Communications Technology Center of Excellence

This project is for the operation and maintenance of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC), Communications Technology Center of Excellence (COE). This Center of Excellence will perform the following tasks in support of NIJ's Communications Technology portfolio: - Identifying technology requirements within the criminal justice communications and position location fields. - Supporting NIJ's research and development program in the area of criminal justice communications. - Testing, evaluating, and demonstrating relevant technologies. - Supporting the adoption of new technologies. - Developing technology guidelines and standards. - Providing technology assistance and support to state and local law enforcement/criminal justice agencies on a national basis. nca/ncf

This award supplements funding for award 2010-IJ-CX-K023. This award was competitively made in response to a proposal submitted by L-3 to an NIJ FY2010 solicitation, "Communications Technology Center of Excellence." The purpose of this supplemental funding is to continue the operations of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System's Communications Technology Center of Excellence (COE).

The principal role of the COEs is to support NIJ's research programs. They assist NIJ in identifying the technology needs of the criminal justice community with respect to the portfolios that they support and conduct related research, test, and evaluation activities. They also develop the equipment performance standards that underpin the NIJ compliance-testing program as well as best practices guides. They provide active Technology Assistance (TA); assisting agencies to address specific technology issues in a relevant area, for example, in implementing a new communications system.

The activities of the COE will include:

* Hosting the Computer Assisted Pre-Coordination Resource Database system (CAPRAD) and providing support to the associated CAPRAD regional planning committees.
* Continuing to conduct a law enforcement broadband communications pilot.
* Continuing to evaluate the 4.9GHz public safety broadband network in Brookline, MA and expanding that evaluation to include the NIJ-sponsored Stevens Institute of Technology, and similar, network bonding technology.
* Continuing to provide technical support to the Department of Justice in its efforts with respect to Public Safety Broadband Network.
* Conducting a second operational evaluation of technology to deal with the illicit use of cell phones in a correctional environment to complement the ongoing evaluation of the Mississippi State pilot.

nca/ncf

This award supplements funding for award 2010-IJ-CX-K023. This award was competitively made in response to a proposal submitted by L-3 to an NIJ FY2010 solicitation, "Communications Technology Center of Excellence." The purpose of that solicitation was to establish a Communications Technology Center of Excellence (COE) within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center System (the "NLECTC System"). The principal purpose of the NLECTC COEs is to conduct research, test, and evaluation activities to inform NIJ technology research and development (R&D) efforts. So, for example, they routinely conduct technical assessments of the technology products resulting from NIJ-funded R&D work. They also conduct research to assist NIJ in identifying the technology needs of the criminal justice community. They develop equipment performance standards and guides. The award, originally made to L-3 Services, Inc., was transferred to a spin-off of L-3 called Engility. No personnel or mission changes were made to the COE award.

The purpose of this supplement is to enable Engility to complete two tasks initiated under this award. The first is to complete development of the law enforcement broadband pilot. This is a modular, standards-based, open source integration platform (i.e., radio system) to demonstrate and evaluate the impact of NIJ- funded and other advanced radio system technologies on practice. The second is to continue to provide technical expertise to support the Department of Justice in its efforts with respect to implementation of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network. nca/ncf