The North Carolina Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN) initiative is a project which will allow the sharing of information between state and local criminal justice agencies.

During the 1994 Special Crime Session, the North Carolina General Assembly created the CJIN Study Committee and appropriated monies to study and develop a plan for a statewide criminal justice information network. The CJIN Study Final Report, dated April 7, 1995, outlined a comprehensive strategic plan that provided the vision for the statewide Criminal Justice Information Network in North Carolina. Based on recommendations and strategies identified in the plan, the General Assembly established the Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN) Governing Board in Section 23.3 of Chapter 18 of the Session Laws of the 1996 Second Extra Session.

North Carolina is recognized today in the nation as one of the leading states in developing a statewide criminal justice information network. Our success is due directly in part to the North Carolina General Assembly recognizing the need for further coordination and cooperation between state and local agencies in establishing standards for sharing of criminal justice information.

The CJIN Governing Board created the following vision:

To develop a statewide criminal justice information network in North Carolina that will enable a properly authorized user to readily and effectively use information, regardless of its location in national, state, or local databases.

The Governing Board has built an outstanding reputation for successfully implementing statewide programs. The success can be directly attributable to the hard work and dedication of the board members along with their experience and diversity. The composition of the board is made up of professionals from the state, county, and municipal levels representing law enforcement, the court system, corrections, juvenile justice, information technology, and the public.

CJIN Activity and Future Direction

The Board met numerous times in the last several years for the purpose of discussing criminal justice information sharing projects. The CJIN Staff over the last year has replaced the comprehensive CJIN Handbook by enhancing the CJIN website. The website contains all the information that was contained in our handbook in addition to the presentations that were given at the meetings. Since the fall of 2007, the Board has participated in the following activities:

• Chair Bob Brinson provided the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee for Justice and Public Safety and the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Information Technology with a comprehensive overview of the CJIN 2010 General Assembly Report.
• Workshop with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Data Exchange (NDEx)
• Workshop with the Naval Criminal Investigative Services, Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX)
• Presentation from State Representative on Digital Signature/E-Forms
• Multiple presentations on the Wake County Pilot Project, CJLEADS
• Received multiple updates on major CJIN Initiatives from the NC Highway Patrol, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the State Bureau of Investigation, the State Information Technology Services, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Justice, the Office of the State Controller and the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Criminal Justice Integration Presentations from the States of Pennsylvania, Texas, Nebraska (connected to Kansas, Alabama, & Wyoming), Oregon, and Michigan
• Technical Overviews on information sharing from the Towns of Cary, Angier and Coats and the Cities of High Point, Wilson, Jacksonville, Durham, Raleigh, Charlotte, Dunn, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Lillington, Asheville, Whiteville, and Kinston
• Technical Presentations from the Counties of Durham, Buncombe, Wake, Mecklenburg, Cumberland, Onslow, Columbus, Harnett, Lee, Guilford, and Johnston
• E-Forms Presentation on California DMV, Portland Police Department – Oregon, and California Parole
• Department of Correction, Photos to the mobile data terminals
• Technical Workshop on Statewide Pawn Study including law enforcement, CJIN members, pawn shop owners, lobbyist of pawn shop associations
• Governor's Crime Commission – Grants & Chair Linda Hayes as a Guest Speaker
• Presentation on the NC Fusion Center - Information Sharing and Analysis Center
• Pilot Project on the DMV photos using the CJIN Mobile Data Network · Several GangNet Presentations from the Durham Sheriff's Office and Police Department
• E911 Challenges, a comprehensive presentation from the E911 Wireless Board
• On-line presentation of the capabilities of the Offender Population Unified System by the NC Department of Correction
• Technical overview on the State's Second Major Data Center by the Office of Information Technology Services
• Updates and activities associated with the NC Local Government Information Systems Association from the City of Salisbury
• Meetings with the US Department of Justice on National Information Sharing
• Presentation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation on InfraGard

Future Activities and Recommendations

The CJIN Board has been involved with numerous projects over the last several years as highlighted in the 2010 General Assembly Report and the Board was very excited about the accomplishments in the area of criminal justice over the last year. The role of the Board has increased in various areas, including the interaction with numerous law enforcement agencies within North Carolina and other states. The Board also has conducted workshops with several federal agencies regarding information sharing, especially as it impacts local law enforcement.

The Board has also supported the Wake County Pilot Project on Criminal Justice Data Integration (the integration of data from the Department of Correction and the Administration Office of the Courts) and has been evaluating numerous wireless technologies being used within the criminal justice communities.

One area of significant impact is Electronic Discovery. The Board has been closely monitoring the pilot project underway in Buncombe County regarding document or imaging management. This project is being supported by the Administration Office of the Courts and has the potential to significantly enhance and streamline the judicial discovery process.

In the various workshops and meetings the Board was requested to provide the officers on the road with the following:

• One interface to provide critical information to the officer;
• Provide the ability to check local databases simultaneously when checking state and federal data;
• Create a standard for extracting data for information sharing;
• Address the issue of system timeout;
• Auto populate E-Citation and E-Crash applications; and
• Investigate the GIS-AVL technology to provide geographical awareness of responders to incidents as they unfold.

Each one of the above requests will be evaluated by the Board in the upcoming months.

The Board is recommending the continued funding of several projects along with targeting some deliverables and activities in which the Board possesses the expertise to perform:

North Carolina Warrant Repository (NCAWARE):
Based on the 2010 submission from the Administrative Office of the Courts, the CJIN Board is recommending the continuing funding of this very valuable project. The recent report demonstrates significant progress in the area of system and projected rollouts to the counties. We will continue to track the requests from Board members and law enforcement users regarding the feasibility of providing interfaces to local systems. As we stated before, the request to have AOC explore an interface is not intended to negatively impact their rollout; however, it is important that state systems take into account the numerous advancements and impacts on local systems.

All the details of the NCAWARE project can be obtained at the following link:

http://www.nccourts.org/Courts/CRS/Technology/Applications/NCAWARE/Default.asp  

Local Law Enforcement Information Sharing Initiative:
The CJIN Board included a section within the report outlining several opportunities to enhance the information sharing capabilities of local law enforcement along with the ability to obtain advanced crime fighting tools – crime mapping, searching narratives, connecting known associates, property, vehicles, etc. The opportunity to share and use these crime tools can be obtained by exporting the information within the local record management systems to the FBI's National Data Exchange System. As stated in the report, the CJIN Board will continue to meet with the vendors of North Carolina to facilitate an interface between local law enforcement and the FBI.

Voice Interoperability Plan for Emergency Responders (VIPER):
The CJIN Board recommends the continued funding of the VIPER project and especially the matching funds for the Public Safety Interoperable Communications (PSIC) grant. The State Highway Patrol (SHP) has made significant progress with continuing to expand and rollout the VIPER System. It provides the State with voice interoperability that an excess of 35,000 emergency responders take advantage of on a daily basis. In addition to expanding the VIPER coverage, the SHP has also worked diligently to position the system for a migration to Project 25 compliance. Whereas the system was originally designed to be Project 25 Common Air Interface (CAI) compliant, the SHP has invested a portion of its Legislative Appropriations as well as a recent American Recovery and Revitalization Act (ARRA) award supported by Governor Bev Perdue to purchase and install the main controllers that will provide the first phase of the upgrade to full Project 25 operation. Furthermore the remaining funds necessary to complete the upgrade to Project 25 are contained within the $61.1M sought by the SHP as part of the 2010 -12 Expansion Budget.

More information on the VIPER project is available at the following link:

http://www.nccrimecontrol.org/Index2.cfm?a=000001,001148

CJIN Mobile Data Network:
The CJIN Mobile Data Network is past its obsolescence and needs to be refreshed. At speeds well below accepted broadband levels, it can no longer transport some of the new applications. The CJIN Board has called upon numerous law enforcement agencies within the state to share with the Board their experiences and provide alternatives to the network. We discovered other private networks being deployed in Kinston (and nearby cities) and a significant increase in the use of commercial air cards from the cellular companies. There were approximately 12,000 users on the network in 2008. The number of law enforcement users today has decreased below 5,000 users.

The Board will continue to explore opportunities and provide a forum to discuss technology; however, the Board does have a major concern that some of the projects being developed will not be able to reach this user base.

Wake County Pilot Project – Office of the State Controller:
As previously stated the CJIN Board has been working with the CJLEADS project team and fully supports the project. The aforementioned concern regarding the lack of broadband has the Board searching for solutions to this issue. There is a significant portion of law enforcement users that may not be able to take advantage of this application.

The CJIN Board has made a significant effort to include the local law enforcement agencies in our information sharing plans and it is our intent to continue to work with the CJLEADS project team to ensure that in their next phases that these agencies are included. The Board is also stressing the importance of information being collected at the federal level. We are fully aware that the project is in its infancy and these are future deliverables.

Based on the expertise of SAS coupled with the decision to house the data repository at their facility could provide significant value to state agencies in the future. One of these valuable benefits, to be considered, would be to provide state agencies with a web service that would enhance their internal business processes. If North Carolina could demonstrate the numerous benefits of a web service approach, the concept and product may be marketable to other states.

For information on this valuable program, please use the following link:

http://www.osc.nc.gov/cjleads/cjleads.html

Electronic Discovery, District Attorney, Document Management:
The CJIN Board fully supports this pilot and recommends the continued funding. It also commends Buncombe County and the Administrative Office of the Courts for deploying this innovative approach.

Wireless Technology:
The CJIN Board will continue to meet law enforcement agencies that use a variety of wireless technologies – licensed and unlicensed frequencies, air cards, CJIN – Mobile Data System (nearing obsolescence), broadband, wireless LANs, middle ware (Radio IP), Net Motion (provides static IP addressing), 700 MHz Nation-wide project, etc. The Board undertook this project because of the CJIN – Mobile Data Network and was excited about all the agencies that responded when we requested assistance. The Board will continue to work on a cost effective recommendation and solicit help from other states – especially Ohio because they have a statewide system similar to ours. The Board intends to continue to meet with agencies and organizations within the state.

Savings Through Partnering:
The CJIN Board will continue to meet with other state, county, city, and town law enforcement agencies regarding a variety of projects. All of these undertakings to some extent require the use of voice, data, and video circuits. The Board is recommending that a subcommittee be formed to work with agencies and organizations to evaluate the feasibility of reducing operating expenditures by sharing telecommunication resources.

Increase in Fingerprinting:
The CJIN Board will continue to discuss fingerprinting with other states, monitor federal changes, and handle requests from North Carolina's law enforcement agencies and court officials.

National Data Exchange (NDEx):
The CJIN Board will continue to work with the FBI on opportunities for sharing information and new applications being developed at the federal level.

States Sharing Software:
The CJIN Board will continue to discuss opportunities to share software with other states.

Policies, Procedures and Regulations:
The CJIN Board has communicated on a regular basis with various federal agencies regarding new policies, procedures, and regulations. The Board has disseminated information only on occasion. The Board will continue to take an active role in meeting with state and local agencies and organizations to communicate changes that impact criminal justice information sharing.

Life Cycle of Projects:
The CJIN Board will continue to address the need to evaluate statewide criminal justice infrastructures and identify the life cycle of these projects.

Digital Signature and E-forms:
The CJIN Board will continue to work with Information Technology Services to provide processes that digital signature and e-forms have the potential to benefit the Criminal Justice Community. This is will be a Board deliverable.
Coordinate with State Organizations:
The CJIN Board will be active in communicating criminal justice information sharing initiatives to the various state organizations and will continue to perform this service along with maintaining an information sharing section on the CJIN Website.

Position on Emerging Technologies:
The CJIN Board will take the leadership role in representing the criminal justice community as it relates to emerging technologies especially federal initiatives – the 700 MHz project which calls for a national public safety data system, INS/ICE Issues, Wireless/ FCC, Voice Response/Vehicle, etc. The Board will undertake these issues on a regular basis and determine the most effective means for communicating our position.

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