-forensics capabilities: the Defense Computer Forensics Laboratory, the Defense Cyber Crime Institute, and the Defense Computer Investigations Training Program. The forensics field is growing thanks in part to DC3's success in uncovering and salvaging information stored on everything from disk drives and cell phones to personal digital assistants and global positioning system equipment.

To help states improve and update their emergency response communications, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), in partnership with the SAFECOM program, the communications program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), has awarded five grants to support governors and other state and local policymakers in developing statewide interoperability plans. Alabama, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, and Washington have been selected to receive $50,000 each for wireless communications planning projects to be completed by July 2007. The grants are part of a 12-month policy academy conducted with support from the SAFECOM program. The academy will focus on helping states improve their policy and governance structures to better coordinate the fragmented planning that has plagued many efforts for achieving statewide interoperability.

A National Emergency Responder Credentialing System is currently under development by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) National Incident Management System (NIMS) Integration Center to improve the methods, capabilities, and coordination of emergency responders to deal with domestic incidents. According to a fact sheet published on the project, the new credentialing system will assist in identifying which responders should be allowed to enter an incident scene immediately following a disaster or terrorist attack and prohibit unauthorized entry of volunteers who may not be qualified to assist. Start October 1, 2006, localities and states must begin to credential responders in accordance with the national standards developed by FEMA. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) expects to make the system operation in 2007.

San Diego County, California, has launched a new Internet-based crime mapping application that allows residents to access crime information throughout San Diego County by region, neighborhood, date, and time. San Diego County Regional Crime MAPS, managed by the Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS), allows for the sharing of criminal justice-related information across jurisdictional boundaries and enhances interagency communication, intelligence gathering, strategic planning, homeland security, and crime prevention efforts.

Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., unveiled the new Maryland State Police Mobile Incident Command Vehicle (MICV) as part of Maryland's continuing preparations for effective response to natural or man-made disasters. MICV, the largest of its kind, will serve as the nerve center for local, state, and federal response to emergencies. It is designed to be used as a multiple-agency mobile incident command vehicle and is equipped with the latest radio, microwave, satellite, telephone, and wireless communications technology. MICV resources include computer stations, an outdoor video screen for briefing large groups of police and emergency personnel, and radio interoperability technology to ensure multiple responding agencies can communicate, regardless of their radio frequencies.

Ohio Governor Bob Taft recently demonstrated the capabilities of the Multi-Agency Radio Communications System (MARCS), the nation's first statewide voice and data communication system for first responders, according to a release from the state. The voice and data communications system, coordinated by the Ohio Office of Information Technology (OIT), enables police, fire, and emergency management crews throughout Ohio to coordinate with each other to more efficiently and effectively serve and respond to Ohioans during everyday operations and in the event of an emergency. Currently, MARCS serves 14 state agencies, 138 local health departments, 172 hospitals, all 88 sheriff offices and county emergency management agencies, and more than 110 fire, police, and first-responder agencies.

Police analysts at the New York City, New York, Police Department's (NYPD) Real Time Crime Center are using new visualization technology to graphically view hidden and indirect relationships between incidents and offenders across all New York boroughs. The technology is increasing the overall intelligence picture and enabling NYPD to share and act upon the information. The Real Time Crime Center is designed to improve crime-fighting effectiveness for serious crimes by taking advantage of latest technologies to mine the vast amount of data collected by the department, unlocking the patterns and trends within.

The Michigan State Police (MSP) Statewide Network of Agency Photos (SNAP) program is one of only six state programs to recently receive a $25,000 grant, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and awarded by the National Governors Association's (NGA) Center for Best Practices, to help improve criminal justice information sharing efforts. SNAP is Michigan's state digital image database of mugshots, scars, marks, and tattoos and contains over a million images that are accessed by 54 law enforcement agencies. Using Livescan technology, SNAP transmits images electronically at the time of arrest, along with fingerprints and arrest data, to the MSP Criminal Justice Information Center. From there, the images are available to law enforcement agencies across the state through the Michigan Criminal Justice Information network (MiCJIN). [Related Article]

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced the results of a successful multi-agency border security operation aimed at international criminal enterprises and crime in a five-county region along the Texas-Mexico border. Perry stated that the ''initiative significantly reduced all types of crime, led to dozens of arrests, and effectively shut down the activities of international crime syndicates across a five-county region.'' The effort, conducted as part of Perry's comprehensive border security initiative—Operation Rio Grande, brought together sheriffs from five counties, two police departments, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Public Safety, the Texas National Guard, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Civil Air Patrol, and the Governor's Division of Emergency Management. Perry expects the operation to be a model for future joint law enforcement efforts in other border counties.

Most of Colorado's more than 300 law enforcement offices rely on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) laboratory to process DNA evidence. CBI, however, only staffs a few field agents to train and assist officers in the collection of DNA evidence. Since local patrol officers or investigators are usually the first ones on the scene of a crime or often the only officer assigned to a case, the County Sheriffs of Colorado (CSOC) developed an Internet-based training program to educate them on the collection, handling, and use of DNA evidence. CSOC collaborated with CBI lab forensic scientists and Knowledge Factor to create a program entitled ''Using DNA as Evidence.'' The course covers the basic science of DNA and its use as evidence as well as techniques for identifying evidence, collecting and preserving evidence, and submitting evidence to the lab. Though designed for Colorado patrol officers, investigators, evidence technicians, and prosecutors, the training can apply across jurisdictions.

Police in South Sioux City, Nebraska, can now remotely monitor any school or municipal building from their patrol cars using the town's 30-square mile wireless system and a 130-camera video system. The project, funded by an Information Technology Evaluation Program (ITEP) grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was feasible due to the wireless infrastructure the city established the previous year. The grant allowed South Sioux City to use the infrastructure to benefit security in multiple venues from utilities to City Hall to local schools. Now, if an incident were to occur at the school, first responder officers could go in immediately and be guided by command staff. They could also inform teachers and staff the location of safe areas of refuge.

Austin, Texas, Chief Information Officer (CIO) Pete Collins and New Orleans, Louisiana, CIO Greg Meffert met recently to work on plans for a new data center in Austin that would host New Orleans municipal functions in the event of a natural disaster. The center would house essential city systems, including backups, general ledger, accounting, and e-mail applications. Should a disaster like Hurricane Katrina occur again, New Orleans city staff could travel to Austin to continue government operations. Austin is estimated to be far enough inland to be a good location for the backup data center; work is expected to be completed within 60 days.

New York City, New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Acting Commissioner of New York's (NY) Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) Ronal M. Bergmann announced plans for a pilot project to create a Citywide Mobile Wireless Network (CMWN) for emergency responders. The technology will enable the New York City Police Department (NYPD), as well as NY fire department personnel, to quickly access and download information that includes city maps, building plans, and state and federal counter-terrorism and crime databases. In addition, city agencies employing safety inspectors and maintenance teams in the field will also be able to utilize the wireless network. 'Communications is an important ingredient in the NYPD's recipe to prevent terrorism, fight crime, and respond to emergencies,' said Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. 'The wireless network is a welcome advancement on all three fronts.'

A significant number of law enforcement agencies use some type of computerized database to collect incident and investigative information in their respective jurisdictions. Ideally, a system that would capture the data from all participating law enforcement agencies and convert it into actionable relevant information would enhance the nation's ability to fight crime and terrorism. This concept is the genesis of the National Data Exchange (N-DEx), a national program with a many-tiered approach that practices the art of inclusion with all of its partners. This article features some of the highlights of N-DEx, including a position paper representing law enforcement's consensus statement about the project, N-DEx's concept of operations process, timeline, primary benefits, capabilities, and funding status. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and most particularly the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Service (CJIS) Division are tasked with the development of N-DEx. Local, state, and tribal law enforcement officers will be principal beneficiaries of N-DEx, whose vision is to share complete, accurate, timely, and useful information across jurisdictional boundaries.

Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich signed Senate Bill 2554 (SB 2554) outlawing the practice of pretexting, pretending to be an account holder, or to have authorization to access an account, to obtain cell phone records, long distance call records, a person's physical location, other personal records, and any other account information relating to that person. According to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Illinois is among the first states in the nation to fight cell phone record pretexting. Dozens of Web sites practice cell phone pretexting. SB 2554 makes it illegal for an identity thief to use another individual's personally identifiable information to portray himself or herself as that person without permission. Governor Blagojevich signed several pieces of legislation this year that will protect personal information and combat identity theft, as well as a series of laws last year to help shield residents from the risk of identity theft

With funding assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Governors Association's (NGA) Center for Best Practices has awarded six $25,000 grants to state projects aimed at improving the sharing of justice and public safety information across law enforcement, courts, and correction systems. The six projects are from the states of Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wisconsin. The proposed projects range from improving interstate sharing of justice data to developing privacy protection standards. This endeavor will help establish privacy protection policies for information sharing and for collaboration initiatives with states' homeland security programs. The six projects are planned for completion by January 2007. [Related Article]

The National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP), endorsed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), outlines steps to be taken to improve the information sharing capabilities of law enforcement and other emergency agencies. Key among its recommendations is the efficient leveraging of existing efforts—that is, the commitment to build on, not reinvent, substantial information sharing activities already under way. In 2005, an NCISP pilot implementation was awarded to the San Diego Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to develop an information sharing proof of concept. The goal of the grant was to develop a toolkit for the sharing of information and functionality not previously available across state lines. Highlighted in this Police Chief magazine article is the development and results of the first phase of this pilot project—the State, Regional, and Federal Enterprise Retrieval System (SRFERS). SRFERS is a joint effort of ARJIS, the Maricopa County, Arizona, Integrated Criminal Justice Information Systems (ICJIS), and the International Justice and Public Information Sharing Network (Nlets).

All 50 states are now participating in the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR) Web site (www.nsopr.gov). South Dakota and Oregon have now been added to the Web site, which provides real-time access to public sex offender data nationwide with a single Internet search. NSOPR allows parents and concerned citizens to search existing public state and territory sex offender registries beyond their own states. 'As of July 1st, an important child protection tool will be a truly comprehensive one, with information for all 50 states available nationwide,' said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. 'The full completion of the structure of the National Sex Offender Public Registry is very good news for parents and law enforcement officers nationwide. The constant effort to safeguard our children from sex offenders is never finished, but today's announcement marks a clear accomplishment on the side of protection.'

