Law Enforcement IT Day Highlights

by Stephanie Sullivan, Consultant

The 4th annual Law Enforcement IT Day was held on April 18, and a major topic of conversation was the need for mobility. Richard Spires, the opening keynote speaker, kicked off the morning discussing the need for DHS to transition from Land Mobile Radios to a 4G network within the next five years. This initiative would make it possible for law enforcement applications (including on-demand video & biometric identification checks) to work on both smart phones and tablets in the field.

A joint program office has been created to aid this transition, and will implement a phased approach and utilize a number of competitions. Spires anticipates leveraging BAA’s and prized competitions to help spur innovation from industry.  DHS is currently launching a new business model, workplace-as-a-service, for the mobile employee in need of office functionality, this will be a cloud based service offered in DHS’ private cloud.

Law enforcement organizations are currently facing challenges with social media content and the legality and privacy issues associated  with the it from an evidence standpoint. Online resources can also spark criminal activity making it easier for offenders to find accomplices via the internet, and the web makes it easier to black mail individuals using internet activity, including online videos.

In order to improve intelligence gathering law enforcement officials need to focus on utilizing partners, state & local resources, the private sector and regulatory enforcement. Law enforcement organizations will need an easier way to sort and filter through vast amounts of data, and need better resources to share real-time data across federal agencies, state & local offices and the private sector.

immixGroup will be holding a DHS breakfast briefing on June 19 highlighting some of these law enforcement challenges, as well as discussing DHS’s $5.7 billion IT budget, HQ and component level initiatives, priorities, major funded opportunities, and the sales approach our clients will need to know in order to win business within DHS.