The Nations Sheriffs, constitutional officers and the highest law enforcement officers in their respective counties, are a reasonable reflection of local law enforcement in terms of agency size, technical capabilities and availability of resources for information sharing.1 Over the past decade, the Nation's Sheriffs, through the National Sheriffs' Association, have taken the lead role for local law enforcement on information sharing, especially where it matters most - Local-2-Local (L2L). With the recent emergence of the FBI National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Program as the de facto national initiative for law enforcement information sharing, Sheriffs are using Federal standards and tools to meet both Federal needs for information sharing and the needs of local law enforcement. At the same time, the N-DEx Program Manager's Office is committed to partnering with Sheriffs, the National Sheriffs' Association, and the NSA-initiated and -supported Pegasus Program, and other local law enforcement constituencies, to the fullest extent possible, to achieve information sharing as a national imperative.
This article seeks to document and recognize the leadership steps tbat Sheriffs, through NSA, have taken over the past decade to advance information sharing, and the working relationship that has been developed with the N-DEx Program through the Pegasus Program. This track record demonstrates that Sheriffs are well-positioned to lead information sharing efforts in the next decade.
2001: The NSA's Conception of Internet-based Local-2-Local (L2L) Information Sharing
In the summer of 2001, before 9/11, a key group of Sheriffs, led by Sheriff Tommy Ferrell, Adams County, Mississippi, came to the conclusion that the power of the Internet had huge potential for local law enforcement's ability to share information with one another. Those Sheriffs were particularly concerned about the cost of traditional data communications services, and had the then-unconventional view that, because of the cost advantages and relative ubiquity of the Internet, local law enforcement information sharing could bloom if tbe Internet were used for data transport. Those Sheriffs, working through NSA, sought the support of Congress for funding of an innovative Internetbased approach to information sharing. With the engagement of South Carolina Sheriffs Herman Young, Fairfield County, and Lee Foster, Newberry County, and the support of the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association and its Executive Director, Jeff Moore, the case was successfully made to Senator Fritz Hollings, and a new era of information sharing was begun.
2002: The NSA Pegasus Forum
To initiate a new engagement in information sharing, the NSA convened a focus group of leading Sheriffs in November 2002 to articulate a consensus on "what" information Sheriffs needed to share, "who" they needed to share information with, and "how" they would share that information. This 2002 focus group - the NSA Pegasus Forum - was a three day focus group of leading Sheriffs from across the Nation that came together to provide a preliminary assessment of Sheriffs' Office information sharing requirements. At that Forum, fourteen sheriffs and the senior leadership of the NSA gathered to address the information sharing needs of sheriffs. The sheriffs represented rural and urban, large and small, self-dispatching and mutually assisted dispatched sheriffs' offices.
Sheriffs participating in the NSA Pegasus Forum developed consensus on the following key points:
* Sheriffs would exercise national leadership at the county level on the use of L2L information sharing;
* The mission of the NSA Pegasus Program is to meet the problem of inadequate "Data Interoperability" by:
* Determining from the "bottom up" sheriffs' computer and information systems needs;
* Assuring sheriffs multi-state information sharing capabilities.
* The Nation's sheriffs would work with local law enforcement, first responders, public health, state and Federal law enforcement and private entities having Critical Infrastructure Responsibilities.
* The "Who, What, and How" of Sheriffs' information sharing needs were identified during the Needs Assessment Process.
Developments Between 2002 and 2010
Since 2002, tremendous developments in law enforcement information sharing have occurred - in particular, development of Federal standards for integrated justice and information sharing projects, led by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)2 with opportunity for input from all affected constituencies. Federal leadership in establishing and promoting adoption of these standards - notably, Global Justice/National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) standards - has removed many of the uncertainties and hurdles associated with information sharing. By working through information sharing initiatives (such as the Pegasus Program) built on these Federal standards, Sheriffs and their law enforcement partners have made substantial progress in building a national culture and a maturing set of business practices that understand and advance information sharing as a commonly accepted essential business tool and practice.3
Utilizing the NIEM standard as the basis for sharing, the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division began the N-DEx Project in the 2004-2005 timeframe. As the nationally scaled criminal justice information sharing platform, the N-DEx system is designed to build upon and complement existing and emerging state, local, and regional sharing systems. Built with the utmost flexibility in mind, N-DEx offers Sheriffs many modes to both access the system and to contribute data. Regardless of how their data gets to N-DEx, Sheriffs have complete control over what data is contributed and with whom and how it is shared. The N-DEx system is also unique in that it captures the full criminal justice life cycle to include incident, arrest, booking, incarceration, probation, and parole data. With powerful analytical tools, the heart of N-DEx is its entity resolution and correlation capabilities.
In 2005, the NSA joined the Major County Sheriffs' Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Major City Chiefs Association in endorsing the concept of national criminal justice information sharing through N-DEx. Sheriffs across the nation have been involved in the development process of the system through their representation on the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB) and by serving among the vast array of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) involved in the multi-year development of N-DEx. Their contributions yielded the successful delivery of Increment 1 in 2008 and Increment 2 in 2009.
