Connecting Resources to Solve Crimes

In addition, SCIEx, now supports the state's Intelligence Fusion Center, which utilizes the data for investigative work for homeland security objectives, such as buffer zone protection of critical infrastructure.

With use of soon-to-be-announced funding from both FY 2007 NIJ and DHS budgets, Knight is confident Phase II will allow built-out to be completed and that by next September, every agency in the state will be replicating information to the SCIEx data server. The resulting software, LEADR, is available to law enforcement agencies throughout the country without licensing fees through the NLECTC-SE.

What started out as a small six-department project has turned into a project that is the recipient of much national recognition. SCIEx has received national attention through the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Law Enforcement Information Management (LEIM) and will be presented at a breakout session at the IACP Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, and at the IACP LEIM International Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in November. SLED also has been nominated for the Harvard University John F. Kennedy Schools of Government, ASH Institute Innovations Award as a result of its work leveraging LEADR as the basis for SCIEx.

Information sharing is a sensitive business and one that takes time, yet Knight's hope for the future — that this software may be a model for other states — is coming to fruition. LEADR has spread beyond county lines, beyond state lines and onto the national stage.

For more information on NLECTC-SE, contact Peter Cosgrove, LEADR program manager, or Coleman Knight, deputy director, at 800-292-4385.

Donna Rogers is a freelance writer based in Huntington, New York. She can be reached at drogerskranich@rcn.com.