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California's ARJIS to Support Crime Fighting Efforts Between San Diego, Tucson and Phoenix

Regional network links additional jurisdictions.

TUCSON, Ariz. and SAN DIEGO -- California's Automated Regional Justice Information System Network (ARJIS) has begun a major crime fighting initiative with police departments in Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. The initiative will support and enhance the ability to solve crimes faster that occur within local member jurisdictions as well as those that take place across multiple jurisdictions and state lines.

The Automated Regional Justice Information System (ARJIS) is a criminal justice enterprise network utilized by 50 local, state and federal agencies in the San Diego region. There are more than 10,000 pre-screened, authorized users generating over 35,000 logged transactions daily.

Established in 1980, ARJIS is a criminal justice enterprise network utilized by 50 local, state and federal agencies in the San Diego region. The ARJISNet secure intranet only contains public law enforcement data such as the region's crime cases, arrests, citations, field interviews, traffic accidents, fraudulent documents, photographs, gang information and stolen property.

With Knowledge Computing Corporation's COPLINK, members of ARJIS and their respective law enforcement agencies can now intelligently search this data to find hidden relationships between suspects or criminal activity and identify qualified leads when there are none. One search using known facts from an ongoing criminal investigation can produce qualified leads in minutes -- a process that before, often took days or weeks. Through sophisticated analytics, the software builds "institutional memory," reduces knowledge gaps and prevents criminals from falling through the cracks.

The ARJIS initiative also establishes law enforcement information sharing linkages with police departments in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz. The crime corridor between California and Arizona is one of the most active and fluid in the country, particularly when it comes to drug trafficking. The software is a powerful tool for combating the increasing trend of crimes that occur across multiple jurisdictions. Like ARJIS, the Phoenix and Tucson Police Departments will only be contributing public law enforcement data to the regional system.

With regional information sharing networks, each participating agency has real-time control over what data is shared, with whom and when. In addition, data continues to reside and be updated at its existing source. These safeguards help protect the integrity of the data and sensitive information while allowing for the creation of ad hoc regional task forces to address specific criminal activity.

COPLINK also creates a detailed audit trail for every search conducted. This serves two purposes. Officers seeking to question or obtain a warrant on suspects identified through the software are able to clearly demonstrate with hard facts how that person fits the criminal profile and how others were excluded. The system administrator can also monitor use for audit purposes to identify any abuse that would result in suspension of a user's access privileges under the privacy and use protocols established by each agency in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

"Tucson has been using COPLINK for five years, and it's proven to be an incredibly effective investigative tool in helping put murderers, repeat sex offenders and drug traffickers behind bars," said Detective Tim Petersen of the Tucson Police Department. "We've also been able to achieve a 7:1 labor savings, which helps Tucson keep more feet on the streets."
Miriam Jones is a former chief copy editor of Government Technology, Governing, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines.