Law Enforcement Information Exchange 2017 Annual Report

Legend LinX Local-Level Agency Coverage LinX State-Level Agency Coverage Military Based Arena N-DEx Local-Level Agency Coverage N-DEx State-Level Agency Coverage 2003 - 2017 Welcome Welcome to the Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX), a group of over 1,900 law enforcement agencies that have agreed to prevent, stop, and solve crimes by sharing what we know with each other. If you are an existing partner, thank you; if you represent a potential partner or group of partners, we’d love to talk to you. This year has brought great growth, successes, and accomplishments within the LInX program, but it has also been a difficult year of “in the line of duty” deaths and injuries to our brothers and sisters who serve. In these pages you’ll read about the LInX program’s growth and successes, as highlighted by Catherine Miller’s excellent article below about our journey to A BILLION records, and I invite you to also read our article on information sharing in the May 2017 issue of Police Chief Magazine. Our ultimate goal is to help keep our communities and personnel safe. We can’t do that without you, so please think about sharing YOUR data as much as is practical. It’s probably the most powerful thing you can do to make a positive difference in this line of work.

Sincerely,

Kris A. Peterson Division Chief / Special Agent Naval Criminal Investigative Service

The Road To A BILLION Sometimes it’s hard to believe LInX has come as far as it has in the last decade and a half. The road has been a curvy one with a few bumps along the way but the vision of the former Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Director, David Brant, had back in the early 2000s was clear and strong. I wonder if he ever imagined that one day this program would provide our users the ability to search over a BILLION law enforcement records quickly and effectively? These records include incident, accident, CAD, citation, arrest, booking, field interview, pawn, and registry records and the chart shows how the data categories make up the LInX system. Well, the LInX Program is moving into its 15th year and is stronger and more successful than ever. We receive a constant stream of success stories from our users and one of my favorite comments so far is from a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Sergeant saying, “We all love LInX!! It’s one of the best systems we have. I think half the working officers and detectives in our department would lose their minds if we ever lost it.” How Did We Get To This Point? A lot of patience, hard work, incredible team work, and great partnerships have brought us to where we are today. While there are too many people to thank, they all know who they are and each and every one of them can be proud to say that they were a part of this increasingly popular and successful program that continues to be strong nationally with a daily, positive impact on American lives.

Since we met a major milestone this year of providing our law enforcement users with the ability to query over a BILLION law enforcement records, I wanted to provide a snapshot showing the progress of the LInX Program over the years.

The Total D-DEx/LInX Partners Chart by Year shows the progression of the number of agencies contributing data to LInX. The information on the next several pages will take you down a path of the history of the LInX and D-DEx Programs while providing you with an update on each Region. Are We Done? Absolutely not! Our job will continue to go on as we continue to work towards ALL local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies sharing their law enforcement records nationally through LInX and/or the FBI’s National Data Exchange Program (N-DEx). Members of our LInX programs are and will continue to be actively involved in the national law enforcement data sharing effort. It has taken almost 15 years to get to a BILLION records shared by over 1,900 agencies in LInX and D-DEx. Add to that another 400 million records that are shared through our partnership and connection with the FBI N-DEx Program, and our connections with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ICEPIC system and the International Justice and Public Safety Network (Nlets). However, there are over 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States so we are far from being done. We continue to strengthen our partnerships with N-DEx, DHS, and Nlets to provide more data and more query capabilities for our users. Enjoy reading the updates on each of the LInX Regions, the progress we have made over the last year with the system, and what’s ahead next for LInX and D-DEx. Catherine A. Miller Program Manager National Capital Region LInX Program and part of the LInX Program for the last 10 years

Naval District Washington Dispatcher Finds Helpful Information on Suspicious Subject within HOURS of D-DEx Training Within hours of a DoD Law Enforcement Defense Data Exchange (D-DEx) training class for dispatchers at the Naval District Washington Emergency Dispatch Center, a dispatcher had a police officer dealing with a strange person at the main gate. Officers approached the subject who was acting bizarre and going through his backpack. The dispatcher ran the person with negative warrants. The officer released the subject and he began standing in the roadway in a busy area of Washington, D.C. Police were called and the dispatcher decided to use D-DEX and found the person had previous situations with police and had been aggressive with the police. The agency noted, “With your system, our Police Officers and the D.C. Police were able to better handle this subject’s situation and the subject’s mental condition. Thank you. “