During this period, many large law enforcement agencies, building on NIEM and other Federal standards, have made considerable progress in building their information sharing capabilities. However, the small and rural agencies which make up Pegasus' constituency and constitute well more than half of the Nation's law enforcement agencies4 have not kept pace, due to their lack of technical and financial resources needed to implement information sharing capabilities. Because many Sheriffs and their rural and small agency partners protect significant components of the nation's critical infrastructure, and because terrorists in many recent U.S. cases have lived, worked, traveled, and had routine interaction with local law enforcement in rural areas, Sheriffs have worked to assure that rural and small agencies are affirmatively included in the Nation's information sharing efforts, through inclusion of the Pegasus Program. Under Sheriffs' policy guidance during this period, Pegasus' efforts have focused on highly economical, effective and efficient methods of information sharing that are practical tools for rural and small agencies, tailored for their existing capabilities and built using the NIEM standard.5
With the fairly recent emergence of N-DEx as the de facto national initiative for law enforcement information sharing, Sheriffs and their law enforcement partners have been presented with information sharing decisions with some immediacy. The immediacy of these decisions have re-focused attention on how information sharing can meet both Federal needs for information sharing and the needs of local law enforcement.
In response to all of these developments, a key group of the Nation's leading Sheriffs expressed a need for informed and thoughtful leadership on how Sheriffs and their local law enforcement partners and N-DEx and Pegasus will work together to fully utilize the information sharing opportunities presented by N-DEx, develop a common, standards-based, policy and technical approach for economical, effective and efficient information sharing, both L2L and byway of N-DEx,6 and work together collaboratively to meet local law enforcement's information sharing needs that N-DEx does not provide, such as access to local warrants.
2010: The Pegasus-NSA Sheriffs Information Sharing (L2L) Working Group ("Working Group")
In light of these developments, the Pegasus Program and NSA convened the Working Group in August 2010 to address current information sharing issues facing Sheriffs. The Working Group conducted its deliberations in New Orleans over a three day period during August, 2010. The Working Group focused on questions relating to "what" information do Sheriffs want to share, and "how" and "when" do they want to share it? From inception, the Working Group viewed N-DEx as the Fedetally-sponsored initiative that represents die primary engine for information sharing, with Pegasus being an integral part of N-DEx.
Working Group Members also reflected a broad cross-section of Sheriffs Offices from across the Nation, supported by professionals with a wide range of experience in law enforcement and information technology, including the authors, representing the Pegasus Program and the FBI N-DEx Program7.
The Working Group produced a Report of Findings8 that was presented to and adopted by the NSA Executive Board at the NSA Winter Conference in Palm Springs in January 201 1. Those Findings reflect a clear assessment of where information sharing is today. More important, they provide perceptive and striking objective guidance for NSA, the Pegasus Program and the FBI N-DEx Program on how these programs should work together collaboratively to speed up adoption by local law enforcement and meet shared needs.
2011 & Beyond: Sheriffs Continue to Exercise Leadership on Information Sharing
Going forward, Sheriffs, working through NSA, are continuing to take the lead on information sharing. Sheriffs, primarily accountable for solving law enforcement problems and operating jails in their home counties, bring their L2L perspective to bear in working with local, State and Federal partners in law enforcement and hometown security. Sheriffs have articulated their L2L vision by providing guidance to NSA, N-DEx and Pegasus in the Pegasus-N SA Working Group Report of Findings, now adopted by NSA's Executive Board. That guidance calls on N-DEx to incorporate Sheriffs' L2L perspective into the N-DEx Program, and calls on Pegasus to work as an integral part of N-DEx. More specifically, Sheriffs' operative guidance for NSA, N-DEx and Pegasus in the Report of Findings is as follows:
* Sheriffs are encouraged to contribute as much data as possible to N-DEx;
* Pegasus is urged to serve as the primary point of entry for information sharing for Pegasus Participating Agencies, enabling the Pegasus Program to overcome the current problem of law enforcement personnel having to access multiple stand-alone systems;9 and The NSA Vendor Recognition Program was created, to publicly recognize law enforcement software providers who utilize standards and best practices that support information sharing between law enforcement agencies at no additional cost to their agency customers.
This guidance provides a roadmap for Sheriffs, the N-DEx Program, the Pegasus Program, and their information sharing partners going forward. By working to support a variety of information sharing venues, to contribute data to N-DEx and build regional clusters through Pegasus and other initiatives, and to build consensus through NSA and State Sheriffs' Associations, Sheriffs are well-positioned to continue to exercise leadership on information sharing over the next decade.
In March 2011, the final Increment of N-DEx was delivered by its primary contractor, Raytheon. Fully developed and operational, N-DEx is positioned to provide Sheriffs and their criminal justice partners with a user-friendly and robust information sharing system for decades to come. N-DEx has joined the other FBI CJIS legacy systems, to include NCIC and IAFIS, as an example of vital information sharing partnerships in action. As the volumes of data and users continue to increase, N-DEx will truly prove itself to be a "game changer" for investigators and analysts and their mission to prevent and solve crimes.