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is planning to enhance its National Information Sharing Strategy (NISS). Within the NISS framework is the first Regional Data Exchange (R-DEx) which will link with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services' Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX), which serves as the Seattle region's local and regional law enforcement sharing system. R-DEx will serve as the first of several systems contributing to the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ's) Law Enforcement Information Sharing Program (LEISP). R-DEx will give local, state, and tribal law enforcement appropriate access to federal investigative and intelligence information that is critical to protecting our nation. R-DEx provides detectives, investigators, and analysts the ability to view the linkage across multiple cases and their jurisdictions.

On June 30, 2006, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and their associated departments and domains were pleased to announce the newest release of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM)—NIEM Version 1.0 Beta 1. NIEM is a collaborative partnership between DHS and DOJ whose goals are to develop, disseminate, and support enterprise-wide information exchange standards and processes to enable jurisdictions to effectively share critical information throughout the nation. NIEM leverages the successful work of DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM). NIEM Version 1.0 Beta 1 focuses on structural enhancements which include refactored instances specialization/inheritance, multiple code lists for abstract elements and substitution groups, external standards mechanisms with example container elements and adaptor types, structures namespaces that contain new XML constructs, and revised appInfo and structures namespaces that conform to NIEM naming. In addition to the enhancements, a suite of Web-accessible tools are available for use with NIEM Version 1.0 Beta 1, such as a Graphical Browser, a NIEM Schema Subset Generation Tool (SSGT), and an Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) tool.

The Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council (LEITSC) has released two publications developed to assist agencies: Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement Computer Aided Dispatch Systems (CAD) and Standard Functional Specifications for Law Enforcement Records Management Systems (RMS). The two documents will provide significant guidance when developing a request for proposal to purchase or upgrade CAD systems or RMS. The functional specifications contained within these documents serve as a starting point to build a fully operative (based on agency need) CAD system or RMS that is open standards-based and that will interface and share information with other systems. LEITSC is a consortium of law enforcement organizations who have come together to develop standards to improve the application of technology for law enforcement operations. The IJIS Institute served as a subcontractor to LEITSC to draft materials which were then reviewed and modified by the practitioners on the functional steering committee.

The U.S. Secret Service has plans to begin providing access to its ''Forward Edge II'' training program to help train law enforcement personnel. Local and state law enforcement agencies will be able to use the program's CD-ROMs to learn about suspicious electronic media, common tactics used by online child predators, and electronic crimes. Other training information includes a virtual demonstration of the types of common electronic crimes investigations. The Secret Service will handle distribution of the program to its field offices across the country. Law enforcement personnel interested in the program should submit a request to access the materials from the closest Secret Service field office.

The Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway Search Engine (OHLEG-SE) was created by Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to help expand state and local crime-fighting resources. OHLEG-SE is an Internet-based tool that can securely navigate through numerous crime databases. With this tool, officers are now able to use a single log-in and query to gain access to criminal information. The crime records management vendors use the U.S. Department of Justice's Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) to make the systems more compatible and to increase interoperability between them. OHLEG-SE is a standards-based system that will eventually be linked to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database which is operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Currently, there are more than 10,000 active users, with up to 50 officers a day still applying to join the program. More than 5,000 searches are performed each day using OHLEG-SE and the numbers are expected to increase in the near future.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in association with CTC, Inc.-Public Safety Technology Center (CTC), presents the 8th Annual Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness Conference and Exposition. Focusing on prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, this three-day conference will highlight the technology and training tools currently available and being developed for the emergency responder community to deal with major threats to lives and property, such as natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Conference speakers will include local and state public safety professionals, as well as federal experts from the DOJ, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). More than 1,000 attendees are expected, as well as 140 exhibits and 40 DOJ, DHS, and DoD technology demonstrations. This conference will offer a unique opportunity for emergency responders, business and industry, academia, and local, tribal, state, and federal officials to network, exchange ideas, and address common critical incident technology and preparedness needs and solutions.

State and federal information technology (IT) officials are insisting that continuity of operations plans (COOPs) and disaster recover strategies be developed for all agency systems in the wake of last year's hurricanes and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Government IT officials participated in a panel discussion during the 26th annual Management of Change Conference, sponsored by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council, to discuss how local, state, and federal governments are preparing for disasters differently than they did several years ago. For instance, the U.S. Department of Energy is setting up a voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) infrastructure over the next three years that will provide backup recovery as part of its nationwide telecommunications and data infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is revamping its data recovery and disaster plans in case there is a pandemic flu outbreak or a weather or man-made disaster. Another rule officials are promoting is that no system goes into operation until it is approved under a certification and accreditation process, which includes a tested disaster recovery plan.

The United Kingdom's (UK) newest crime-fighting agency, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), has signed a historic pact with Scotland's police forces—eight constabularies north of the border—to take on major crime bosses. Police chiefs expect that the collaboration will produce more intelligence and personnel sharing and herald a new crackdown on international rackets (for example, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and credit card fraud). SOCA opened its doors in April 2006 with more than 1,500 staff. It was immediately dubbed the ''British FBI.'' SOCA replaced the National Crime Squad, the National Criminal Intelligence Service, and Customs and Immigration investigation units. The dual-border pact is now finalized between SOCA and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS).

The United Kingdom's (UK) Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has published a Five Year Strategy and Business Plan 2006/07 that outlines information sharing plans for the UK over the next five years. One plan to is make criminal record checks available online by 2007; another is to link to more public sector data sources and incorporate the UK government's planned biometric identification card scheme in authentication and application processes. The CRB will be collaborating with the UK's Department for Education and Skills to maintain a continually updated list that prospective employers can use to check if someone is cleared or barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. The agency is also working with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to allow criminal information to be exchanged with European Union states. The CRB currently checks against the Police National Computer, local force data, and the UK sex offender register. According to the plan, British Transport Police information will be added to the verification process with links to the Royal Military Police, as well as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) has created the Governors Homeland Security Advisors Council as part of their ongoing effort to ensure states are prepared to respond to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The new council will bring together the 55 advisors, appointed by the governors of each territory and state, to share common concerns and develop strategies for managing homeland security threats. NGA envisions the council being a forum for discussion that will set priorities and plan how best to combat domestic threats at all levels of government. Some of the objectives include improving cross-state and regional communications, assisting communications between state and federal agencies, and developing a unified territorial and state voice to inform governors of the impacts of federal homeland security legislation and policies.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), will be hosting the 2006 Annual NIJ Conference: Criminal Justice Research, Development, and Evaluation in the Social and Physical Sciences, to be held July 17-19, 2006, in Washington, D.C. For 14 years, NIJ's annual conference has brought together criminal justice scholars, policymakers, and practitioners at the local, state, and federal levels to share the most recent findings from research and technology. The conference showcases what works, what does not work, and what the research shows as promising. New developments in technology that increases public safety will be featured. The conference puts a heavy emphasis on the benefits to researchers and practitioners who work together to make effective evidence-based policies and practices.

Information sharing is one of government's most pressing information technology (IT) challenges today. A few federal agencies, however, have confronted these challenges head-on and, as a result, have overseen thriving data exchanges that exemplify the type of information sharing that government has strived for. One such success story is the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and its Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global), a coalition representing more than thirty independent organizations spanning the spectrum of law enforcement, judicial, correctional, and related bodies. DOJ's Global created the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) which comprises a data dictionary, a data model, and an XML schema with a vocabulary of about 3,000 terms for tagging data. Agreeing on one term to describe a piece of data means that the exact same data can be shared throughout the justice process. ''No one has to re-enter that information 15 times along the way,'' said Paul Wormeli, Executive Director of the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute. For DOJ, ''the key to success was letting participants define the shared vocabulary,'' Wormeli said. ''The idea was not to have DOJ hand the language to local law enforcement agencies, who then may or may not use it, but rather to provide a forum in which the participants could come to a common conclusion.'' In collaboration with DOJ, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is now expanding on the Global JXDM's success to create a federal data-sharing model called the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).

Dr. Thomas A. Henderson has been named Executive Director of the Capital Wireless Integrated Network (CapWIN), a regional partnership between the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the District of Columbia to develop an interoperable first responder data communication and information sharing network. Dr. Henderson, who brings to CapWIN his extensive experience managing and participating in regional partnerships, was the former Executive Director of the national Center for State Courts' Association Services where he worked collaboratively with a wide range of organizations and also served on the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Advisory Committee (GAC).

Nlets — The International Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing Network has been named a 2006 Laureate in the Government and Non-Profit Organizations category of The Computerworld Honors Program. Nlets Executive Director Steve Correll accepted the Laureate Medal on behalf of Nlets at a formal medal ceremony on June 5, 2006, in Washington, D.C. Mr. Correll stated, 'We are pleased to be recognized for outstanding innovations within the information technology field. ... This award is an acknowledgement of the extraordinary work of the justice and public safety communities in improving communication and safety through information sharing.' Established in 1988, The Computerworld Honors Program is dedicated to a singular and ongoing mission, 'A Search for New Heroes.' The award recognized organizations whose use of information technology has been especially noteworthy for the originality of its conception, the breadth of its vision, and the significance of its benefit to society. Nlets is the pre-eminent interstate law enforcement network in the nation for the exchange of law enforcement and related justice information. Nlets is owned by the states and was created by principal law enforcement agencies of the states nearly 40 years ago.

This news release highlights the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the collaborative efforts of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and related federal agencies, as well as the technical support provided by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). NIEM will facilitate sharing of vital public safety and criminal justice information by expanding DOJ's Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM). ''By establishing a single standard for XML applications, NIEM will build a foundation for exchanging information between DHS, DOJ, and supporting organizations responsible for emergency management, intelligence, and other areas,'' explained John Wandelt, Principal Research Scientist at GTRI's Information Technology and Telecommunications Laboratory. GTRI assisted with the Global JXDM initiative and now serves as the technical lead for the NIEM Project Management Office. Working with GTRI, the group is identifying the core data components, reusable XML exchange packages, and business-process models for information sharing that should be included in NIEM.

On May 12, 2006, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a decision reaffirming that interconnected voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) providers must be in compliance with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) by May 14, 2007. Under section 103 of CALEA, telecommunications carriers are required to assist law enforcement with intercepting calls, accessing call identifying information, and delivering intercepted communications and call identifying information to the government, with a minimum of interference to subscriber service and privacy. Though carriers are not legally required to adopt the standard, compliance with it is considered a ''safe harbor'' under which a carrier will be deemed to have complied with CALEA requirements. The FCC's ruling also established its independent enforcement authority, including its right to issue monetary penalties and cease-and-desist orders, over interconnected VoIP providers and other carriers.

A new pilot program, designed by the Pennsylvania State Police, has begun to test the new Statewide Public Safety Radio System that will allow law enforcement and first responders to better coordinate their response to incidents and emergencies and give them radio priority when they are in an emergency situation. The new 800 Megahertz (MHz) radio system will allow troopers, for the first time, to communicate directly via radio with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, the Department of Health, and other state agencies. Troopers will be able to bridge to other first responder radio systems for municipal police, county dispatch centers, and other agencies. The system is replacing multiple incompatible, mobile radio systems across the commonwealth, introducing a single system enhanced with wireless data and voice communications.

New Jersey's Department of Law and Public Safety is enabling first-responders to talk and coordinate more efficiently at the scene of an emergency using Incident Commanders' Radio Interface (ICRI) units, a small, rapidly configurable bridge for linking together typically incompatible radio frequency equipment used by different agencies and jurisdictions. The ICRI unit is designed in an environmentally-protected case, is configured to bypass the problem of disrupted radio communications that occur when more than one interoperability device is used at an emergency, and transmits a digitized speech message on all talk groups that easily identifies the unit and its owner/agency.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce, has released a draft report outlining requirements and specifications for smart cards and readers that will assist agencies by giving them criteria to use when purchasing Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) compliant products. NIST Special Publication 800-96, PIV Card/Reader Interoperability Guidelines, describes interoperability standards and performance-based requirements for Personal Identity Verification (PIV) systems consistent with mandates under Federal Information Processing Standard 201-1. PIV cards contain integrated circuit chips, as well as biometric and cryptographic data, and will be interoperable between agencies. Under HSPD-12, agencies must start issuing cards to 4.5 million federal workers and contractors by October 27, 2006.

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched a new tool that will allow law enforcement to board more efficiently. The personal data assistant (PDA), which provides boarding team members the ability to perform a paperless boarding, replaces the 4100 fill-in form that boarding officials are required to fill out during, and following, a boarding. The new PDA provides instant data flow to sector and district command centers and links directly with the Marine Information and Law Enforcement database. When doing an inspection, the boarding officer enters data about the vessel, such as model type and length, which produces a certain criteria checklist for that type of vessel on the PDA.

President George W. Bush recently signed an executive order to create a national Identity (ID) Theft Task Force, to be headed by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and co-chaired by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras. President Bush stated ''What we're going to do is make sure that the 13 governmental agencies involved with identity theft have a well-coordinated strategy to help the victims and to put those who commit the theft behind bars.'' More than 15 bills dealing with ID theft and data breach disclosure have been introduced in the 109th Congress. The executive order is expected to serve as a catalyst to achieve some kind of ubiquity among the laws.

The CyberScience Laboratory (CSL) of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) Office of Science and Technology places students in cyber-crime labs through the Embedded Intern Program. It is part of CSL's effort to offer computer forensics training and supply local and state law enforcement with personnel to investigate electronic crimes and provide technical support. 'We're looking for somebody who can bridge the gap between the physical, investigative, law enforcement world and the computer cyber-world,' explains Embedded Intern Program director Robert DeCarlo. He adds that demand for cyber-crime investigators will swell exponentially as the Internet and wireless devices continue to proliferate. 'There aren't enough computer forensics programs available to grow people in the profession,' notes National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) computer crimes section manager Robert Hopper, who points to an international need for more trained cybersecurity workers.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission unveiled the Las Vegas digital courtroom in December 2005. The courtroom has seamlessly integrated case management, evidence and display functions, real-time court reporting, video transcript capabilities, and trial management functions. A few months ago, the digital courtroom was connected to the Internet. Using this system, attorneys and judges will not have to sift through binders full of documents, but instead will have access to literally thousands of documents in electronic form. Upcoming hearings for a nuclear reactor waste storage facility will use the courtrooms to help simplify adjudicatory proceedings. Court officials can now manage all evidence and discovery materials in one system, while witnesses testifying before the panel can summon evidence through workstations and annotate or draw on screens, which the system can then capture.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is laying the groundwork for acquisition of the National Data Exchange system (N-DEx), which will form a ''card catalog'' of criminal incident information from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. N-DEx will take the form of a performance-based acquisition and form part of DOJ's Law Enforcement Information Sharing (LEIS) Program. N-DEx will complement DOJ's existing Regional Data Exchange System (R-DEx), designed to provide search engine-like access to local, state, and federal law enforcement data. Both N-DEx and R-DEx help implement DOJ's portion of the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and incorporate technical standards such as DOJ's Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM).

Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) officials are preparing for the second phase of the Florida Law Enforcement Exchange (FLEX) project. FLEX is a 15-month endeavor to create a single statewide information-sharing system by linking regional systems. FDLE will release a requirements document for developing information-sharing systems for the Florida regions of Tallahassee, Fort Myers, and Miami, and for FDLE. Those systems will eventually link to four regional information-sharing systems, or nodes. A major goal of the project is to make all of the regional systems compliant with the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM). Using their own systems, Florida law enforcement officials will be able to electronically access data from more than 400 local police agencies and sheriff's offices, as well as data from other state law enforcement components.

The National Association of Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released a new research brief, entitled Service Oriented Architecture: an Enabler of the Agile Enterprise, identifying what state Chief Information Officers (CIOs) need to know regarding Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The brief provides an overview of SOA, the business value and vision of SOA, and SOA governance and security. Stephen Fletcher, Utah CIO, stated 'Providing flexible access to information across platforms and languages can be complex and resource intensive. Service Oriented Architecture simplifies this through standard protocols, which treat all platforms equally.' A number of states are just beginning their SOA efforts, or are in the planning stage for an SOA initiative. State government anticipates SOA is the path to extending legacy applications to handle business processes across government.

Produced under the guidance of the National Association of Chief Information Officers' (NASCIO) Information Security and Privacy Committee, this brief takes a holistic approach to constructing the case for enterprise information technology (IT) security investment by outlining for state chief information officers the following steps:

• Understanding state government's IT environment that drives the need for security.
• Constructing an IT security business case in the context of enterprise architecture (EA).
• Starting with an enterprise-wide IT risk assessment.
• Making the case for IT security through demonstrating the risks (bolstered by the IT risk assessment results), the benefits of security, and how security aligns with the state's business needs.

The efforts for improving incident management can substantially gain through extensive use of modeling and simulation tools (computer-based models and simulations). Modeling and simulation can be used to understand and project the impact of an incident, to test out the emergency response plans, for helping train response personnel, and for vulnerability analysis. In a new publication, entitled An Integrating Framework for Modeling and Simulation for Incident Management, a framework for incident management is proposed to support modeling and simulation. The paper, co-written by Sanjay Jain, George Washington University, and Charles R. McLean, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), highlights the need for interoperability of modeling and simulation tools and emphasizes establishing requirements for data and architecture standards. The framework addresses incident management on three axes – incident, domain, and lifecycle phase. The framework can be rapidly implemented with the development of interoperability standards that can, in turn, significantly improve the nation’s incident management capabilities.

In another successful multinational and multi-agency collaboration, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Mexican Navy recently worked together to coordinate the seizure of 2.58 metric tons of cocaine in the vicinity of Acapulco, Mexico. The bi-national and U.S. agency coordination, led by Joint Interagency Task Force South, resulted in the arrest of smugglers and a large seizure of cocaine. CBP is the unified border agency within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) charged with the management, control, and protection of U.S. borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has selected a Washington, D.C., public safety wireless network to evaluate its effectiveness in sharing radio spectrum with local, state, and federal government agencies during emergencies. Selection of the interoperable, city-wide, broadband public safety network fulfills one of the 24 recommendations of President Bush's 21st Century Spectrum Policy Initiative for improving management of the nation's airwaves. The President directed NTIA to develop and implement one or more demonstration programs to test the operational and cost effectiveness of sharing spectrum. ''This demonstration project is a critical part of the comprehensive region-wide communications system for the National Capital Area,'' said Acting NTIA Administrator John M.R. Kneuer. NTIA plans to issue a report on its findings later this year.

To meet the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering using a reference number rather than personally identifiable information on a new border-crossing card, the Peoples Access Security Services (PASS) card, as a method to help protect privacy. The card is likely to have an ultra-high Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip. The reference number would be linked with a secure database maintained by the department, which will contain the personal information and biometrics. The PASS card is similar to what the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator System (U.S. Visit) uses for foreigners arriving at five land ports, however the PASS card would be for U.S. citizens, as well as for Mexicans and Canadians. The DHS Privacy Office is currently performing a privacy impact assessment on the card.

Ensuring the safety of the national and international audience of the 2006 National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl—held at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan—was a demonstration in successful collaboration requiring joint coordination of local, state, and federal law enforcement. The Detroit Police Department (DPD), the lead law enforcement agency for the event, received comprehensive assistance from the Michigan State Police (MSP). Representatives from over 25 agencies attended security planning meetings and collectively drafted the event’s security plan. On game day, officers used an Incident Command System to coordinate, deploy, and monitor resources as is done in an emergency situation. On-site technology assistance was provided by information technology technicians who staffed the Joint Operations Center and the Intelligence Operations Center 24-hours a day. The success of the event was a compliment to its well-developed security plan, the flexibility and experience of the command staff, as well as the cooperative relationships that were developed among the agencies involved.

Pennsylvania State University researchers claim to have developed a software tool that dramatically improves the process of automatically mapping database fields and encrypts information with access controls and tokens to share the data safely across multiple organizations. The Access Control toolkit (PACT), built on Java and open source tools, acts as a filter for data being electronically shared between organizations. PACT allows organizations to implement access controls for employees in other organizations that rely on the data before the information is sent, controlling access across various organizations that use different object vocabularies. Researchers have built the tool set for use with any application. PACT addresses security concerns through encryption and access controls. Pennsylvania State University Professor Prasenjit Mitra believes PACT provides the first software framework to protect metadata sharing between multiple organizations. The researchers will make the software available under the open source General Public License (GPU) agreement on a limited basis.

Presenter Captain Eddie Reyes of the Alexandria, Virginia, Police Department and Chair of the Virginia State Interoperability Executive Committee, described Virginia's progress toward interoperable communications at the 2006 Government Security Exposition and Conference, held in April 2006. The panel session, entitled Regionalization and Interoperability: Challenges and Solutions for Multi-Jurisdictional Response, highlighted the latest U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) programs to achieve interoperability, and featured the work police and other emergency response departments in the national capital region of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. have been doing to standardize on common 800 MHz communications systems. What remains to be done in establishing interoperable systems is to get everyone on the same page. Communications across departments and jurisdictions has long been a headache for local, state, and federal first responders with few first responders knowing anything of their communications systems beyond ''push to talk.'' One of the problems is what Reyes called a ''plethora of patois''—cops don't speak the same language, even when they're on the same frequency. ''What's missing now is the training, the standards, and a common language protocol,'' Reyes said.

