Accelerated Information Sharing for Law Enforcement (AISLE) Using Web Services
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Accelerated Information Sharing for Law Enforcement (AISLE) Using Web Services Bob Slaski, V.P. Product Development Gerry Coleman, Director Advanced Technology Systems Wisconsin Crime Information Bureau 7915 Jones Branch Drive P.O. Box 2718 McLean, VA 22102 Madison, WI 53701-2718 [email protected] [email protected] Office: 703.720.7480 Office: 608.266.0872 Fax: 703.917.4201 Fax: 608.267.1338 Abstract 1.1 Sharing Information Information sharing is the defining principle for To support the increased demands of public safety and Web Services is the technology best information sharing in the post September 11th positioned to facilitate sharing and lower costs. The era, the national public safety and criminal justice National Law Enforcement Telecommunication System technology infrastructure needs massive overhaul. (NLETS) provides a network for criminal justice Law enforcement officers and intelligence agents information exchange throughout North America. must be able to determine if terrorist information NLETS is defining new standards based upon XML is maintained in the databases of the Federal and Web Services under the Accelerated Information Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the United States Sharing for Law Enforcement (AISLE) Project. AISLE deployed an XML Message Router (XMR) which Secret Service, or in the tens of thousands of local provides operational Web Services capabilities. The police record systems. AISLE Project developed and published detailed 1.2 Lowering Costs specifications based upon a broader Justice XML Data Dictionary. Initial Web Services provided partner Further impetus for a criminal justice agencies with guaranteed message services technology infrastructure overhaul is the obvious functionality and interoperability with existing systems cost savings associated with Internet-based by providing bi-directional legacy transaction technologies during a time of budget shortfalls. transformation capabilities. AISLE uses a self-defining Tens of thousands of municipal, state, and federal XML transaction with Web Services Attachments to systems are already linked by a vast, private support legacy image transfer. Future efforts will focus telecommunication infrastructure built on Internet on more distributed Web Services as well as Web Services Security. protocols for law enforcement use. Leveraging this existing infrastructure will create economies Keywords: public safety, integrated justice, of scale that will benefit the law enforcement security, attachments, XML Message Router. community and, as a result, the entire country. 1.3 Streamlining Justice Processes The nation’s renewed focus on homeland 1.0 Industry Challenges security highlights the need for seamless Information sharing is the defining principle integration of and distributed access to disparate for effective homeland security. To help defend law enforcement information systems. Already, against terrorism and protect the lives of all criminal justice integrated justice systems that Americans, criminal justice and law enforcement streamline complex, duplicative justice processes organizations must be able to efficiently and (from enforcement through parole and probation). accurately share data and exchange intelligence across jurisdictional boundaries. multinational corporation that has strong control 1.4 Providing Mission Critical Service over internal operations and subcontractors. Most law enforcement interactions are based on unpredictable and, in many cases, 2.0 Role of XML and Web Services uncooperative encounters. There is a need for The technologies best positioned to enable highly accurate and timely information because of information sharing throughout law enforcement potential risks to officers during a very short are XML and Web Services. The broad adoption encounter. of these standards-based technologies will allow pervasive and efficient communications and lower 1.5 Improving Security the cost of maintaining the current Security concerns are critical issues to all law communications infrastructure. enforcement agencies. The current system largely 2.1 Adopting XML and Web Services relies on a private network for security and established procedures and relationships. New Like many organizations, National Law security standards offer the potential for greatly Enforcement Telecommunication System improved security on the private network and the (NLETS) adopted XML several years ago as the potential to leverage lower cost public networks. basis for future transactions but has only recently The implementation of an automated security begun operational deployment. NLETS delayed framework must address the laws associated with implementation of XML transactions until it the release of law enforcement information which identified a more effective transport for XML vary considerably from state to state. New transactions. Historically, NLETS had used an technology must provide safeguards for privacy asynchronous guaranteed delivery data exchange which often applies to information such as model with specialized TCP/IP socket level criminal history and juvenile offenses. communications (or legacy binary synchronous data link communications) and text-based 1.6 Supporting a Diverse Community transactions with data formatted as field value Individual federal, state, county, city, and tribal pairs reminiscent of older synchronous terminal law enforcement organizations must be able to transactions (See Figure 1). Now, NLETS is communicate in a very timely and accurate using Web Services to provide an open manner despite the variations in technology and framework for standardized transport consistent modernization cycles. This situation presents a with the loosely coupled nature of the law dramatically different set of problems than might enforcement community. be seen in a more highly controlled environment, such as the interactions that might occur in a large OSI Layer NLETS AISLE Web Services Application NLETS Applications NLETS Applications Presentation NLETS Native Messages XML,WSDL, MIME Session NLETS TCP/IP Protocol Web Services (SOAP) Transport Bisync TCP TCP Network Bisync IP IP Data Link Frame Relay Frame Relay Physical Frame Relay Frame Relay Figure 1. NLETS and AISLE Web Services Protocol Profile operator was eliminated, and the task of 2.2 Realizing Web Services Benefits interpreting response data was pushed to the With XML and Web Services, law officer on the street. This resulted in difficult enforcement communications will likely evolve situations as officers were trying to interpret from a proprietary “switch-centric” increasingly complex transactions while communications model to a more distributed engaged in potentially dangerous encounters that standards-based system. At the state level, the demanded their full attention. adoption of XML and Web Services will allow 3.2 Law Enforcement Information public safety organizations to fully and effectively participate among the increasing Needs number of automated, integrated criminal justice To complicate matters, the law enforcement systems. Furthermore, the adoption of industry community has two distinct sets of users with standards will enable the law enforcement very different needs. The primary users are community to leverage the benefits, police forces. Police require very timely, advancements and investments of industry accurate, and simple information. During a leading technology companies. Advancements citizen law enforcement encounter, the level of in the areas of Web Services Security and Web information required is the equivalent to that Services Attachments will be especially useful provided by a traffic signal – go, caution, stop. to the law enforcement community in the future. Access to photo images and wireless access are highly desirable. In contrast, investigators need 3.0 Background as much information as possible, even if it is less Law enforcement networks evolved using two accurate or less timely. The investigative model very different models. As the national “carrier” most resembles a conventional Internet search. for law enforcement online transaction Even partial information can be useful, and processing, NLETS reaches more than 500,000 public source information is of great value. Web law enforcement communications devices in Services provides the ideal framework for both North America. NLETS is a consortium of the communities. states and, consequently, uses a distributed data model. The National Crime Information Center 3.3 NLETS Today (NCIC), in contrast, is federally operated and Unlike thirty years ago, today's networks and uses a central repository model. With the central systems used by the law enforcement repository model, data is standardized, and there community are faster, more reliable, and more are synchronous online transactions. consistent. Internet technologies have made it 3.1 NLETS Distributed Access Model easier for law enforcement organizations to operate in a loosely coupled environment, The distributed data model has resulted in eliminating the need for the old message inconsistent data formats and response content. switching model. Today, XML and Web Limitations of early technology, lack of Services are the ideal technologies to exchange standardization, and insufficient control over law enforcement data transactions, and data values contributed to data inconsistencies in standardization efforts are underway. NLETS early law enforcement networks like NLETS. has published a complete XML specification for At the time, transactions were