Conclusions
In the best of times, the capability of local and county governments to acquire the technical resources necessary to implement information sharing, in a timely manner, are very limited. In these times of extraordinarily tight budgets, local and county governments are typically struggling to avoid personnel layoffs, with significant cuts in every budget item a common topic of discussion.
At the same time, information sharing remains a national imperative for Homeland Security and for local crime fighting. Information sharing must be accomplished in the most economical, effective and efficient manner possible, in close alignment with the Fedetal National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Program. Pegasus Local-2-Local information sharing is designed to achieve these goals by realizing information sharing economies of scale and of shared governance, and by implementing Local-2-Local and N-DEx information sharing in one efficient joint implementation. The above conclusions demonstrate the significance and importance of BJAs funding of Local-2-Local information sharing.
Over the past decade, Sheriffs have been ahead of the curve in organizing themselves and exetcising leadership to advance information sharing. Sheriffs' L2L information sharing is designed to be an integral part of the N-DEx Program and represents a critical funding area to dramatically expand information sharing in support of fighting local crime and achieving the national Homeland Security mission.
[Sidebar]
Sheriff Participants NSA-Pegasus Forum
November 9-11, 2002, Orlando, Florida
Sheriff Bill Balkwill Sarasota County, FL
Sheriff G. C. "Buck" Buchanan Yavapai County, AZ
Sheriff Tommy Ferrell Adams County, MS
Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald Story County, IA
Sheriff Lee Foster Newberry County, SC
Sheriff Lloyd Herrick Oxford County, ME
Sheriff David Huffman Catawba County, NC
Sheriff Ted Kamatchus Marshall County, IA
Sheriff Gean Leonard Galveston County, TX
Sheriff Pat McGowan Hennepin County, MN
Sheriff George Payne Harrison County, MS
Sheriff B.J. Roberts City of Hampton, VA
Sheriff Craig Webre Lafourche Parish, LA
Sheriff Herman Young Fairfield County, SC
1 Of the nations 20,000 local law enforcement agencies, approximately 3,086 are Sheriffs Offices. Sheriffs operate approximately 98% of the Nation's jails. Though the average local law enforcement agency headcount is approximately 50 personnel per agency, most local law enforcement agencies are small: about half (some 10,000 agencies) employ fewer than 10 officers, and account for just 5% of all sworn personnel. Nearly two-thirds of sworn law enforcement personnel are employed by the 6% of agencies (approximately 1,200 agencies) that employ 100 or more officers.
2 Funding for the NSA Pegasus Program for L2L information sharing is provided by BJA as a part of the U.S. Department of Justice OJP BJA Regional Information Sharing System Programs.
3 National leadership by the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Assistance has been instrumentai in precipitating this information sharing culture and in catalyzing these business practices, most notably by creating the national framework, for information sharing through the OJP IT programs, publications and website, www.it.ojp.gov. In particular, the NIEM IEPD Clearinghouse, found at http://www.it.ojp.gov/default.aspx?area=implementationAssistance&pa ge=1108. is the Nation's principal resource for information sharing business practices.
4 See footnote 1, supra.
5 In this connection, Pegasus is specially focused on developing an approach to economical, effective and efficient data transformation, consistent with the national imperative of information sharing universally implemented, nationwide. Data transformation is the process of readying data for information sharing by transforming it from existing proprietary formats to a standard NIEM-conformant format. Pegasus' efforts turn on identifying and focusing first on the data elements most commonly used by smaller local law enforcement agencies, and developing a uniform and straightforward approach for rural and smaller agencies to implement NIEM-conformant information exchange, both L2L and by way of N-DEx. This approach is being developed in consensus with Pegasus Participating Agencies and is being documented as a Pegasus-initiated Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) that will be published through the NIEM IEPD Clearinghouse. See note 3, supra.
6 See footnote 5, supra.
7 The N-DEx Program Manager presented to the Working Group a Powerpoint entided "N-DEx Infomational Overview", a copy of which will be provided to accredited law enforcement agency personnel upon request on agency letterhead.
8 Colwell and Wilson, REPORT OF FINDINGS, Pegasus - NSA Sheriffs Information Sharing (L2L) Working Group (September 8, 2010), http://www.pegasusprogram.us/images/stories/ last accessed March 9, 2011.
9 The Report of Findings also included other findings, including one urging that N-DEx and Pegasus work together to implement certain technical solutions to facilitate information sharing by local law enforcement, especially rural and small agencies, which would simultaneously simplify information sharing processes for both N-DEx and local law enforcement. The N-DEx Program Management Office and Pegasus are currendy working together to find these types of solutions and better enable local law enforcement, particularly rural and small offices, to share information through N-DEx and Local-2-Local.
Lee Colwell is Program Executive for the Nationwide Pegasus Program. Dr. Colwell is a firmer Associate Director of the FBI and is a Life Member of the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chief of Police.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeffrey C. is Program Manager and Unit Chief of the FBI N-DEx Program. A twenty-one year veteran of the FBI, Lindsey has also served as a Deputy Sheriff and as an Army Military Intelligence Officer.
[Author Affiliation]
By Lee Colwell, Program Executive, Pegasus Program and Jeff Lindsey, N-DEx Program Manager
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