In a final rule published in April 2006, the Federal Acquisition Council said that contracting officers and agencies posting sensitive but unclassified information on the Internet relating to procurements must now use the Federal Technical Data Solution (FedTeds) system to control the availability and distribution of procurement sensitive material. FedTeds, developed by the Defense Information Systems Agency, is overseen by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). FedTeds is an online temporary repository of technical procurement data that is linked to the FedBizOpps.gov Web site and is one piece of the Integrated Acquisition Environment e-government project. As of March 2006, only eight agencies were using FedTeds for their sensitive data. Now with the final rule in place, every agency will use it.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials unveiled the newest radiation portal monitors that will be used to inspect some of the nearly 11 million cargo containers entering U.S. seaports every year. These U.S.-made detection devices will provide CBP officers with even more tools to keep terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the country. Presently, CBP operates over 680 radiation portal monitors at our nation's ports, uses over 174 large scale non-intrusive inspection devices to examine cargo, and has issued 566 hand-held radiation isotope identifier devices and nearly 13,000 personal radiation detectors to CBP officers working at ports across the country.

New research, conducted at Binghamton University, New York, can link digital images to the camera with which they were taken. The research analyzes the slight variations created by the image sensor in each camera to uniquely identify pictures. Pegging a photo to an individual camera essentially extends forensic document identification techniques to the digital imaging area. The technology is being presented as potentially useful in catching child pornographers. ''The defense in these kind of cases would often be that the images were not taken by this person's camera,'' Jessica Fridrich, the Binghamton University engineering professor who oversaw the research, said in a statement. ''But if it can be shown that the original images were taken by the person's cell phone or camera, it becomes a much stronger case.'' In preliminary tests, Fridrich's lab analyzed 2,700 pictures taken by nine digital cameras, with 100 percent accuracy. ''We already know law enforcement wants to be able to use this,'' Fridrich said, in the statement. ''What we have right now is a research tool; it's a raw technology that we will continue to improve.'' [Press Release]

A new report from the Congressional Research Service, entitled Intelligence Issues for Congress, outlines the challenges in intelligence-gathering, analysis, and dissemination facing the director of national intelligence and the 15 other federal intelligence agencies in the post-9/11 era, with a large part of the activity focused on counterterrorism. According to the report, new forms of intelligence-gathering, including the availability of open-source information on the Internet, are becoming increasingly important for fighting terrorism and may even reduce the need for more traditional collection efforts. While the intelligence community traditionally has relied on signals, imagery, and human intelligence, the report said there is now a growing interest in open-source intelligence (OSINT), as well as in measurement and signatures analysis intelligence (MASINT). The rising dependence on open source is due, in part, to a requirement for a broad range of information about many regions and subjects throughout the world.

In a position paper issued in support of the efforts of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division to establish the National Data Exchange (N-DEx) initiative, the IJIS Institute announced that the 155 companies affiliated with IJIS fully support the project. N-DEx is a national system that allows all law enforcement agencies of any size and jurisdiction to share incident-related information (not intelligence) in order to correlate crime information and find suspects. IJIS stated that ''N-DEx will hold a central position within the framework of the envisioned consortium by becoming an integral component of the information processes and systems of the majority of law enforcement agencies throughout the country.'' N-DEx has the potential to fulfill the need for local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies to share critical incident information and to increase clearance rates, productivity, and effectiveness of the investigative function. The IJIS position paper cited industry-supported critical success factors for developing this national system.

Government information technology (IT) spending is expected to grow significantly over the next few years and will result in a considerable increase in government IT contracts. The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) is hosting a Webcast to help organizations understand and navigate the complexities of the government contract process. Critical Issues in Local and State IT Contracting will be presented on May 12, 2006, at 2:00 p.m. EST and will feature experienced presenter Robert S. Metzger, partner of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher, LLP, who will discuss the critical legal issues associated with local and state government IT contracting. The Webcast will discuss contracting legal challenges, such as: intellectual property protection, indemnity, limitation of liability, warranty, conflict of interest rules, and more.

More than 800 justice and public safety practitioners attended the 2006 Symposium on Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing: Effective Decision Making for a Safer America, held March 13-15, 2006, in Washington, D.C. The Symposium, sponsored by SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice, featured more than 36 plenary and panel sessions, and 90 speakers representing local, state, federal, and international practitioners, policymakers, technologists, managers, and subject matter experts. The Symposium addressed best practices associated with planning, analysis, implementation, and technology for information sharing. [Symposium Agenda]

The Michigan State Police (MSP) has announced that the state's digital image database that contains mugshots, scars, marks, and tattoos has surpassed one million images. Similar to the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), the Statewide Network of Agency Photos (SNAP), introduced almost three years ago, electronically transmits arrest images, fingerprints, and arrest data to the MSP Criminal Justice Information Center. Images are available to law enforcement agencies across the state through the Michigan Criminal Justice Information Network (MiCJIN), a secure Web portal. Today, there are 49 law enforcement agencies retrieving images from SNAP.

President George W. Bush recently proclaimed April 23 through April 29, 2006, as National Crime Victims' Rights Week (NCVRW) and stated ''During National Crime Victims' Rights Week, we underscore our commitment to safeguarding the rights of the victims of crime and their families, and we honor those who bring them hope and comfort.'' The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), helps to lead communities throughout the country in their observances of NCVRW and has bestowed several awards to worthy individuals, organizations, and programs that have shown exemplary service to crime victims. One such recipient, for OVC's National Crime Victim Service Award, is Steven R. Siegel, Director of Program Development for the Denver District Attorney's Office. Mr. Siegel spent his career mentoring new victim advocates and is a founding member of the National Victims' Constitutional Amendment Network (NVCAN). In that role, Mr. Siegel provided consultation and technical assistance to over 20 states as they successfully sought to pass their state-level constitutional amendments. Through Mr. Siegel's innovative leadership the Denver District Attorney's Office has received funding and created multiple projects that have become national models, including Victim Services 2000, which is a demonstration model of a coordinated victim services network. [Related Award]

The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) new Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) Clearinghouse (www.it.ojp.gov/iepd/) is a recent addition to the Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Information Technology Initiatives Web site (www.it.ojp.gov). Many justice and public safety organizations have been working to define information exchanges that are conformant with the Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM). The IEPD Clearinghouse was developed to provide assistance with this process as a growing repository of descriptive IEPD articles submitted by those who have already implemented the Global JXDM. The articles contain links to specific IEPDs and associated artifacts so that others can find models to follow. The clearinghouse was funded by a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), OJP, technical assistance grant to the IJIS Institute and guided by the IJIS Institute XML Advisory Committee and the GJXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC). SEARCH, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, has identified over 600 individual exchanges that routinely occur within justice processes. IEPDs are being developed for the more critical exchanges that are in greatest daily use. For example, GTTAC has contributed to the development of IEPDs for criminal incident, sentencing order, and for other information exchanges that move from agency to agency.

Carl Wicklund, Executive Director for the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA), was recently bestowed the 2006 U.S. Congress Victims' Rights Caucus Allied Professional Award on Friday, April 21, 2006, in Washington, D.C. Congressman Ted Poe (R-TX) is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Victims' Rights Caucus who lauded Mr. Wicklund's work for victims; ''Carl Wicklund is a unique individual. While most people associate probation and parole with convicted offenders, Carl is a victim advocate in every sense of the word. Through Carl's leadership and vision, community corrections agencies have realized the importance of a 'victim-centered' approach to all they do.'' The Caucus is responsible for facilitating discussions and disseminating information on the causes of victimization to achieve greater understanding and to formulate sensible solutions. Mr. Wicklund thanked the APPA for their concern for victims and added ''When we can accept the reality that we are all victims of crime, then perhaps we will unquestioningly accept the responsibility of meeting the needs of those most directly harmed by crime.''

In Nevada, a collaborative effort between multiple local and state government agencies is being formed to increase the ability to operate vital computer systems in the event of an emergency. The Nevada Shared Information Technologies Services (NSITS) project will allow government entities and agencies to utilize shared-use facilities to improve the security of data by eliminating unneeded transmission links and standardizing security formats between partners. A feasibility study examining implementation alternatives will soon be commissioned, the results are expected by September 2006. Following the findings of the study, NSITS partners will continue planning and budgeting to bring the project to fruition.

On April 19, 2006, a program on the National Geographic Channel, entitled ''Explorer: Science of Surveillance,'' examined high-tech surveillance and featured a deconstruction of the London, England, bombings, a behind the scenes look at high-tech commands centers, and explored the New York City, New York, Police Department surveillance helicopters that are equipped with infrared technology for monitoring illegal activity. The program demonstrated technologies at work and included advancements in biometrics, such as facial and iris recognition, implanted electronic identification chips, and backscatter technology. Viewers also witnessed the possibilities of three dimensional (3-D) imagery tied to global satellite tracking. The program will air again on Wednesday, April 26, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. EST.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, working with a National Science Foundation grant, have evaluated the trustworthiness of the most common types of telephone wiretaps used by police and intelligence agencies. Results showed that a variety of techniques can exploit vulnerabilities in the single signaling and audio channel used in analog telephone systems. The project, initially begun to establish baselines for network security, found that notebook computers could fine-tune the pulse tones generated to dial a number, resulting in misinterpreted tones (meaningless numbers) by the monitoring equipment. They also found that a recorder, set to shut off when a phone is placed back on the hook, was shown to be spoofed by a signaling tone that simulated the hang up and prompted the recorder to shut off. The 1996 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act required vendors to include a wiretap interface in telephone switching equipment, but research has shown that most vendors made their switches backward, rather than forward, compatible to work with legacy equipment.