Northwest (NW-LInX) During 2005 and 2006 with additional funding, Being the interest, and great law enforcement partnerships, FIRST LInX NCIS was able to start up and implement three more Region LInX Regions in the Gulf Coast, Southeast, and Hawaii developed areas of the United States, all around key Navy assets. over 14 years ago and going operational Gulf Coast (GC-LInX) in 2004, NW-LInX holds The GC-LInX has steady at 315 member 276 member agencies from agencies from Washington State, the southern Oregon, and Idaho areas of Texas contributing over 60 million records and almost along the Gulf 16 million mugshots. The NW-LInX region had a Coast and Central vigorous training year, which resulted in the submission Texas areas, contributing of several success stories. Additionally, the Executive 58 million event records Board voted to make justifications mandatory when and over a million mugshots. a query is conducted in the NW-LInX region, which In May 2017, the GC-LInX follows along the same requirements of the other Governance Board welcomed their LInX regions and NDEx. newest member, the North Texas Fusion Center (NTFC), which includes law enforcement Virginia (VA-LInX) data from over 200 agencies in a 20 county expanse Virginia LInX (originally surrounding the greater Dallas/Ft. Worth area. known as Hampton This new partnership has significantly increased the Roads LInX) was the LInX data sharing initiative in Texas. Future expansion 2nd LInX Program includes the San Antonio, TX Police Department, which started by NCIS. is currently pending technical transfer of data from This LInX Region went live in 2005 and currently the SAPD. has over 84 million records and almost 12 million mugshots. With 229 Member Agencies, which is Southeast (SE-LInX) almost 100% of the law enforcement agencies located As of August 2017, SE-LInX has 239 member agencies in the region, Virginia LInX hopes to continue to grow from the Florida and Georgia areas contributing by adding additional Regional Jails and University almost 209 million event records and over 13 million Police Departments in the near future. mugshots. The build out of SE-LInX in the Tampa area was completed and currently agencies from the Florida Panhandle area are being added to the system. The Richmond, VA PD UsesLInX Panhandle data includes county law enforcement, to Identify and Safely Return various cities within the counties, as well university and college police departments. Georgia agencies, a Missing Elderly Man including Smyrna, Marietta, and Lowndes County were added in 2017. Additional agencies in the Panhandle of Florida and the State of Georgia are scheduled to The Richmond (VA) Police Department reported be added to SE LInX in the near future. SE LInX that an elderly male, standing in the street, was continues to provide training to new agencies as encountered on patrol. When the Officer stopped to well as specialized training, speak with him, he seemed extremely confused and specific to investigators that could not provide his DOB, address or any contact focuses on certain crimes such information. He said he lived with his sister but could as robbery and drug activity. not remember her name, address or phone number. Refresher training for existing The Officer found the man in the Law Enforcement users also continued Information Exchange (LInX) and using the “Known throughout the year. Associates” tool, he found his sister. The Officer The on-line audit process made contact with her and it turned out that he began in 2017 based on was a missing endangered person that suffered training for Security and from Dementia. He was able to be returned System Administrators home, unharmed. that was provided during 2016.

