Publications Overview Law and Policy Publications High-Tech Crime Publications Information Sharing and Technology Publications Law Enforcement Tech Guides Public Safety Issue Briefs Publications Search

Publications Overview

For nearly 43 years, SEARCH has prepared and published a wide range of national research, analytical, technical and survey reports, guides and bulletins on a range of timely issues in criminal justice information management, technology, information sharing, communications interoperability, and law and policy, as well as high-tech crime investigations. The U.S. Department of Justice also publishes many of our reports, as do national justice task forces and groups.

Most of our recent reports are available online for download, and we offer a variety of search methods to find the report you want.

Contact Twyla Putt with any publications-related questions.

---

Featured Reports

	New! Law Enforcement Tech Guide for Communications Interoperability: A Guide for Interagency Communications Projects, 2nd edition Revised and updated in 2013, this comprehensive, user-friendly guide provides strategies, best practices, and recommendations for public safety agencies seeking to develop or expand interagency communications projects. It explores technologies in voice and data communications, and provides planning tools to help achieve interoperable communication initiatives. The revised 2nd edition addresses significant technological and policy changes since the 1st edition was published in 2006, including the growth of NIEM, introduction of SCIPs, emergence of the National Broadband Plan, COML training, SAFECOM SOPs, and the P25 Compliance Assessment Program. It is endorsed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFECOM program.
	New! SEARCH Recommendations: Improving the National Instant Background Screening System for Firearms Purchases As part of its outreach on NICS, SEARCH first prepared this document in February 2013 to respond to questions from Congress and the Administration. It contains important facts and background about NICS and the states’ role in the system. It includes SEARCH Member recommendations regarding funding and support for this critical system, and provides thoughts about— how states may use funding to enhance their participation in NICS, how Congress can help remove the obstacles to qualifying for and successfully using NICS funding, and the impact of expanding background checks to all private sales. As SEARCH continues to gather additional data and research, this report will be updated. Please visit www.search.org to access our most recent version.
	Incident Command System (ICS) Communications Unit Implementation and Best Practices: A Guide for Program Development This guide is designed to help organizations prepare to set up and sustain ICS COMU Programs at the local, regional, and state levels. It focuses on key elements, performance measures, and assessment from the perspective of enhancing existing COMU practices, policies, and procedures through to an advanced level of program implementation. This guide provides examples of states, regions, and local agencies around the nation that have demonstrated success in developing and managing specific COMU Program development efforts as part of broader goals and initiatives. This guide is accompanied by four companion tools and templates, which include a Communications Unit Program Plan outline, Response Kit tool, Sustainable Funding Strategy Tool, and Assessment/Development Matrix. Find out more about these tools and how to download and use them.
	Issue Brief #12-Using Social Media to Market and Promote Public Safety Projects This Issue Brief provides a brief overview of several free social media tools and summarizes how they can be used to market and promote public safety projects. Social media can support public safety project communication with a wide range of stakeholders, including public safety first responders, governmental representatives at all levels, and the public at large.
	Issue Brief #11-Free Project Management Tools As budgets diminish, public safety project managers must find new ways to manage projects with fewer resources. Free project management tools can support capital and noncapital public safety projects. This Issue Brief provides an overview of free project management tools, summarizing how they can be used to support public safety projects.
	Issue Brief #10-Improving Life Cycle Management Through IT Service Management This Issue Brief looks at both the traditional and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) approaches to life cycle management, and highlights why it is important to engage in a continual improvement process. It reveals how managing public safety services using elements of ITSM can increase service quality, reliability, and operational efficiency, resulting in cost savings.
	Issue Brief #9-An Introduction to Long Term Evolution (LTE) Long Term Evolution (LTE), commonly referred to as 4G—or next generation wireless communications—is the new standard for public safety broadband. This Issue Brief discusses the advantages and limitations of LTE technologies for public safety.
	Issue Brief #8-The "Accidental" Project Manager Public safety operations, communications, or first responder personnel may find themselves in the position of managing an IT project for their organization—sometimes with little or no preparation, or while balancing their primary job assignments. To describe this trial-by-fire nature of project management, a new term was coined: The "accidental" project manager. This Issue Brief defines what an accidental project manager is, explains why project management matters, and outlines how to effectively manage this reality.
	Technical Brief-Using Open Source Infrastructure to Implement the Global Reference Architecture The Global Reference Architecture (GRA) is an information exchange solution designed to cut 80% of implementation time and costs for state and local justice agencies through reuse of established promising practices in IT architecture and design. Organizations that implement the GRA must choose a technology infrastructure. This Technical Brief discusses one approach to developing a GRA-conformant information sharing infrastructure using open source components. These require no licensing costs, and provide a viable and cost-effective strategy for implementing the GRA.