The Center for Technology in Government (CTG) has announced the release of the first version of its online Extensible Markup Language (XML) Toolkit, located at www.thexmltoolkit.org. The Toolkit is the product of CTG's XML Testbed, which served to assist New York State agencies in examining the benefits and challenges of Web site management using XML. It contains a library of XML resources, instructions on how to get started, practical approaches to implementing XML in a variety of environments, code samples, useful tools for XML development, and links to XML guides and reports. One special section contains a complete deconstruction of CTG's XML Toolkit Web site for anyone to view how the XML, XML Stylesheet Language (XSL), and Active Server Pages (ASP) work together to produce the Web pages. [XML Testbed Article]

The General Services Administration's (GSA) lab, established to test vendor products for interoperability under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) and Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS-201), is now ready to review interoperability products in several categories. GSA is testing products to make sure they are interoperable with each other, while the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will assess the products and services to ensure they meet FIPS-201. GSA's lab is one piece of the puzzle before agencies can buy approved interoperability products and services. One testing category, for card/reader interoperability, is 99 percent complete. The first list of approved products is expected to be ready by May 2006. [Related HSPD-12 Article]

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), along with first responders from Maryland and Virginia, recently demonstrated how important trust is under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 (HSPD-12). In a one-day exercise called Winter Fox, employees from the four organizations used their own smart cards and digital certificates—compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard-201 (FIPS-201)—to obtain validation at another's location. Winter Fox, sponsored by DHS' National Capital Region, took place at four locations: the Pentagon's Navy Annex, Frederick County, Maryland, the port of Baltimore, and the Virginia Transportation Department. ''This was a proof of concept, and we had a successful demonstration of interoperability at a private, county, state, and federal venue,'' said Lemar Jones, Director of the Pentagon's Force Protection Agency's Anti-terrorism and Force Protection Office. Winter Fox focused on first responders because of their need to move and communicate easily across jurisdictions.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) is seeking nominations of state government information technology (IT) projects for its 18th annual IT awards honoring achievement in the field. Categories are: business continuity; cross-boundary collaboration and partnerships; data, information, and knowledge management; digital government; enterprise architecture; enterprise IT management; information communications technology innovations; and IT project and portfolio management. The deadline for nominations is June 14, 2006. Winners will be honored at NASCIO's annual conference to be held in October in Miami.

The National Governor's Association's (NGA) Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) has produced a new issue brief, Protecting Privacy in Integrated Justice Systems, to offer guidance on how states can ensure privacy protection while promoting public safety. Improving justice information sharing has been a priority for states of the past decade, especially since Sept. 11. Along with these improvements there have been some unintended consequences. This issue brief examines the impact of recent advances in justice information sharing on privacy protections. It also provides recommended strategies that states can adopt to continue the public safety gains made from justice information sharing while improving individual privacy protections.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) recently received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to fund a series of intensive policy academies on public safety communications and interoperability for local officials over the next two years. The training, offered through a funding agreement with DHS' SAFECOM, will help improve local emergency preparedness by educating county officials and other local policymakers about wireless interoperability. Under the grant, NACo will provide information and training to build awareness and knowledge; facilitate peer networking; and design and deliver technical assistance to counties in their efforts to implement interoperability strategies. Preliminary plans are underway to conduct the first policy academy at a mid-Atlantic disaster preparedness conference in the fall.

The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) has released a new resource for justice practitioners charged with developing or revising an agency's privacy policy, the Privacy Policy Development Guide and the Privacy Policy Development Guide Overview CD. Developed by Global's Privacy and Information Quality Working Group (GPIQWG), this publication is a practical, hands-on resource that provides sensible guidance for developing a privacy policy. Using this guide is the next logical step for those justice entities that are ready to move beyond awareness into the actual policy development process. It assists agencies in articulating privacy obligations in a manner that protects the justice agency, the individual, and the public and makes it easer to do what is necessary-share critical justice information. To order copies of the guide or CD, please submit your request via the Contact Us form.

The National Institute of Justice's (NIJ) Expert Systems Testbed (NEST) Project will evaluate commercially available expert systems designed for use by forensic DNA laboratories. The project will initially focus on the automated analysis of DNA profiles from single-source samples for the eventual upload into the National DNA Index System (NDIS). Expert systems are software, or a suite of software programs, that are used to rapidly process DNA data and generate final DNA results. Expert systems have the potential to reduce or eliminate backlogs of unanalyzed data, thereby streamlining DNA analysis and increasing the number of profiles available for import into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Laboratory's Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Marshall University Forensic Science Center (MUSFC) is the host site of the NEST project and in Phase One MUSFC will evaluate three expert systems. A report is expected to be submitted to NIJ in May 2006.

During the Eisenhower Administration, Executive Order 10450 was established to address personnel security issues mandating National Agency Checks (NACs) as part of the pre-employment vetting and background investigation process. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Name Check Program (NNCP) processes NACs for federal agencies, such as those received from components within the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the federal government; foreign police and intelligence agencies; local and state law enforcement agencies within the criminal justice system; and even those in internal offices within the FBI. Since September 11th, NAC requests have grown, with more customers seeking background information on individuals before bestowing a government privilege, such as employment, a security clearance, a Green Card or naturalization, or attendance at a White House function. Employees of the NNCP conduct manual and electronic searches of the FBI's Central Records System (CRS) Universal Index (UNI). The CRS encompasses the centralized records of FBI Headquarters, field offices, and Legal Attache offices and contains all FBI investigative, administrative, personnel, and general files.

Safecom, a communications program of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), is working to improve interoperable communications by conducting a landmark survey known as the National Interoperability Baseline Survey to provide a statistical snapshot of the level of interoperable communications among local, state, federal, and tribal public safety agencies. The survey will help public safety leaders and officials to identify the type of interoperability initiatives that work, where gaps exist, and how agencies can most effectively allocate resources. This ground-breaking assessment will survey an unprecedented 37,000 law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical service (EMS) agencies and will generate valuable insights by assessing five critical elements of interoperability: governance, standard operating procedures, technology, training and exercises, and use of interoperable communications. In developing the 60-question survey, Safecom worked with law enforcement and public safety community representatives from across the nation and created a comprehensive definition of the five critical areas that determine an organization's interoperability. Safecom plans to publish a complete analysis of the findings in September 2006.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is awarding funding for anti-crime initiatives to every state and territory. The funds are provided through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program that allows local, state, and tribal governments to support criminal justice activities based on respective local needs and priorities. Awards may be used for training, personnel, equipment and information systems for law enforcement programs, prosecution and court programs, drug treatment programs, corrections programs, and technology improvement programs. The total amount of funding available through JAG this year is $292 million with $200 million going to state governments and $92 million for local communities nationwide. Awards through the JAG program are determined by a formula that includes a minimum allocation to each state, with additional funds distributed based on state population and crime statistics.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) houses a database of known or appropriately suspected terrorists that can be tapped into by every official sworn to protect the U.S., from border patrol and transportation officials to federal agents and local police officers. Terrorist information is gathered into the TSC from the FBI (domestic terrorist information) and the National Counter Terrorism Center (international terrorist information), which gets information from more than a dozen intelligence agencies under the umbrella of the Director of National Intelligence, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Staffed round-the-clock with field-trained analysts and agents from the different components of the law enforcement and intelligence communities, the TSC's consolidated and comprehensive database reveals a level of information sharing that is unprecedented prior to the 9/11 attacks. Agencies still have their own supported systems that they use to screen known or appropriately suspected terrorists, but those systems are now fed by the TSC database to ensure the same information is available to the full spectrum of the law enforcement and intelligence communities.

The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), has partnered with the Center for Technology in Government (CTG) at the State University of New York at Albany and collaborated with more than 30 criminal justice agencies to develop a new resource for technology and information sharing, entitled Sharing Justice Information: A Capability Assessment Toolkit. The toolkit consists of detailed standards and guidelines to provide law enforcement and criminal justice practitioners a step-by-step process to assess their respective agencies' information sharing capabilities. The toolkit helps identify risk and risk mitigation strategies and highlights what information is needed to improve information sharing. Agencies can save resources on costly outside assessments by following the toolkit guidelines to assess the current information sharing environment, as well as by applying the toolkit's decision-making methods for analyzing new implementations. The toolkit is available in an interactive online format at http://catoolkit.ojp.gov/introduction or as a downloadable workbook at www.ctg.albany.edu/publications/guides/sharing_justice_info.

Government agencies, local and statewide, are increasingly demonstrating the value of open Extensible Markup Language (XML) standards since XML keeps data in a nonproprietary format and doesn't restrict users to a specific vendor. This article highlights several government XML endeavors, such as: the State University of New York at Albany's Center for Technology in Government (CTG) who converted its Web maintenance process to XML; the Library of Congress and the National Archives who made XML their digital records storage standard; and the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) that DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance is working to implement with local and state agencies to promote justice information sharing.

The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) has announced a second round of $50,000 Policy Academy grants, awarded to Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, New York, and North Carolina. Through the support of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), last year's grants helped six states implement pilot projects to improve their existing justice information sharing systems. The Policy Academy grants were established to encourage justice information sharing among states by enabling states to utilize the Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) for exchanging criminal justice information. Global JXDM is designed to provide law enforcement, public safety agencies, prosecutors, public defenders, and the judicial branch with a tool to share data and information in a timely manner. This year's Policy Academy states will participate in a 12-month implementation process which will include NGA-sponsored site visits, two policy academy meetings, and customized technical assistance.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is working to find a technical solution to best route emergency communications, including 911 calls, over the Internet. In addition, they are looking at ways to allow police and firefighters to locate and respond to calls made from offices and other buildings. The solution is called Emergency Context Resolution with Internet Technologies (ECRIT). It allows an Internet protocol (IP) phone to obtain its location information when a 911 call is placed. The phone then queries a database using a new mapping protocol to find the most appropriate emergency call center within that location. Once an appropriate emergency call center is located, the phone places the call and transmits the location of the caller. ECRIT standards, if implemented, will require companies to make the location of every IP address on their networks available in a database.

Jordan Downs, Los Angeles, is a 700-unit housing development that is receiving a dozen surveillance cameras from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Vice president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, Alan Skobin, says the cameras are intended to reduce crime targeting middle and high school students, as well as safeguarding law-abiding citizens. Expected to be operational by the end of 2006, the project is being funded by a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). In addition, DOJ is partnering with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, LAPD, and Motorola. Police vehicles will receive streaming video and radio access, while first responders will utilize the 4.9 gigahertz radios in their operations. The city will have the ability to deploy either single or several boxes of these systems to operate the networks. The boxes can be used separately or they can be connected for some degree of interoperability.

Washington, DC, is considering legislation to expand its network of closed-circuit cameras for surveillance purposes. Edward Reiskin, the city's deputy mayor, intends to put forth such legislation in March. The Metropolitan Police Department wants to operate additional cameras in high crime areas. Police Chief Charles Ramsey advocates using the cameras as crime prevention tools. The city's police have used surveillance cameras since 2002 for public events, such as demonstrations, where privacy concerns are not an issue. Opponents of the measure are concerned with using the cameras on a daily basis and how that affects the privacy rights for individuals. They site a study by the British Home Office, suggesting cameras in use in the United Kingdom and United States have only slightly impacted crime. Others suggest opening the issue for public debate before enacting any legislation. Chief Ramsey says he is working with Reiskin and Washington, DC, Mayor Anthony Williams to implement video surveillance within the city.

