1. BJA Reginal Information Sharing Conference
November 29, 2006
BJA Reginal Information Sharing Conference
San Diego, CA
Identifying and Overcoming Operational Challenges in Information Sharing Initiatives
Jim Pingel
Director, Justice Information Sharing
Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance
Board Member,
Justice Information Sharing Practitioners

2. What Barriers? Governance Funding Shared Vision Expectations
Requirements
Project Management
Policy
Tools

3. Terminology
When we talk about “Justice Integration/Interoperability” we’re talking about two distinct objectives:
Information Exchange
Automated case processing; movement of documents electronically, from one system to another.
vs.
Information Sharing
The ability to search for key investigative or case information across multiple individual systems.
WHAT IS YOUR OBJECTIVE? BE VERY CLEAR
CAN YOU BUILD AN INFRASTRUCTURE THAT SUPPORTS BOTH?
Quick

4. Governance

5. Governance Top-Level Executive Support Grass-Roots Support
Legislation or Exec Order
Governing Body
Grass-Roots Support
Users’ Group
Focused
The Importance of the MOU (Memo of Understanding)
a.k.a. MOA, SLA…
MANAGERS: How to make governance work for you…

6. Funding

7. Funding Grants as Venture Capital Sustainability
Justice and Homeland Security
WIJIS Program Office
LETPP Program: Local Implementations
Venture Capital
Sustainability
State Appropriation
Return on Investment
A Line Item for “The Space Between the Systems” !!!???
Fees: Diminishing Returns?
Innovative Revenue Sources?
“Innovative” funding sources. Many Justice IT projects are already funded on court fees and defendant assessments. Those are just about tapped out. Assessments by judges, and collections from defendants are both declining, so diminishing returns on fee increases.

8. Shared Vision

9. Shared Vision These Projects Rely on Infrastructure
Consistent use of GJXDM across projects
Reusable xml schemas
Service-Oriented Architecture strategy
Enterprise Service Bus? Other infrastructure
Consistent Methods/Process for Building Integration, Making the Connections
“Innovative” funding sources. Many Justice IT projects are already funded on court fees and defendant assessments. Those are just about tapped out. Assessments by judges, and collections from defendants are both declining, so diminishing returns on fee increases.

10. Standards and Specifications
Standards and Specifications give more bang for the buck in information interchange than in just about any field of effort.
The cost of implementing a specification, or conforming to a standard, is high at first, then tapers off.
The cost of saying “to hell with standards, I’ll roll my own” is low at first, but is an ongoing liability, and always ends up costing more than you thought.
Try to get neutral, open standards and specs.
Neutral means “not owned by a player in the turf wars”. (This is politics.)
Open means “not under the proprietary control of an entity with a conflict of interest”. (This is intellectual property.)

11. Just Do It? Or, Build Standards and Infrastructure?
Massachusetts: “Improvisation without Sacrificing Standards…”

12. (Realistic) Expectations

13. The WIJIS Justice Gateway
A single, secure point of read-only access to disparate state and local justice information resources.
Local Law Enforcement
Records Management Systems
Courts
DA-
PROTECT
TIME/eTIME
GJXML
Law
Enforcement
Data
GJXML
Integrated
Corrections
4/5/2019

14. “How Vision Becomes a Reality”
We'll NEVER GET THERE!
Always another horizon.
Ground will continue to shift.
But, let's be clear on the vision,
Don’t get frustrated,
And not let the vision keep us from moving reality in the right direction!

15. Gathering Requirements

16. The REAL Business Requirements
Declaration of Independence
Life, liberty, and the pursuit...
The Constitution
Establish justice, provide for the common defence
Bill of Rights
Criminal Justice System
Checks and balances
Adversarial
Privacy and Security are Requirements, not Constraints!

17. Technical Requirements (From a non-technical manager!)
Design (JIEM Tool, the business processes)
The payload (GJXML schemas)
The envelope (web services/messaging)
The pipeline (connectivity, security, encryption)
Implementation
Assess IT capacity, capability at both ends of the exchange
IT Departments?
Vendors?

