Information Sharing in the 21st Century

• NCJ Number: 249565
• Journal: Techbeat Dated: November/December 2015 Pages: 6-8
• Author(s): Kasey Werthelm; Vince Libonati
• Date Published: December 2015
• Length: 3 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-IJ-CX-K004
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: This submission is to operate a National Criminal Justice Technology Information Resource Center (NCJ-TIRC) within the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) System.

Annotation

This article profiles the features and uses of N-DEx - the only national criminal investigative information-sharing system offered at no cost to criminal justice agencies and users - and case examples are provided to show how N-DEx has been used in detecting crimes, collecting evidence, and making arrests.

Abstract

The N-DEx System contains a wealth of information that ranges from incident reports to arrest records, from booking and incarceration data to pretrial investigations, as well as traffic warnings or citations and probation and parole records. As of July 2015, the system contained 265 million records. This number grows daily, as data providers span the entire criminal justice spectrum at Federal, State, local, and tribal levels. Over the past 7 years a growing number of agencies have decided to share their data with N-DEx. Anyone with an account on www. cjis.gov can request access through his/her State N-DEx Sub SIG, or Special Interest Group. Users can then conduct a Google-style search of key words or phrases, such as name, date of birth, and social security number. Users can also conduct structured searches on vehicles, locations, telephone numbers, and crime characteristics. The N-DEx System also features collaboration sites where cross-jurisdictional fusion centers or task forces can communicate and share files of any type or size.