The Flower Mound, Texas, Police Department has a new method of receiving radio communications in its headquarters. After two years of testing and experimenting with voice-conferencing software, the department now uses computers to monitor radio and television transmissions. The 67 officers on the force now answer calls from dispatch and listen to everything on their 800 MHz radio system via in-car computers. They are also able to access local and national television stations. Dustin Malcolm, Flower Mound's Information Services Director, used a ''duct tape and soldering iron'' approach to combine the city's analog radio system with six of the police department's computers to form the basis of their communication center. This aids the department in several ways. The officers do not need their handheld radios within the headquarters. This reduces the number of radios the department needs, saving $2,500 per unit. As more patrol cars are outfitted with laptops, the computers will establish better communication between officers in the field.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), founded 131 years ago to safeguard the Northwest Territories, has a staggering range of municipal, provincial, and federal responsibilities across Canada, from homeland security to front-line local policing. As such, it has a monumental training burden. To that end, RCMP currently operates a diverse range of interactive public Web pages, intranet pages, remotely managed courses, and online exams on multiple platforms. To centrally manage the numerous learning activities on a single platform, save time and money, and dramatically improve education, RCMP has selected an academic enterprise system that will consolidate the disparate offerings, streamline course development, share content, regulate access to sensitive materials, and continually evolve.

Online registration for the 2006 Annual Global Justice Extensible Markup Language(XML) Data Model (Global JXDM) Users' Conference, held September 6-8, 2006, at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina, California, is now open. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ),Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in partnership with the Global JXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC) and the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the conference will highlight a new Global JXDM curriculum and will feature new XML implementation projects. Sessions will be available for policy, management, operations, and technical staff levels to provide participants at any level with the understanding they require for successful implementation. Participants will learn about practical Global JXDM applications and will be able to network with others who are working with this technology. Sessions will focus on use cases, applications of business process rules and policies, migration and mapping strategies, regional information sharing projects, messaging and transporting strategies and architectures, benefits of mapping semantic reasoning technology, challenges in developing domain-specific vocabularies, exchanges across disciplines, and more. [Presentations from last year's event.]

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released a brief on the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), entitled A National Framework for Collaborative Information Exchange: What is NIEM?, summarizing the intention of this national initiative and providing guidance on how to participate in this effort. NASCIO is providing state representation in support of this effort through a Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), grant to enable states involvement. NIEM, established in February 2005 by a partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and DOJ, is a key initiative that will have a major impact on how the government interoperates, making the communication among government lines of business at all levels possible. NIEM is based on the expansion of DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM), and includes the requirements for sharing information related to homeland security. Today, the vision of NIEM is expanding to include intelligence, public health, and transportation.

Project Passport at the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is fostering uniformity in both the appearance and sharing of protective orders across jurisdictional boundaries in order to increase safety for victims of domestic violence. According to the project, states could use extensible markup language (XML) to share information across an integrated network. This effort may yield greater participation and improved accuracy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC). Through task forces and other government and private sector groups, officials are hoping to create a single standard to link county and state court systems. While opportunities to use XML for integration exist at every level of judicial and law enforcement information technology systems, funding for such projects can be daunting. Officials say that leveraging the capabilities of existing technologies can help alleviate the heavy burden of funding.

Today, the walls between Florida's many court and law enforcement databases are crumbling thanks to a highly flexible, low-maintenance information integration system—the Judicial Inquiry System (JIS). JIS allows judges, clerks, state prosecutors, and many others in Florida's courts and law enforcement agencies to pull records from 13 disparate information technology systems on a ''need-to-know'' security basis. Using an advanced form of industry-standard extension of extensible markup language (XML), called Resource Description Framework, no changes were required in any of the applications or databases into which the system connects. Currently, JIS serves 4,000 active users. Records are now being retrieved in minutes instead of hours. JIS is proving to be an asset in Florida courtrooms by providing more comprehensive information, resulting in better-informed decisions about sentencing options.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), traditionally viewed as an agency that provides unbiased technical reports and standards for equipment, also specializes in technical and financial assistance. This article describes the interoperability endeavors of NIJ's communications side of the house, the CommTech program. Through CommTech, NIJ provides solutions to both short- and long-term interoperability problems involving wireless public safety telecommunications and information technology applications. CommTech helps bridge the gap in emergency communications by identifying, adopting, and developing interoperability solutions that include open architecture standards for voice, data, image, and video communication systems. CommTech has been instrumental in planning and providing support and technical expertise for high profile events, such as the 2005 Presidential Inauguration. The U.S. Secret Service contacted CommTech to initiate the communications plan for the inauguration since it met their interoperability requirements.

The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is pleased to debut a new online Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) resource, the Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) Clearinghouse (www.it.ojp.gov/iepd). The IEPD Clearinghouse is a repository of descriptive IEPD articles submitted by individuals and organizations who have implemented the Global JXDM. Articles contain links to specific IEPDs and associated artifacts. Many justice and public safety organizations have been working to define information exchanges that are conformant with the Global JXDM for use within their information sharing enterprise. DOJ's OJP recognized the need to identify and describe a common set of artifacts to document the structure and content of a Global JXDM-conformant XML instance used in an information exchange. This set of artifacts is referred to as an IEPD. IEPD information is available for searching by topic of interest and users may submit IEPDs developed by their own organization. [Related Resource: IEPD Guidelines]

The U.S. Departments of Justice (DOJ), Homeland Security (DHS), and Defense (DOD) present the 8th Annual ''Technologies for Critical Incident Preparedness conference and Exposition,'' to be held September 6-8, 2006, in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference will highlight the technologies and tools currently available and being developed for the emergency responder community. With more than 1,200 attendees and 150 exhibits expected, this conference offers a unique opportunity for emergency responders, business and industry, academia, and elected local, state, and federal stakeholders to network, exchange ideas, and address common critical incident technology and preparedness needs and solutions.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), is pleased to offer a public training workshop on the Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM)-the Global JXDM Practical Implementer's Course. Along with BJA, this workshop is sponsored by the Global JXDM Training and Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC). This workshop will provide practical implementation strategies for data exchanges and methodologies for using the Global JXDM. In addition to the Implementer's Course, a Global JXDM Executive Briefing is being offered. This briefing will provide an overview specifically geared for executives, managers, information technologists, and policymakers who want to learn more about the benefits of implementing Global JXDM. The Executive Briefing is scheduled for May 22, 2006, and the Practical Implementer's Course is planned for May 23-25, 2006. For more information, refer to www.it.ojp.gov/executivebriefing for the Executive Briefing and www.it.ojp.gov/gjxdmworkshop for the Implementer's Course.

Chester County, Pennsylvania, is home to 450,000 residents residing in 73 municipalities. The county's Department of Emergency Services is rolling out improved data communication for its police, fire, and ambulance crews with the installation of $5 million in ruggedized mobile laptop computers. Of the 685 laptop computers purchased, 100 were installed and deployed in emergency medical services (EMS) vehicles last September. Currently police vehicles are being fitted and fire department vehicles will follow. Installation is expected to be completed later this year. At that point, the 57 fire companies and 44 municipal police forces serving the county will be seamlessly linked to the countywide data system. The county received 90 percent of the funding from a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant and a grant from the state's Department of Health.

The Los Angeles, California, Police Department's (LAPD) Port Police are now using newly installed, high definition imaging sonar mounted on patrol boats. The multi-beam sonar is being used for port security missions, for tracking dive teams during critical operations inside the port, and to assist in locating drowning victims. Officers onboard are able to view real-time streaming imagery that the new sonar produces and speak to the divers over an underwater acoustic communication system. The new technology was recently developed at the University of Washington and has been developed for law enforcement, port security, and other commercial applications.

The Community Capacity Development Office, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, has announced an upcoming training event entitled: 2006 Tribal Crime Data and Information Sharing Training for Tribal Agencies. Scheduled for April 3-5, 2006, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this event will highlight tribe-specific and tribal-state information sharing projects throughout Indian country. The training is designed for criminal and juvenile justice practitioners, victims advocates, administrators, law enforcement, policymakers, and allied professionals who work in or with American Indian or Alaska Native communities. Session topics include Interface of Federal Criminal Justice Information Systems and Tribal Information Systems, Introduction to Integrated Justice, National Law Enforcement Databases and Criminal Intelligence Systems, and the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative and Justice Intelligence Coordinating Council with Tribal Systems. There is no fee to attend the training; travel expenses are not covered.

The National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C) has released the results of their 2005 national survey that assesses white collar crime victimization and reports behaviors, as well as public perception, of this type of crime. Responses were collected from a nationally representative sample of over 1600 U.S. households. The findings show that nearly one in two households (46.5 percent) report having experienced at least one form of white collar crime victimization within the past year. NW3C Director Don Brackman commented that, ''Now, more than ever, it is crucial for us to continue to unite the efforts between local, state, federal, and international agencies that will allow the nation to more effectively fight this crime.'' [NW3C Survey]

The U.S. Department of State has started pilot production of electronic passports and plans to roll out e-passports for the general public by this summer. The components of the passports, approved by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) testing, uses contactless, chip radio-frequency identification technology that stores biographical data in machine readable format. A chip and small antenna are embedded in the passport cover which also includes a metal shield to prevent eavesdropping on data flowing from the passport to the reading machine.

In the fourth annual State of Indian Nations Address, Joe A. Garcia, President of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), announced ''The Four Great Steps'' for Indian Country in the coming year, including reforms in public safety and law enforcement. Garcia's public safety reform proposal included implementing a long-term solution to protecting Indian nation citizens from drug trafficking and other crimes along the border, adding more police officers in tribal communities, and a cooperative working relationship between tribes and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) are each focusing on ways to extract and share data through modernizing and consolidating infrastructure. Over the next year, DHS will consolidate its data centers and migrate wide area networks (WANs) to a core network and security operations center that is managed by its Customs and Border Protection agency. Information sharing is also the goal of network-centric operations for DOD who is organizing data around communities of interest and working out common data schemes.