	Technical Brief-Using Java Tools to Implement the National Data Exchange Information Exchange Package Documentation The Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) is the FBI’s national repository of law enforcement incident and offender data; it has the ability to detect relationships between people, vehicles/property, location, and/or crime characteristics contained in these data. It supports investigative activities across jurisdictional boundaries—enhancing information sharing at all levels of government. But justice agencies must first develop an N-DEx Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD), which uses national models and standards to simplify the process to implement connectivity to N-DEx and enable cross-agency information sharing. This Technical Brief outlines three common approaches justice agencies can use to work with XML in Java in order to implement the N-DEX IEPD, and addresses the advantages and drawbacks of each.
	Technical Brief-Global Reference Architecture Service Specification Development Workshops: A Primer for Facilitators This Technical Brief provides meeting facilitators a best practice approach to service specification package (SSP) development using the GRA based on the experience, expertise, and lessons learned from the Global Services Task Team (STT). It focuses on the steps within the SSP development methodology that involve interactions with subject matter experts (SMEs), and provides a step-by-step guide to working with SMEs to gather the business information needed to develop a service specification. It also includes suggestions to facilitate an SSP development workshop.
	Technical Brief-Using Principles of Service Management to Manage Justice Information Technology Services IT services are the delivery of expertise and products by an IT provider that support the customer’s business processes—often including a combination of resources, people, processes, and technology to maintain an adequate level of service. This Technical Brief describes how principles of IT Service Management (ITSM) can benefit IT operations in the justice environment. It also provides a set of 10 service catalog templates that agencies can use to start developing a Configuration Management Database (CMDB), a tool that IT managers and staff use to define and track changes to the services they manage. Download and use these modifiable service catalog templates: Service Description-Email  Service Description-File, Print, and Document Management  Service Description-Local Area Network  Service Description-Database Hosting  Service Description-Internet  Service Description-Criminal Justice Information System Interface  Service Description-Telephony  Service Description-Web Hosting  Service Description-Help Desk  Service Description-Application Development
	Issue Brief #7–Developing Interoperability: Standard Operating Procedures Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are one of the five "critical success factors" essential for Interoperable communications. This Issue Brief educates the public safety community on the need for these SOPS, and the best way to effectively implement them within agencies. It is aimed at public safety first responders (police, fire, EMS) and emergency communications personnel.
	Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems, 2010   This report is based upon the results from a survey conducted of the administrators of the State criminal history record repositories by SEARCH. It presents a snapshot as of December 31, 2010, of 55 jurisdictions: The 50 States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
	Special Bulletin on Firesheep add-on to Mozilla Firefox This document was prepared by SEARCH's High-Tech Crime Training Services team and is disseminated upon request to law enforcement only. It discusses critical issues with a new Mozilla Firefox web browser add-on called Firesheep, protection methods, and implications for law enforcement.
	Web Services and NIEM: Realizing the Value of Available Tools This document serves as a sequel to the Technical Brief on "Using NIEM with Web Services." It describes the various Web Services tools that support the usage of NIEM schemes and introduces code generation tools.
	Information Sharing Case Study: Los Angeles County, California The ability of law enforcement agencies to combat crime and terrorism depends on their ability to acquire, assess, analyze, and share information. In a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles County, California, information sharing between jurisdictions becomes even more important. It is often said that criminals do not respect jurisdictional boundaries, and that crime trends are a regional problem whose solution demands a cross-jurisdictional, collaborative solution. Information sharing is at the core of this solution, and this case study looks at the solution reached by Los Angeles County.
	Technical Brief– A Service-Oriented Architecture Primer for Executives: Why You Should Care This brief outlines the business case for Service-Oriented Architecture to help prepare justice practitioners make key decisions and help facilitate a successful integration strategy.
	Technical Brief– Using NIEM with Web Services The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is an XML vocabulary that is quickly gaining popularity as a means to support cross-domain information sharing. “Web services” is a term for a group of industry standards that collectively provide a mechanism for exchanging XML-based messages, such as NIEM messages. One of these standards is the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which standardizes the specification and description of a web services interface. This brief explains the crucial relationship between NIEM Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) and WSDL.
	Report of the National Focus Group on the Retention of Civil Fingerprints by Criminal History Record Repositories   This report examines situations in which fingerprints submitted to state criminal central repositories for applicant criminal record checks are retained. It is based on the National Focus Group's deliberations, a print retention survey of state repositories, and related research.
	Creating a Wireless Network Investigation Toolkit: Basic Hardware and Software Specifications
	Creating a Cellular Device Investigation Toolkit: Basic Hardware and Software Specifications