About SEARCH Overview Company Background SEARCH News 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 Awards Membership Group Board of Directors Staff Careers Partners Contact Us

SEARCH Launches Podcast #6:
The "What" and "Why" of N-DEx, the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange

  Back  See more recent articles

SEARCH has recently launched the sixth installment in its Information Sharing podcast series. This podcast, which addresses the ins and outs of N-DEx, allows listeners to hear an in-depth discussion between some of the key players involved in the effort to educate the law enforcement community on the benefits of using N-DEx.

The podcast participants include:

• Chief Mark A. Marshall, First Vice President, International Association of Chiefs of Police
• Ms. Pam Scanlon, Executive Director, Automated Regional Justice Information System (San Diego and Imperial Counties, California)
• Deputy Chief Christopher M. Moore, San Jose (California) Police Department
• Captain Scott D. Edson, Los Angeles County (California) Sheriff's Department
• Mr. Ron Hawley, Executive Director, SEARCH (Moderator)

Operational since March 2008, the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) System was developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division, in partnership with State and local law enforcement and public safety agencies. It is an investigative tool to exchange criminal justice information across disparate local, state, tribal, and federal justice systems.

The N-DEx system enables agencies to do a lot of things that the general public thinks they already do: search, link, analyze, and share data and detect relationships between people, property, places, and crime characteristics. In actuality, most agencies go about the business of gathering clues, conducting interviews, solving crimes, and generating reports and information on their own. Most information sharing between police agencies today is on a case-by-case basis or through local and regional information systems.

N-DEx offers agencies a national information-sharing system available through a secure Internet site. Ultimately, this sharing of information will help in solving crime while strengthening the relationship between the nation's more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies.

Ownership of data shared through N-DEx will remain with the agency that provided it. N-DEx will supply controls to allow agencies to decide what data to share, who can access it, and under what circumstances. It will allow agencies to participate in accordance with applicable laws and policies governing dissemination and privacy.

Once fully operational and fully deployed later this year, N-DEx will include a full range of capabilities, including:

• Nationwide searches from a single access point;
• Searches by "modus operandi" and for clothing, tattoos, associates, cars, etc.-linking individuals, places, and things;
• Notifications of similar investigations and suspects;
• Identification of criminal activity hotspots and crime trends;
• Threat level assessments of individuals and addresses; and
• Visualization and mapping features.

For specific information on N-DEx, contact Mr. Gene Weaver, N-DEx Communication Specialist, at 304-625-2669; he can also be reached by email at ndex@leo.gov.

For additional information on N-DEx, visit http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/ndex/ndex_home.htm.