In June 2006, current IACP third vice president Chief Mark A. Marshall rightfully noted, “Information sharing has become a mission critical component of today’s public safety mandate.”¹ Chief Marshall went on to explain the efforts made through the partnership of local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division in developing the concept for a national information-sharing system based on incident reports and case information, and the deployment of such a system was to be commended. Over a year and a half later, the CJIS Division is on the cusp of realizing the goal of enabling information sharing on a national scale.

In February 2007, the Raytheon Corporation was selected from a competitive bid process to design, develop, and incrementally deploy the Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) system. Having been named as the service provider, Raytheon, along with the CJIS Division, has worked with local and state law enforcement agencies and brought together subject matter experts from the field. Included in these groups are representatives from the IACP, Major Cities Chiefs Association, National Sheriffs’ Association, Major County Sheriffs’ Association, and other local and state law enforcement information technology practitioners. These subject matter experts have been included in the development of system requirements based on the concepts of operations, system functionality, training and audit plans, training guides, and computer-based training modules and materials. Each of these groups represents the law enforcement communities they serve, as well as the United States, in creating a system that will affect the culture of the law enforcement profession and how it investigates crime and protects the United States from terrorism.