2003 - 2005 Northeast Florida Fusion Center Baltimore County, MD Police The Northeast Florida Fusion Center, co-located at the North Florida HIDTA facility, continues to have great Uses LInX to Assist in Multiple success using SE-LInX replicated data that resides on Narcotics Investigations a secure server to produce regional SAR (Suspicious Activity Reports), situational maps, and various The Baltimore County (MD) Police Department intelligence products used by participating agencies provided the following testimonial on the Law served by the Southeast LInX Region. Specific reports Enforcement Information Exchange (LInX) system: produced are shared with the FBI Joint Terrorist Task “LInX has been effective in numerous cases for my Force / Field Intelligence Group (JTTF/ FIG), NCIS entire unit as a tool for identifying drug dealers Southeast Field Office, and the MTAC (Multi Threat from limited information. We are able to use LInX Alert Center). in conjunction with other databases to corroborate information based on street names, cell phone Hawaii (HI-LInX) numbers or limited personal identifiers. Many, if not HI LInX has been a member of the all, of these investigations lead to successful arrests LInX community since 2005 and continues to be of the dealers who are typically associated with an important information sharing partner among violent crimes in the region. We use the system on a the Hawaiian Islands and with the other LInX and regular basis. LInX is by far one of the best police DDEX Regions. With the Hawaii LInX system going live investigation tools we have access to today.” in 2006, its 14 member agencies include the islands of Oahu, Maui and Kauai. HI LInX also has a web service and portal connection to the National Data Rio Grande (RG-LInX) Exchange (N-DEx). Mahalo HI LInX, for your 12-year RG-LInX has 44 member participation toward “The Road to a Billion Records.” agencies in New Mexico and the area around El Paso, Texas. National Capital Region (NCR-LInX) Since RG-LInX was initiated in NCR-LInX became a LInX Region in 2006 and went 2007, this region has grown live with just over 20 agencies in February 2007. and is currently contributing This was the first LInX Region to utilize a combination almost 33 million event records of Department of Homeland Security funding and and 1.5 million mugshots. NCIS funding to build out the region and set up the RG-LInX continues to be a system. Currently there are176 member agencies successful partnership between from Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia member agencies who within contributing over 164 million records and almost 19 the last year have utilized LInX query results, which million mugshots. This year, with the help of NCIS led to several success stories. In one submitted funding, Cecil County Sheriff’s Office and success story the user was able to rapidly connect 5 municipalities in Cecil County joined the Program. a subject of interest in a homicide investigation to a getaway vehicle and the weapon involved in two homicide investigations. Southern California (CA-LInX) As CA LInX heads into its tenth year in 2018, it continues to be one of the largest LInX Regions in terms of contribution of law enforcement records toward “The Road to a Billion Records.” CA-LInX continues to expand with a total of 94 agencies contributing over 128 million event records and over 8.5 million mugshots. New agencies include Brea PD, Carlsbad PD, Costa Mesa PD, There are just over 25 more law enforcement agencies Cypress PD, Fullerton PD, in MD/VA/DC that NCR staff hope to work with over Los Alamitos PD, Orange PD, Seal the next year to bring them into NCR-LInX. The team Beach PD and Mesa PD. has also been working on various projects to enhance the LInX system including initiating the new on-line audit capability, the LInX handheld solution, and ongoing efforts to assist in shaping the next generation of crime and advanced analytical capabilities. Their most recent project is working with the regional biometric program to test facial recognition capabilities with LInX arrest and booking photos. 2006 - 2008 North - South Carolina DoD Law Enforcement Data (LInX Carolinas) Exchange (D-DEx) The initial group of 20 agencies in The Department of Defense (DoD) 2008 has grown to 290 member designated the Department of Navy, agencies in North Carolina including Naval Criminal Investigative Service, as 86 of the 100 Sheriff’s Offices and the lead component to develop D-DEx, the 3 major state law enforcement using the existing Law Enforcement agencies. In 2011 all agencies in Information Exchange (LInX) technology. South Carolina joined LInX. Together, Following the 2009 Fort Hood Shooting, the more than 500 agencies cover efforts to share became even more nearly 90% of the population of the critical. All D-DEx law enforcement Carolinas and are contributing over agencies shown here participate 144 million event records and over and share over 5 million records of 10 million mugshots. Initially, NCIS information (mandated by DODI identified Carolinas LInX members by 5525.16.) The D-DEx Program their proximity to military installations. accomplishes several major goals: Since then, NCIS identified increased funding for additional members and * Enhances officer/agent safety, public Carolinas LInX is working to bring the safety, and force protection; program to all LE agencies in NC. * Provides situational awareness of Agencies not funded through NCIS criminal threats and enhances Law have been funded through other Enforcement interoperability; sources including DHS grants, * Provides investigative leads in criminal COPS Grants, NC State Budget cases; and Appropriations and NC State * Is DoD’s consolidated law enforcement Operating funds. North Carolina’s connection to the LInX Regions and the Legislature is the only state legislature FBI’s N-DEx system. to appropriate funding for the expansion of LInX. North and South Carolina have worked effectively to expand the impact of LInX on Northeast (NE-LInX) criminal cases and to bring this incredible investigative In 2010, the Northeast LInX Region was formed and tool to more and more LE officers across both states. the system went live in July 2011. Currently NE-LInX The Executive Committee is working to identify LInX has 56 member agencies from the states of additional funding sources to build out LInX across the Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire rest of North Carolina. and Massachusetts. The member agencies contribute over 36 million records and almost 2 million mugshots. Over the past year the program has experienced expansion with the additions of Westport, CT, Guilford, CT, and Hamden, CT PDs. In the future, in addition to expanding the program in the current states, we are also working to expand NE LInX into New York and New Jersey.