Kentucky's criminal justice community now has access to a Web portal that provides law enforcement and other criminal justice officials with instant access to information about offenders held in jails throughout the state and across the country. JusticeXchange, the new program introduced by Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Steve Pence, provides near real-time current and historical information about incarcerated offenders including biographical information, charges, photographs, and behavioral reports, based on data collected automatically from local jail management systems. JusticeXchange currently tracks 100 percent of local and state jail beds in Kentucky and accounts for 43 percent of all county jail beds throughout the country. Funding for the program was provided through the Louisville Metro's Urban Area Security Initiative grant, the Louisville Metro Criminal Justice Commission, the Unified Criminal Justice Information System, and the National Criminal History Improvement Program.

The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department is seeking industry input as it considers hiring a new systems integrator for the Grants.gov portal. Grants.gov is the federal government's online portal for finding and submitting applications electronically for federal grant funding. HHS said that the site has significantly grown since its inception in 2003, receiving about 34,000 electronic applications from users and distributing more than 1 million e-mail notifications per week, as such a new systems integrator may be needed as the portal's use increases. [Related Article]

The United Kingdom’s (UK) IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) was launched by the Home Office recently to address concerns about lack of intelligence sharing between police forces. INI uses the existing Criminal Justice Extranet secure infrastructure to allow individual constabularies to check if information on a suspect is held anywhere else in the UK. Though INI is only an interim measure, it is comprised of a search engine and portal system that, when searched by name, will return a listing of other police forces that are holding details on that person. Currently, INI will not allow automatic access to those records but the system will eventually be replaced by a full intelligence system, the Cross Region Information Sharing Project under the IMPACT program, by 2010. INI is the first step in the UK’s plans to provide a national information sharing capability. [Press Release] [Related Article]

On Tuesday, January 31, 2006, New York State became the first user to send Global Justice XML Data Model- (Global JXDM) compliant driver license and vehicle registration responses to Nlets – The International Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing Network as part of New York’s participation in an Nlets sponsored project. The collaboration between the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and Nlets for Driver License Exchange project, or ‘’CANDLE,’’ is a grant endeavor funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP). CANDLE is the culmination of a year long effort between Nlets, AAMVA, the New York State Police, the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, and Nlets partner Advanced Technology Systems (ATS). The goals of this grant are to deploy an international capability for driver and motor vehicle record exchanges based upon Global JXDM standards, to greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of law enforcement driver related inquiries, and to improve officer safety. Wisconsin, Iowa, Delaware, and Maine will soon become operational CANDLE partners.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is beginning a four phase $15 million dollar project to join the back-end systems of 500 law enforcement agencies in the state. The first phase of the Florida Law Enforcement Exchange (FLEX) will catalog data and create a metadata management system. FLEX aims to provide access to statewide law enforcement data via a single computer query, versus multiple queries made by telephone or e-mail. A common problem in the creation of metadata systems is getting all parties to agree on the metadata types. FDLE has addressed this issue by using the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) to give data translation for data sharing. Information technology developers will also obtain data definitions from each regional system to create a common language for data exchanges. FLEX is expected to be completed by March 2007.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff have shared a three-part strategy that will create a new travel document for U.S. citizens, improve passenger screening programs, and use information technology (IT) to make foreign visitors feel more welcome. The People Access Security Service (PASS) card, planned to debut by the end of 2006, is the first step towards establishing a Global Enrollment Network. Applicants may voluntarily submit their information to DHS or State for identity confirmation. PASS cards will contain biometric information as well as embedded radio frequency identification chips. Standardized screening criteria are expected by the end of 2006 with the creation of virtual screening clearinghouse databases by the end of 2007. In addition, DHS and the State departments are building a digital videoconferencing program to speed up the visa issuance.

The Office of Justice Program's (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), is involved in a collaborative effort to develop Information Exchange Package Documentations (IEPDs) for the exchange of information between computer aided dispatching (CAD) systems, law enforcement records management systems (RMS), and related external supporting systems. The IEPD effort is a collaboration between BJA, the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) Institute, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officers (APCO), the Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council (LEITSC), and the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA). These partnering organizations serve on a steering committee that provides guidance and input to the process of developing the IEPDs. The project is using a well-developed and tested methodology proven to be useful in preparing IEPDs in support of DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model- (Global JXDM) based implementation efforts. Draft IEPDs are expected to be available by late summer 2006.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has developed new software to help law enforcement officials solve crimes. Video Image Stabilization and Registration (VISAR) was designed for the purpose of studying satellite video images and features a zoom lens that allows users to enlarge small images. VISAR was developed to help law enforcement officials obtain detailed information from great distances for use in criminal investigations.

The American Council for Technology (ACT) and the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) has selected the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) National Sex Offender Public Registry (NSOPR), www.nsopr.gov, as one of the top five federal agency program winners for the sixth annual Excellence.Gov awards. This year's Excellence.Gov awards went to programs that successfully demonstrated information sharing between agencies and across different levels of government, as well as those that applied best practices in their implementation. NSOPR was chosen because it contains sex offender information culled from local, state, and federal governments. The registry provides an opportunity for all states and territories to participate in an unprecedented public safety resource by sharing comprehensive, free-of-charge public sex offender data with citizens nationwide. [ACT Press Release] [Related Article]

A United Kingdom- (UK) wide database aimed at improving the monitoring and management of sex and violent offenders has been launched by police in Northern Ireland. In its first stage, the Violent Offender and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) will contain only sex offenders. Pending legislation, it will broaden the accessible records to include those of violent offenders. ViSOR connects police to a UK-wide computer network so that police officers can share and access information and intelligence on offenders.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) annual awards program was established to advance the science and art of police services by recognizing law enforcement organizations and individuals for their professionalism and innovative contributions to the policing field. Award categories include quality in law enforcement, outstanding achievement in law enforcement volunteer programs, excellence in criminal investigations, community policing, and police officer of the year. Florida received three awards: the Miami-Dade Police Department's Convicted Offender DNA Noncompliance Clearinghouse and Cold Case Squad, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Child Abduction Response Teams, and the IACP/Parade Magazine Police Officer of the Year, Deputy Sheriff Jennifer Fulford of Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Using the newer forensic technique of analyzing maternally-inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), scientists at Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) laboratories are finding success in solving cases in which only a small or a degraded quantity of DNA is obtained. The FBI announced that the regional crime labs in Arizona, Minnesota, and New Jersey are now fully equipped to offer free mtDNA analysis to law enforcement agencies nationwide, with a fourth lab in Connecticut to open in spring 2006. Due to these partnerships, the nation's capacity to perform mtDNA analysis is expected to more than double in fiscal year 2006.

This Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Press Room article features the Connecticut Computer Crimes Task Force (CCCTF) working on the front lines of Connecticut's war on cyber crime. This includes: hacking, Internet scams, e-mail spam, virtual extortions, cyber terrorism, virtual copyright and identity theft, online child exploitation, and more. Housed in the FBI's New Haven field office, CCCTF members include, not only FBI and law enforcement agencies from around the state, but also the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Department of Defense Inspector General, and the Internal Revenue Service. Nearly a dozen government agencies from across the state combine their skills, resources, investigative strategies, and intelligence into a unified attack on virtual crime. CCCTF is one of 92 other computer crime task forces across the country who are bundling their capabilities in the name of public safety.

A new report by the New York State Senate Committee on Veterans, Homeland Security, and Military Affairs describes New York's homeland security vulnerabilities and recommends the creation of a center where representatives from the public, private, and academic sectors can develop innovative technologies. The report, After the Storm, recommends establishing a Center for Homeland Security Innovation as a nexus of public- and private-sector resources to develop strategy, policy, and technology. The report highlighted several important developments, including a $2 billion statewide wireless network initiative to establish seamless interoperable communications, improved intelligence sharing, and compliance with the federal Real ID Act that requires minimum standards for driver's licenses.

Don't miss the 2006 Symposium on Justice and Public Safety Information Sharing: Effective Decisionmaking for a Safer America, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and SEARCH, The National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics. The symposium will be held March 13-15, 2006, at the Grand Hyatt, Washington, D.C. Registration is currently open. Learn from the experts, interact with peers, and take home the latest ideas, tools, and techniques on information sharing for the justice, public safety, and homeland security communities. Join hundreds of local and state agency leaders, policymakers, project managers, and technical staff at this premier event. Features and highlights: Team registration and events; Pre-Symposium workshops; Practitioner case studies; Focused panel sessions; Dynamic keynote speakers; and Industry tradeshow.

The Public Technology Institute (PTI) is currently accepting award nominations for the 2005/06 Technology Solutions Awards program, designed to recognize those local governments that have demonstrated how, through the use of technology, their government has improved service delivery, reduced operating costs, or identified new revenue streams. Entry deadline is February 28, 2006. Awards will be made for small, medium, and large populations in the following technology categories: public safety (law enforcement, fire, and health), emergency management, telecommunications and information technology/the web, transportation, and sustainability (energy and environment). Some of last year's winners in the public safety category included the Phoenix, Arizona, Flash-Cam – Graffiti Vandalism Deterrent Program, as well as their Interactive Disclosure Center. Another was the Washington, DC, Emergency Information Center Website. An honorable mention went to the Fort Worth, Texas, Police Department for their Digital Recording in the Internal Affairs Division project.

Five New York State (NYS) agencies presented the lessons learned and benefits gained from their participation in the University of Albany Center for Technology in Government's (CTG) Extensible Markup Language(XML) Testbed. The Testbed served to assist NY agencies in examining the benefits and challenges of Web site management using XML as a viable solution for government Web sites. Begun in the summer of 2005, the five agencies underwent six months of intense hands-on training, developed XML-based Web site prototypes and business case analyses, as well as, implemented proof of concepts. The five agencies are the NYS Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, the NYS Department of Civil Service, NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal, NYS Higher Education Services Corporation, and the NYS Office of Cultural Education, State Education Department. [Related Article]

Grants.gov, the federal government's online portal for finding and submitting applications electronically for federal grant funding, achieved its goal last year that agencies make at least 25 percent of their funding opportunities available at the site. In fiscal 2005, 20 out of 26 federal grant-making agencies posted one-fourth of their opportunities at Grants.gov and received more than 15,000 applications. For 2006, agencies must make 75 percent of their funding opportunities available for electronic submission, and in 2007 that figure rises to 100 percent.

The United Kingdom's (U.K.) Police Information Technology Organization is working on a Facial Images National Database (FIND) project to deliver a national mugshot database of stills and videos of facial images, marks, scars, and tattoos that will be linked to criminals' details on the Police National Computer. The database will be available for law enforcement agencies in England, Scotland, and Wales. The first pilot is planned for the first quarter of 2006 with access to police forces in the north of England. The agency, however, is looking at the business case for a national rollout of the face-recognition technology.

In an interview with CIO Today, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Zalmai Azmi discusses his responsibilities in the bureau's overall information technology (IT) efforts, including developing the strategic plan and operating budget, maintaining the technology assets, and providing technical direction for the reengineering of FBI business processes. Mr. Azmi described his top concerns as CIO, how the IT environment has changed in the past five years, the growing influence of service-oriented architecture, the decision-making process of implementing a large-scale initiative, and how the FBI manages the balance between securing and sharing information.

Police in Chicago are hoping to curb gun violence with sensor technology that recognizes the sound of a gunshot and calls 911. Smart Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recognition and Identification (SENTRI), developed by professors at the University of Southern California, can identify a common digital pattern of the sound of a gunshot within a two-block radius, can pinpoint and focus on the location of the shot with a surveillance camera, and in less than one second, will place a 911 call. Still in the pilot stage, Chicago has successfully deployed 53 surveillance cameras over the years and has implemented the gunshot-recognition technology in about one-third of those.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers' (NASCIO) Information Security Committee recently concluded a survey of strategic cyber security issues that identified the condition of the states on cyber security and the nature of their relationship with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) cyber security programs and resources. The survey, which garnered 27 responses from states representing 57 percent of the nation's population, was conducted in tandem with the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), the national association of county and municipal CIOs. Both organizations will share their findings with DHS as guidance concerning local and state sector coordination. The report details five high-level (strategic) and 18 lower-level (tactical) recommendations from NASCIO to DHS on ways to improve cyber security and relations between the information officers and the department. [Related Article]

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) will eliminate many versions of the Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF) and Flight Information Publications (Flip) from public access in the next two years. DAFIF contains in-depth information about runways, airfields, airspace, navigation aids, and military training routes worldwide. Flip features detailed diagrams of global airports. Public mapmakers and librarians will no longer have access to many of the most detailed aeronautical charts and data of the world. NGA took action primarily because of the growing number of international source providers claiming intellectual property rights. ''The removal of this aeronautical data from general public access will assure the continued availability of information vital to national security,'' said James Clapper, NGA Director. The decision does not affect government agencies and authorized government contractors.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) new preparedness unit is urging state governors to prepare cybersecurity plans, adopt the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) for information sharing, and implement newly developed common rules for geospatial content. The recommendations are some of the most detailed, to date, that the federal government has made to local and state governments on using information technology (IT) in the fight against terrorism. Among the IT-related recommendations, the preparedness directorate is asking grantees to implement the National Information Exchange Model that was collaboratively developed by DHS and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). NIEM leverages DOJ's Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) that is designed for law enforcement. The IT-related guidance is included in the Fiscal Year 2006 Homeland Security Grant Program: Program Guidance and Application Kit for the distribution of $3.9 billion in federal homeland security grants.

The Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) Counter Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau will begin using a new data-analysis system designed to identify and link related pieces of intelligence. The new analysis tools will help police and about 80 counterterrorism bureau officers search multiple intelligence databases simultaneously using a single search query. The tool will determine trends, patterns, and connections between data related to terrorists, organized crime, gangs, and money laundering. The new system will gather, track, analyze, and distribute intelligence information, including tips and leads.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is soliciting feedback regarding interoperable emergency communications among local and state public safety departments in the Safecom Interoperability Baseline Survey. DHS is collecting comments to measure the state of interoperability among local and state agencies. In a Federal Register notice, DHS set a February 17, 2006, deadline for public comment. Safecom, established after the 2001 terrorist attacks, oversees all initiatives and projects pertaining to public safety communications and interoperability.

In January, Indiana will launch the Northwest Indiana Computation Grid that will connect universities and U.S. government research facilities for the purpose of research computing and collaboration. Touted as a stimulus for work on homeland security issues, such as modeling and simulation of chemical, biological, and radiological dispersion during a terrorist attack, the grid is expected to eventually be linked with other similar high-speed computation networks nationwide. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and ''is important for many reasons, including the innovative research it will foster in enhancing the national security of the United States,'' said Indiana Senator Richard Lugar.

Salt Lake County, Utah, Recorder's Office has launched a state-of-the-art disaster recovery program that will allow officials to have secure Web access to 13 million public records stored in a redundant system offsite. The system, which has 24-hour staff and generators to protect against power outages, hackers, and other hazards, is one of the first of its kind to operate this way and is a mirror image of the county recorder's office. The software being used can automatically and simultaneously duplicate records scanned into the document management system and also integrate business continuation and workflow management processes so county employees can resume business functions almost immediately after a disaster.

Researchers from the Center for Technology in Government (CTG), part of the State University of New York at Albany, are joining forces with New York state information technology officials to determine how Extensible Markup Language (XML) can improve government Web site management. As government Web sites have grown in size and complexity, managing content has become more laborious and costly. XML, which is growing in popularity for effective data exchange, can be used to manage Web content because it provides more structure, describes content, enables reuse, and is more efficient and effective for agencies that have limited resources. CTG's XML Test Bed Project involves five New York state agencies that are developing XML Web site prototypes and business case models during an 18-month project.

The County of Marin, California, has received a 2005 Best of California Counties Award for Most Innovative Use of Technology for their Electronic Justice Search (EJUS) application. The award, bestowed by the California Counties Information Services Directors Association (CCISDA) and the Center for Digital Government, honors California public agencies and leaders for their outstanding information technology (IT) innovations and contributions to the region. EJUS is a secure, Web-based application designed to provide the Marin justice community with access to all current and historical adult criminal justice information. By September 2005, EJUS provided access to all Marin police agencies, probation, courts, and the district attorney and public defender offices. EJUS was developed based on the U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) Global Justice XML Data Model (Global JXDM) with operational databases connected via Global JXDM-conformant protocols. For more information, refer to the EJUS Demonstration. [Related Article]

In Pennsylvania, Governor Edward G. Rendell recently signed Senate Bill (SB) 712, the Breach of Personal Information Notification Act, into law to better protect Pennsylvanians after their personal information is lost or stolen from computer systems. SB 712 requires a state agency, political subdivision, individual, or business that operates in Pennsylvania and maintains, stores, or manages personal consumer information on computer, to notify people if their security systems are breached. Personal information under the bill includes first name, initial, last name, social security number, driver's license or state-issued identification, or financial account number. Additionally, when an entity provides notification to more than 1,000 people at once, the bill provides that national consumer credit reporting agencies will also be notified.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) described some of its plans to introduce improved information sharing and other information technology (IT) systems in 2006. DOJ's Justice Unified Telecommunications Network (JUTNet) will be a wide-area secure network that will handle classified, as well as sensitive but unclassified, material. JUTNet deployment is expected by the end of the year. DOJ is also working on an interim departmentwide information sharing plan that is currently in the clearance process. DOJ plans to devote more energy to internal IT projects, such as the Unified Financial Management System (UFMS) that will be implemented first by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Additionally, DOJ is working on adapting its existing public-key infrastructure (PKI) program to comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 requiring federal agencies to issue compliant identity cards to their employees and contractors beginning October 27, 2006.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has posted its Top Ten Legislative Issues Forecast for 2006 listing the issues NCSL is predicting will be addressed by state legislators in 2006. These include planning for emergencies and improving disaster readiness, passing laws to employ global positioning satellite (GPS) technology for tracking sex offenders, and compliance with the federal Real ID Act of 2005 that is expected to standardize driver's licenses and the process through which states administer them.

Zalmai Azmi, Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Chief Information Officer (CIO), described several of the FBI's information sharing initiatives for 2006. A contract for FBI's Sentinel case file system is expected to be awarded in January or February, with the first phase to be completed within 12 months. Another endeavor involves adding four Regional Data Exchanges (R-DExs) to the three that already exist. An R-DEx provides an interface that allows all levels of law enforcement to analyze complicated case file information and other data to fight terrorism and crime. Additionally, the FBI wants to create a National Data Exchange (N-DEx)—an index to structured data at the local, state, and federal levels.

The Eastern District of Pennsylvania's U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) has taken a unique step in using a Web-based geographic information system (GIS) mapping application to facilitate the federal Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) initiative. The USAO has used GIS to spatially track, display, and analyze homicides, firearms, and drug crimes in Philadelphia. The system is coordinated with the Philadelphia Police Department who provides the incident data used in the system, allowing the USAO to analyze crime patterns citywide. The USAO is planning to replicate this system in the eight counties it oversees in the PSN Mapping and Analysis Program (PSN MAP). PSN MAP will maximize data sharing among the PSN partners and provide the district attorney's offices, as well as local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies with an easy-to-use Web-deployed mapping tool. PSN MAP is the first federal-level solution that integrates local police department data into a federal warehouse and is the first multi-jurisdictional application to track regional gun violence and firearm statistics using geospatial technologies.

President George W. Bush has released Guidelines and Requirements in Support of the Information Sharing Environment—an initiative to promote an information sharing environment for local, tribal, state, and federal agencies that provides for the appropriate access, sharing, integration, and use of information by those with counter terrorism responsibilities. The guidelines endorse the protection of information privacy and other legal rights. To the extent possible, the guidelines encourage the use of common standards that maximize the acquisition, access, retention, production, use, management, and sharing of terrorism information. In addition, the guidelines promote consistency with the protection of intelligence, law enforcement, protective, and military sources, methods, and activities.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has awarded a task order to a McLean, Virginia, company to implement the Joint Automated Booking System's (JABS) Strategic Maturity Project-II. JABS automates the booking process for DOJ's law enforcement components by providing users an automated connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) fingerprint system and provides data sharing between entities. DOJ awarded the task order under the Information Technology Support Services-3 (ITSS-3) contract, which lets the agency purchase a range of information technology (IT) services, such as applications development, networking, systems engineering, and Web design.

Wayne County, Michigan, the eighth largest county in the nation, has deployed a new emergency notification system to the county's homeland security, emergency management, and public safety departments. The new system generates alerts via home and office telephones, mobile phones, text-based devices, or personal computers, in the even of a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other emergency crisis incident. The technology will enhance the traditional methods of television and radio for public alert notifications and works by allowing residents, businesses, and government organizations to create and maintain user profiles that identify the communication medium to be used for emergency notification.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released NIST Special Publication 800-21-1, the second edition of Guideline for Implementing Cryptography in the Federal Government, to help government organizations as they comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002 that requires agencies to certify and accredit their information technology systems. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance to federal agencies on how to select cryptographic controls for protecting sensitive unclassified information and provides for structured, yet flexible, methods for selecting, specifying, employing, and evaluating cryptographic protection mechanisms in federal information systems.