The Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) is described in its Concept of Operations(1) as a nationwide system for searching, linking, analyzing and sharing criminal justice information. N-DEx will be developed through communication and collaboration among the federal, state, local and tribal LEAs that will use it. These organizations will tailor their participation in N-DEx to their own needs and requirements, deciding what they will and will not share, governing who may access or use their data, and complying with any applicable policies, laws and regulations.

N-DEx will ultimately give LEAs a powerful investigative tool that proactively helps them understand the critical connections between people, places, things, characteristics and any other elements involved in a crime or terrorist act.

A vast trove of incident data does exist, but it is scattered across thousands of disparate systems throughout the United States. Most incident information is captured at the state and local level(2), of which there are nearly 18,000 such jurisdictions in the United States(3). Each of these jurisdictions has evolved its information systems according to its own needs and concerns. Formats and data entry requirements vary. Governance, business practices and policies are different for separate systems in different departments.

As a result, law enforcement information systems remain isolated with very little ability to support collaboration and communication. Even if all these resources were effectively connected, the challenge of discovering meaningful information within millions of records would remain.

Each year, criminals and terrorists demonstrate more extensive capabilities for gathering intelligence and identifying targets of opportunity using technology to coordinate decentralized operations across multiple jurisdictions. To combat both increasingly sophisticated terrorists and mobile criminals, LEAs must be able to detect, visualize, assess and connect subtle connections between and among seemingly unrelated points of information. They must be able to "link facts and discover patterns to more effectively combat criminal activity and terrorism."(4)

Powered by Initiate software, N-DEx will provide federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies with a national system for capturing and sharing criminal justice information. It will help them confront the evolving capabilities of terrorists and criminals with:

• Integrated access to a comprehensive, national catalog of criminal justice information: N-DEx will provide a "single point of discovery" for data and records from thousands of LEAs.
• Capabilities for organizing and associating information: With Initiate’s proven capabilities, N-DEx will accelerate search and analysis by maintaining metadata for all records and by providing powerful tools for correlating, linking and filtering inquiries.
• Automated discovery and notification of patterns, trends and connections: N-DEx will provide investigators with multiple ways to visualize and understand relationships between incidents, people and events.
• A platform for nationwide collaboration and communication: N-DEx will facilitate cooperation among LEAs by establishing a common environment for connectivity, by standardizing information for exchange, and by enabling investigators to form trusted communities of interest.
• Controls that allow LEAs to govern all uses of their data: N-DEx will enable LEAs to select the level of participation that best meets their needs, while retaining full control over the information they contribute.
• Protection for sensitive information: N-DEx will include the capabilities, processes, policies and standards to manage and secure access to sensitive, unclassified law enforcement data.

N-DEx will help investigators accelerate their investigations by doing much of their information-related "legwork" for them. It will scan millions of records in multiple systems, identify similar or identical points of information, analyze the likelihood of correlation, grade those associations for relevance, and automatically share them among communities of interest. It will give LEAs the timely ability to identify terrorist and criminal activity that was previously undetectable, then act decisively to prevent or investigate incidents.

Providing Data Access, While Protecting Data Governance

N-DEx does not consolidate law enforcement data into a single repository or warehouse. Instead, it integrates access to that information while leaving it under the management and governance of its owner LEAs. To support this approach, N-DEx will consist of underlying services for correlating raw contributor data into knowledge, managing notifications and alerts, and providing essential functions to users. These components will include:

• Entity resolution: N-DEx will automatically identify and consolidate information from varying records when there is sufficient evidence that entities are one and the same.
• Entity correlation: N-DEx will identify relationships among entities that are not obviously related as a single record, highlighting subtle associations among persons of interest.
• Incident/case correlation: N-DEx will identify patterns among modus operandi and other characteristics that could link incidents and suspects to serial crimes.
• Automatic processing, notification, and subscription – N-DEx will notify investigators when new information of interest is submitted to the system. Users can register for updates on information that meets their specific criteria.
• Interface functions – Users will interact with N-DEx via web-based tools for advanced search, visualization, analysis and reporting.
• Collaboration – N-DEx will include a national directory of LEAs and law enforcement personnel. Users can locate colleagues working on similar cases, form joint investigative teams, share information and coordinate activity on a national or regional basis.

Within N-DEx, these services will work together to constitute a powerful engine for securely locating, refining and distributing an integrated base of criminal justice information. N-DEx enables LEAs to use criminal justice information as a vast resource for conducting terrorist or criminal inquiries, without being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data that is available. With software from Initiate Systems powering N-DEx, LEAs can "connect the dots" – between relationships in information, between systems, and between evidence and successful investigations.

(1)Law Enforcement National Data Exchange Concept of Operations
Version 1.5
U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Criminal Justice Information Services Division
May 1, 2006.

(2)N-DEx: The National Information Sharing Imperative
by Mark A. Marshall
Chief of Police
Smithfield, VA
The Police Chief
July 2007 Overview

(3)Law Enforcement Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics
2004
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm
Summary Findings

(4)Law Enforcement National Data Exchange Concept of Operations
Version 1.5
U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Criminal Justice
Page 8
Increasing Sophistication and Complexity of Crime and Terrorism.