Transcript Chapter Eleven - Information Exchange

Police Technology
Chapter Eleven
Information Exchange
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Learning Objectives
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The value of information exchange
between state, local, and federal agencies
The issue of Interoperability
The various factors that make information
exchange difficult
Some of the potential solutions to
information exchange
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Introduction
We will look at information exchange in two
primary ways:
 The exchange of tactical information
 The exchange of strategic information
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Integration - Defined
A completely integrated criminal justice
system would be a network designed to
provide each agency from the police to
the courts, to the prison system, with the
information it needs to make a decision.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
The Importance of Integration
Interoperability is the process of
connecting different agencies or
units with agencies using
communication technologies so that
they can communicate directly.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Tactical Importance of
Integration
Tactical information is
used to make immediate
decisions. Incorrect or
incomplete information
can cause poor decisions
Screen Capture provided by FAAC Inc
The inability to share
critical information is
dangerous.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Strategic Importance of
Integration
Strategic information is
generally used to make
long-term or more
deliberated decisions.
Incorrect or incomplete
information can cause
poor decisions
The inability to share
critical information is
dangerous.
Photograph provided by Robert Eplett, California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Why Can’t Agencies
Exchange Information?
Fragmentation has created
organizational islands.
Organizations are influenced
by:
 Sub-culture
 Budgets
 Community Priorities
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More on Fragmentation
The entire criminal justice system tends to
perform the function of information
management exchange poorly because
each island enters information into the
system separately, differently, and
repeatedly.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Fragmentation Results
As state and local agencies
adapt new ideas and
technologies, they tend to adapt
them to their own ways of doing
business.
These agencies end up with an
assortment of systems,
applications, databases, and
communications schemes –
often different from neighboring
or even overlapping agencies
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
What Should Integration Look Like?
An integrated criminal justice information
sharing system must:
 Fulfill the needs of the agency
employing the system and
 Address the needs of other agencies.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
What Should Integration Look
Like?
For any system integration
to be successful, it must be
founded on standards in:
 Data entry
 Protocols
 Policies
 Software
 Hardware systems
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Integration
For these transactions to be complete,
they need to employ several different
concepts:
 Context – an agreement between the
agencies that the exchange is going to
be about a certain subject
 Protocol – Rules for how information
is going to be exchanged and used
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
A fully integrated system . . .
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Information would be captured once and
reused during subsequent decisionmaking points
Would have the ability to automatically
query databases of other organizations
Would have the ability to push and pull
only data that was needed
Have the ability to receive notifications
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Are Internet Standards a Solution?
Why aren’t law enforcement agencies
using Web-based standards?
 Agencies only need certain portions of
each other’s data
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Except, databases are often incompatible
(data fields, values, and attributes are
nonstandard)
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
The XML Solution
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Extensible Mark-up Language is a root markup
language that is derived from and similar to
HTML
Intended primarily for the transmission of text
information
Can be used to pass other binary data such as
images
Uses tags to identify information so disparate
applications and systems can easily recognize
the data
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
XML separates style from content
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Style is the way
in which an
agency decides it
wants its data
presented
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Content is the
part of the total
that each picks
for its own style
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Tactical Communications
There are two common technological
strategies and one operational
strategy that can improve
communications between different
agencies.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Technological Solutions
Trunked Radio Systems - allow for
the programming of other agency
frequencies into the radio system
carries in the vehicle
 Gateway Interface – permanently
installed or used during major
tactical incidents
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Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Organizational Solution
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Incident Command System (ICS) –
Provides common terminology and
organization structures for successful
joint field operations
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Agency Partnerships
There are ways that agency partnerships
can improve interoperability and the
exchange of data information.
 Direct pooling of physical resources
 Pool data, not facilities
 Contract communications with a larger
agency
 Create regional systems
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Two ways of looking at informationintegration partnerships
 Horizontal Partnership– between
agencies at the same level of
government
 Vertical Partnership – Involves agencies
at varying levels of government. More
complex
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Economies of Scale
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Based on economic theory
that the more you produce
of a good, the less that it
costs for each additional
unit.
In government services,
economy of scale can be
realized by expanding the
geographic boundaries of
service
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Economies of Scale
Combining Technology Resources
Eighty-five percent of most state and local
law enforcement budgets are personnel
costs, not equipment costs.
How many fewer people will it take to run
an operation? Will there be significant
savings over the long term?
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Economies of Scale
Combining Technology Resources
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Information Sharing is the transfer of
information from one system to another
via an intermediate system.
Instead of pooling facilities, agencies
agree to send their data to a central
data warehouse
This does not address voice
communications.
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Economies of Scale
Combining Technology Resources
Contract information services with a
private vendor or with a larger agency.
Typically used by small municipal police
department that contracts with a country
law enforcement agency
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Economies of Scale
Combining Technology Resources
Photograph provided by Randall Larson, Editor, 9-1-1 Magazine
For a predetermined
fee, the larger
agency:
 Conducts the PSAP
 Computer-aided
dispatch
 Radio systems
maintenance
 Controls access to
databases
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Regional System
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Agencies form joint communications
projects.
Sometimes referred to as
Intergovernmental Agreements (IGA) or
Joint Powers Authorities (JPA)
Some agencies form not-for-profit
organizations to create and manage a
regional system
Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster
Police Technology
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Copyright 2005 - 2009: Hi Tech Criminal
Justice, Raymond E. Foster