Cio Group Urges Crime Info Sharing
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has issued guidelines targeted to state and local administrators on how to merge various law enforcement systems. Called “Concept for Operations,” the guidelines call for combining police, courts, jails, and other systems to allow states to monitor criminal cases starting from when an arrest is made.
“No matter what your role in the justice system is, you can look at this and see whether you fall in the scenario and see the information that you want to have,” says Ken Bouche, deputy director of the Illinois State Police. He notes that although current technology supports data sharing, the reality is still years away since agencies have not started implementing it.
Soon, however, police may be able to scan suspects’ fingerprints in the field to get identification and access to outstanding warrants within seconds.
NASCIO’s guidelines feature theoretical situations to show how states might proceed and what technology they would need to build a feasible data-sharing scheme. Gerry Wethington, Missouri CIO and president of NASCIO, says future publications will address the issue from the viewpoint of non-law enforcement agencies.
The guidelines were created through funds from the Justice Department and collaboration between NASCIO, the National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Reed, Margaret A.T.
