DOJ writes to share

Justice Department officials are creating a new philosophy that could
enhance information sharing within the law enforcement community, the
department's chief information officer said yesterday.

Vance Hitch, Justice's CIO, said department officials normally write cases
and then extract from that information they are willing to share with other
federal, state and local law enforcement officials. But the "write to share"
philosophy - which would require a certain cultural change within several
law enforcement entities - would require an official from the very start to
define what needs to be shared, he said.

Then, as an appendage, the official would define information that cannot be
shared. For example, in a public corruption case, Justice officials wouldn't
want to share information with local officials that could jeopardize the
case.

Hitch, who along with several officials from the Homeland Security and
Defense departments, was speaking at an Industry Advisory Council-sponsored
panel about information sharing and collaboration.

He outlined a Justice plan called the Law Enforcement Information Sharing
(LEIS) program in place for a year now. It is not a system, he said, but a
collection of all such initiatives in the department - about 43 - and
putting them under one umbrella to better track and improve information
sharing.

Hitch said Justice officials also are creating a concept to present the
department as a single sharing entity to the outside world. That means
officials in authorized local law enforcement communities don't have to
worry about which Justice agency - whether it's the FBI or the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives - is providing the information.

Among future information-sharing initiatives, he said the FBI's National
Crime Information Center will be on steroids, meaning it will include more
detail, such as complaints, interviews and activity, in each case.

Officials also are developing a technical architecture to share information
so all new and existing initiatives must pass through that prism to get
funded. Hitch said that will push through the needed culture change.

The IAC panel also included Steve Cooper, the Homeland Security Department's
CIO; Richard Russell, DHS' director of Information Sharing and Collaboration
Program; Frank Libutti, DHS undersecretary for the Information Analysis and
Infrastructure Protection Directorate; and Peter Verga, DOD's principal
deputy assistant secretary for homeland defense.