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Regional Information Sharing System Accelerates Crime Resolution Process

Nearly 60,000 officers across 6,600 member agencies can now visualize shared multijurisdictional crime information.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Each one of six Regional Information Sharing System (RISS) centers will use i2's visualization technology to enable thousands of member agencies and officers to view complex multijurisdictional crime and intelligence data in an easy-to-interpret visual format. This functionality will be available across the entire RISS network in April.

RISS addresses the timely and critical need to share information and perform intelligence analysis among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to combat cross-jurisdictional crimes. With the new technology, any of the 59,000 officers and analysts in the RISS network can query crime and intelligence data and instantly generate a picture of connections between people, places and criminal activity, revealing relationships not readily apparent within raw data. This new capability is designed to significantly accelerate the crime resolution process and assist RISS member agencies in proactively combating terrorism, drug trafficking, violent crime, cyber-crime, gang activity and other organized criminal activities.

"The National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan has recommended that RISS serve as the backbone for multijurisdictional information sharing in the United States," said Karen Aumond, assistant director of the Western States Information Network (WSIN), one of the six RISS regional centers. "By adding i2's visualization capabilities to our information sharing network, RISS further positions itself as a critical centerpiece in combating criminal activity."

RISS is a federally funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance that serves law enforcement agencies throughout North America and around the globe. Members include municipal and county agencies, over 400 state agencies and federal agencies such as the DEA, FBI, IRS, ATF and U.S. Customs. RISS is fundamentally and operationally different from other information sharing initiatives in use today because RISS only collects and maintains intelligence on suspected criminals, and each of the six regional centers strictly comply with U.S. Department of Justice Program Guidelines and 28 CFR Part 23, Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies.
Miriam Jones is a former chief copy editor of Government Technology, Governing, Public CIO and Emergency Management magazines.