18. Project Management of Multi-Agency Projects

19. Managing an Interagency Team
Institutional factors that can
add risk to the interagency project:
Conflicting priorities with other duties
Budget cuts elsewhere impact our project
Lack of traditional contracting leverage
Executive turnover; bye-bye buy-in
Residual conflicts between team members
Politics and the motives created
Historic distrust between agencies

20. Managing an Interagency Team
Key Strategies:
Communicate often & widely though adds overhead (compared to total outsourcing), which itself can cause risk
Value team members’ specific experience with locals on other state Justice projects: reinforces trust of locals and a tight team
Reinforce the reusability of infrastructures, code, processes, documentation

21. Policy

22. Appropriate Use/Secondary Dissemination Data Quality/Frequency
Security
Privacy
Fair Info Practices
Public Records / FOIA
Appropriate Use/Secondary Dissemination
Data Quality/Frequency
Change Management (Updates/upgrades)

23. A Potential Deal-Killer: Disclosure of Sensitive Info
Don’t Share Sensitive Data
De-values the information-sharing effort.
If the rules change, start over!
Write Restrictions Into Each Application.
Rigid system design.
If the rules change, re-write many lines of code.
Example: Juvenile data. Cops want to share it with each other, not with other users.
First approach: just don’t share juvenile data with anybody.
Second approach: block access to juvenile data in the applications.
Third approach: allow cops to see juvenile data, and filter it from other users.

24. Cascading Disclosure Control Language
Rulesheets
A Filter, to Separate Rules from Code
Like a stylesheet, different function
Cheaper to Write Than Code
Individual agencies can write their own
“Sturdier” than code
Insulated from application
Mistakes don’t become software bugs
Transparent
Public statement about disclosure
Auditable
For more info:

25. Tools and Resources
You are Not Alone

26. Resources- Getting Started
“Information Technology Initiatives - (not a one-stop, but the first stop!)
And don’t forget… 
The Latest Policy and Technology Developments from the GLOBAL Advisory Committee -
JISP – watch for JISPnet.org (Coming soon!)

27. Tools The GJXml Data Model itself! http://it.ojp.gov/jxdm/
IEPD Clearinghouse -
Help! -
The JIEM tool
Search the GJXDM -
Build Schemas -

28. More Tools – Project Management & Communications
Shared Project space
Online secure document repository
Wiki pages
Project management
Blogs
Bug reporter
Etc.

29. Training and Technical Assistance
Global Training And Technical Assistance Committee (GTTAC)
Contract SEARCH ( – click on
The IJIS Institute
Training
Tech Assistance
Lots of Online Resources

30. The National Resource for Practitioners
Justice Information Sharing Practitioners
The National Resource for Practitioners
– Resources for Information-Sharing
Practitioner Directory
Document Library – RFPs, job descriptions, etc.
The Beacon newsletter
Independent, Objective
Liaison with BJA, IJIS Institute, SEARCH, NGA and others.
JOIN TODAY- It’s Free!

31. Sneak Preview: JISPnet.ORG

32. JISP Practitioner Directory

33. Current Board Membership
Name
Region
Type
Notes/Term 1
Dwayne Campbell
South (NC)
County 2
Maria Cardiellos
East (NJ)
State 3
Leigh Middleditch
East (MD) 4
Maury Mitchell
South (AL) 5
Brian Richards
West (CA)
2006 Chairman 6
Mike Haslip
West (WA)
Local
Sept 2006 7
Jim Pingel
Mid-West (WI) 8
Pat Nelson
West (AZ) 9
Gordon Lansford
Mid-West (KS) 10
VACANT
Local/County? A1
Cathy Plummer -
Associate A2
Erin Lee

34. Thanks! James.pingel@wisconsin.gov www.oja.wi.gov/wijis