Since the horrific events of September 11, 2001, the federal government has intensified its efforts to improve communications, collaboration, and information sharing between government and private sector agencies at all levels. The task of creating a seamless system of data and communication between disparate agencies has faced both technological and political obstacles.

This article will look at two federal data-sharing initiatives: the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the National Data Exchange (N-DEx). Each offers new information-sharing capabilities and each faces major challenges.

Is universal sharing of information between governmental agencies actually doable? NIEM is an ambitious new initiative that is taking a giant step towards making the dream of government-wide data interoperability a reality. NIEM is a joint effort of the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. Its mission is to create the means to seamlessly exchange information electronically between multiple governmental agencies.

The task of bridging hundreds of formerly stove-piped systems is enormous. Every system has its own way of formatting data and defining the meaning of database terms. For instance, one system may use the term "FirstName" and another the term "FName" to specify a person's first name in a database. In other cases, different systems may use an identical label to represent different data. "CNum" may mean "case number" in one system and "catalog number" in another.

Clearly the development of common standards is central to the success of NIEM. To bridge the differences in business needs and data standards between domains, NIEM will build upon the commonalities of data elements to create Common Core and Universal Core Information Exchange Packages (IEPs). Domain-specific exchange standards will also be developed to address intradomain characteristics.

The National Information Exchange Model - Following Successful Footsteps
Shared Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a technology standard that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and semantics that facilitate information exchange. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Infrastructure and Standards Working Group chose XML as the open standard for data exchanges in early 2002.

The Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) was then founded to create a Justice-specific implementation of XML. Global, a consortium of organizations that are members of the justice community, released The Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXDM) in February 2004.

One year later in February 2005, Steve Cooper, the CIO of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Vance Hitch, the CIO of DOJ, jointly announced that both agencies had selected the GJXDM as the standard for data sharing and interoperability by their agencies and that a new federal initiative, the National Information Model Exchange Model, would be created.

NIEM will be designed to bridge the divides between Justice, Health, Transportation, Intelligence, and other domains. It will build upon the successful implementation of the Global Justice XML Data Model (GJXML), which has already provided the means to tie together data between all federal, state, local, and tribal agencies in the justice community.

One major objective the NIEM is to prevent the creation of XML information silos. While GJXDM has become the standard for interoperability in the justice domain, other domains such as homeland security, emergency management, health and human services, and transportation each have unique business rules and information-sharing standards that are domain-specific. To prevent domain silos, NIEM will provide the framework, architecture, security, and metadata controls necessary to assure that interoperability between domains will not be compromised. It will also develop domain-data dictionaries and schemas to meet the business needs of each community.

NIEM's success is dependent upon continued political support and funding. It also requires the acceptance of a new sharing paradigm among federal agencies and among federal, state, and local entities. Its foundation is based upon years of work by a large number of organizations that have established credentials and that support the program. It is built upon the successful implementation of the GJXDM and its future offers a major step forward in cross-domain electronic data sharing. For all of these reasons the National Information Exchange Model has a high probability of success. The same cannot be said for the National Data Exchange (see Figure 1).

The National Data Exchange - Trying to Find Its Footing
The Department of Justice created the Law Enforcement Information Sharing Program (LEISP) in response to a presidential order from August of 2004 requiring federal law enforcement and domestic security agencies to cooperate more closely with state and local police. In response, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) developed its National Information Sharing Strategy (NISS). The National Data Exchange (N-DEx) and Regional Data Exchanges (R-DEx) are two NISS initiatives by the FBI to improve the sharing of information among law enforcement agencies. Information concerning criminal suspects including, their method of operation, the vehicles they use, their accomplices, phone numbers, addresses, weapons used, and many additional factors are shared locally and in some cases regionally, but currently there is no national system for automatically sharing investigative data from law enforcement records-management software.

N-DEx Will Be a Criminal Investigative Sharing System
N-DEx has been in pilot testing since June 2004 with the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) State Repository, West Virginia State Police, the Cabell County, West Virginia, Sheriff's Office, and police departments in Marietta, Georgia, and Alexandria, Virginia. Based on the lessons learned from the pilot sites and input from focus groups and national law enforcement organizations, the Bureau is currently completing its Concept of Operations Plan, which will guide the implementation process.

N-DEx will correlate data from all major FBI databases and provide the ability to execute nationwide inquiries from a single access point. It offers for the first time a national system that can be used to identify crime trends, link cases, and solve crimes.

