Law enforcement technologyFBI completes new information sharing system

Published 9 August 2011

Late last month the FBI completed work on its newest information sharing database that will allow local, state, regional, and other law enforcement agencies across the United States to pool information; with the National Data Exchange (N-Dex), local investigators can now pull up records like incident reports, criminal incarceration records, and similar investigations from across the United States

 Late last month the FBI completed work on its newest information sharing database that will allow local, state, regional, and other law enforcement agencies across the United States to pool information.

With the National Data Exchange (N-Dex), the FBI can automatically share information about criminal justice cases with 200,000 investigators in more than 18,000 federal, state, local, and tribal agencies. Local investigators can now pull up records like incident reports, criminal incarceration records, and similar investigations from across the United States. N-Dex can also perform analysis to help identify trends or patterns that can assist officers in preventing crime.

The system is slightly behind schedule as Raytheon, the primary contractor for the database, was originally scheduled to complete work last year.

Using standards-based technology and Web services, Raytheon linked several systems and databases to create the nationally searchable N-Dex system. Once the system has been fully deployed, the FBI expects it to handle about six million searches a day.

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) is overseeing N-Dex along with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), another national information sharing data system.

These latest efforts come as the FBI is attempting to improve its information sharing abilities with local law enforcement agencies. In the past, obtaining similar information was ad-hoc, informal, and often inefficient.

Earlier this year, the FBI also deployed the Next Generation Identification System (NGIS), its new biometric ID system which allows the agency to exchange fingerprints with more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies.