Ashburn, VA, July 27, 2017—The IJIS Institute—a nonprofit organization that focuses on mission-critical information sharing for justice, public safety, and homeland security—invites volunteers to join an Industry Working Group (IWG) to tackle changing federal and state law enforcement reporting requirements. The IWG will work on how to quickly and efficiently respond to changing reporting requirements.

Today, it takes years and millions of dollars to respond to a new national reporting requirement.  Case in point is the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS).  NIBRS is still struggling for nationwide acceptance nearly 30 years after its approval for general use in March 1988. Not only has NIBRS taken millions of dollars to get to where it is today, but it will take more years and many more millions of dollars to reach full implementation.  By the time implementation is “complete,” the reporting requirements will have changed, and new reporting will be required.  The National Law Enforcement Information Exchange (N-DEx) is another example of a nationwide initiative that will take years to implement.

These national program delays and changes impact solution providers’ bottom lines. Today’s records management systems (RMS) are developed to meet specific requirements – every time the requirements change, whether it is a state or federal directive, it’s back to the drawing board; costing industry and agencies millions of more dollars.

The IJIS Institute is seeking volunteers to join the IWG.  Specifically, they are seeking participation from software engineers and system architects from companies providing law enforcement records management products and solutions.  The IWG will develop an RMS product road map to address the incident reporting landscape, a NIBRS deployment strategy and implementation plan that will be proposed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Once the RMS road map and other deliverables are created and agreed upon by Industry, the IWG will champion changes in the procurement process and grant programs so that companies will benefit from implementing the RMS road map.  The result will be huge savings of time and money for RMS providers, and ultimately for cash strapped law enforcement agencies.

If a company is interested and ready to help make the IWG a reality, contact Robert May at  Robert.may@ijis.org.