In 2005 the FBI implemented two Regional Data Exchanges (R-DEx), the first in St. Louis and the second in Seattle. R-DEx will give state, local, and tribal law enforcement appropriate access to federal investigative and intelligence information on a regional basis. The FBI, US Marshals, and the Bureau of Prisons are currently sharing investigative reports with the local participants. The DEA and ATF are also expected to add information from their databases to the system shortly. Twelve to 18 additional R-DEx projects are currently being planned for implementation over the next several years.

To many in the law enforcement community, the sharing of regional criminal data is of more value than a national system. This is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of criminal investigations are local or regional in scope. Programs such JNET, ARGUS, and FINDERS have demonstrated the value of such regional approaches.

N-DEx Will Be an Incident-Based Collection Instrument Used for Crime Reporting
In addition to serving as a criminal investigation data-sharing tool, N-DEx has two additional major objectives: the electronic reporting of crimes and reporting of crime statistics to the FBI.

State and local agencies have been reporting monthly counts of key offenses and arrests to the FBI through the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program since 1929. This program was greatly expanded in 1992 through the National Incident-Based Reporting Systems (NIBRS), which collects more details on more categories of crime such as hate crime, sexual assault among young victims, and kidnapping of juveniles.

Both programs are still used for the collection of crime statistics. The information that is reported to the FBI under these programs is collected from data that is contained within police reports. Most computerized law enforcement records-management systems produce UCR or NIBRS reports electronically. The reports are then sent via paper or electronically to the FBI for publication.

As a national program, NIBRS is widely regarded as a failed effort. One measure of its failure is that by 2004, 14 years after its introduction, only 23 states were fully or partially participating in submitting data. The proposal to include crime reporting as part of the N-DEx program has meet with confusion and concern by local law enforcement agencies. They want to know if N-DEx will replace UCR and NIBRS, and who is going to pay for the cost for changing their software to provide the new functionality.

The N-DEx program has used a consensus-building process called the National Consensus Process (NCP) to help define the scope of the program. Law enforcement and other criminal justice entities representing both large and small agencies have participated in the consensus process as members of focus groups. Several focus group meetings have been held to gather input and build consensus with regard to the definition of the N-DEx program. However, while individual focus groups are important in defining the program's objectives, the input and approval of the national law enforcement associations must be sought before the political support necessary to carry this project forward is obtained.

The failure to actively engage these organizations earlier in the process has caused the project to be viewed with concern by these powerful national associations. To its credit, the FBI's CJIS staff has recently meet with both national law enforcement and industry groups to allow for their input prior to finalizing the concept of an operations document.

This document must set forth an unambiguous message to the law enforcement community about what N-DEx will and will not include if the Bureau wishes to prevent further confusion. Questions concerning the future of the Uniform Crime Reporting System (UCR) and the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) need to be answered, and cost projections for the program's implementation need to be provided. Lack of clarity on the future and interoperability among N-DEx, R-DEx, and NIEM should also be addressed.

A joint Position Statement dated August 15, 2005 was released by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriffs Association, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and the Major County Sheriff's Association concerning the future of N-DEx.

While the associations indicated that they support the ability of law enforcement to share information between all levels of government, they stressed that the project's success is dependent upon the voluntary participation of the agencies. To achieve that support, the statement indicated that the N-DEx Program needed to ensure that law enforcement practitioners at every level participate in the system design, testing, and implementation.

The statement set forth three requirements for success:

• Development of a Statement of Requirements designed with local law enforcement input and utilization in mind. It recommends that the requirements should be validated through representatives of their associations and coordinated by the FBI CJIS Advisory Board (APB).
• After an agreed upon Statement of Requirements is completed, a Funding Projections document that reflects the costs for each phase of the project to the agencies needs to be prepared.
• Based upon the Statement of Requirements and Funding Projections, the FBI and the DOJ need to formalize a process that will result in a consistent message about the "Project's mission, goals, strategy, and status." The statement also indicated that the roles of each agency need to be documented to facilitate, "by-in" by all levels of law enforcement.

It is clear that the intent of the Position Statement is to warn the Bureau and the DOJ that without the support of local law enforcement, N-DEx will not be successful.

N-DEx, if properly implemented, would be a major step forward in improving information sharing among all levels of law enforcement. Its use as a tool for replacing and upgrading UCR and NIBRS is problematic and raises many issues concerning cost and participation. The process for designing and marketing it to the law enforcement community has been uneven, and its value undersold. The Bureau will need to win the support of the national law enforcement agencies and through them, the law enforcement community. Gaining their support will require the FBI to work in close collaboration with law enforcement in the design and implementation of the program. It also will need to work with the public safety software industry to build a cost-effective solution.

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