New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services

Overview

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) has a multi-function charter that includes the enhancement of public safety through the collection and analysis of statewide crime data. This encompasses 11 counties that account for nearly 52% of the population outside NYC and over 84 separate local law enforcement agencies (LEA) operating in New York.

The Crime Analysis Centers’ Data Sharing Network Initiative helps the state of New York reduce crime, especially violent and firearm crime, through intelligence-driven law enforcement strategies using Crime Analysis Centers (CACs) as a key component.

Challenge

The New York CACs are a state and local government collaborative project. The centers are multi-jurisdictional units and centrally located across the state of New York. The challenge was to deploy a robust, scalable, and affordable platform to provide each CAC with single-query access to their extensive volume of crime and intelligence data and the ability to query and share statewide. Each CAC represents unique architectures, multiple law enforcement agencies, multiple users with multiple sources, and varying law enforcement and related data. Each CAC varies greatly in configuration, location and data source structure. With new sources of data constantly being identified and updated in daily operations and investigations, CACs have to support local control of the data dissemination without the need to persistently store data in a warehoused environment. DCJS required a cost-effective system that could meet the needs of the CACs while delivering high performance and scalable results.

Solution

The SureView® Analytics Platform was chosen for deployment across the state to meet its criminal justice needs and enhance public safety. DCJS required a platform that could meet the criminal investigation demands of a diverse range of state and local LEA, handle a wide variety and volume of data sources and formats, and manage the security and authentication of large numbers of users. Proven, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software was selected to ensure consistency, reliability and maintainability while ensuring a cost-realistic deployment model. The system had to work for both small and large CAC configurations and needed to be operated and managed by its users and IT divisions.

Forcepoint™ supports CACs with a sophisticated, single-screen “Google-like” tool capable of conducting in-depth searches, along with the analysis and sharing of all information related to local crime. Thus, investigators rapidly build a comprehensive picture of a new and/or ongoing case, to gather and make sense of evidence. They also get out “in front” of incidents before they happen, instead of after the damage is done.

Results

In 2008, DCJS successfully began the deployment of a program designed to support the information sharing and analytical needs of different county-level CACs. Beginning with the four highest-crime counties, SureView Analytics was configured to meet the individual needs of each CAC. Each center identifies specific information sources to be shared among the regions, including access to the incident and arrest databases for all agencies. As a result, they have ushered in a new era of effectiveness for the state, establishing a strategic, intelligence-led approach to crime fighting through data driven, evidence-based actions. To address proactive prevention, the centers’ technologies capture the crime environment within a particular county, as determined by the identification, analysis and management of persistent and developing threats and risks. At those headquarters, hot spot maps can literally change colors by the hour to reflect which local neighborhoods experience specific types of crimes at a specific time. This allows law-enforcement supervisors to make informed decisions about tactical deployment.

This information sharing project has expanded its footprint across New York and is still incorporating as many organizations as possible while also expanding current deployments to broaden the scope of the data available – making it one of the first states to fully deploy a federated data sharing network that is scalable, adaptable, and cost effective. Currently, the criminal reporting data itself captures upwards of 67% of all of the crime occurring throughout the state, outside of New York City. In addition to local agencies, the scope of data has expanded to include New York State Police data and other sources held by the state, including probationers, parolees and sex offenders.