Booking Photo Found in LInX Helps Gurnee (IL) Identify An Attempted Murder Suspect

Investigators from the Gurnee, Illinois Police Department received a bulletin from the North Chicago Police Department trying to identify a suspect in an attempt murder case. The only information provided was a nickname, possible name and a picture of the suspect from social media. With that information, Investigators queried the LInX system on the possible name. The LInX query returned a subject who had a booking photo from the Chicago Police Department. This photo, along with a description of the subject’s tattoos, helped confirm this was the same subject they were trying to identify. The agency noted that, “Because of LInX, this subject was able to be identified within minutes”. 2008 - 2010 Valuable Information in a Texas Fraud Case Obtained From a California CAD Record

LInX was used by an Austin (TX) PD user to run a phone number a suspect used in a fraud case. The phone number was not tied to the suspect in any other databases they used. In LInX, it came up in a CAD call from California tied to the suspect’s name with no identifiers. They had a long list of names/identifiers potentially tied to the case but nothing to help determine which individual was responsible. They noted, “The commonality in LInX linking the number to one of the names on our list helped us determine which individual was responsible.” LInX Region’s Governance With the use of DHS grant funds, NCR-LInX and VA-LInX were the first two LInX Regions connected providing users access to data from both Regions. In 2010 all LInX Regions signed a LInX to LInX MOU and NCIS funded the connections of the other LInX Regions. Each year the Chairs and Co-Chairs of the LInX Regions meet during the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Annual Conference to discuss critical information sharing topics. Partnership with FBI N-DEx Our LInX Regions have partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since 2010 to connect law enforcement agencies to the National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Program. LInX staff work closely with N-DEx and the Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) of the FBI to ensure the system meets or exceeds the FBI CJIS Security requirements and feeds millions of law enforcement records into the national N-DEx system. LInX users have access to an additional 300 million records through N-DEx and can search in LInX to request a response of data from N-DEx or they can launch the N-DEx system as a portal. N-DEx also awards Success Stories of the Year and agencies in LInX Regions have been awarded for their successful searches of N-DEx data through LInX. Midwest (NE-LInX) Since its inception in 2015, the LInX Midwest Region has grown from 5 agencies to 36 with expansions in both Illinois and Wisconsin. While the Midwest is one of the newest LInX Regions, personnel of participating departments have already realized the invaluable resource that LInX has been to a variety of investigations to include: identity thefts, motor vehicle thefts, gang related shootings, bomb threats and homicides. Currently LInX Midwest agencies have contributed over 26 million event records and over 6 million mugshots. Federal Agencies (FED-LInX) With the help of the National Capital Region LInX and NCIS leadership, the Federal LInX Program was implemented. The system went live in March 2015 with the United States Marshals Service, the United States Capitol Police, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. FED-LInX was built to accomodate federal partners and now includes Secret Service, Border Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration, and a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Headquarters element. FED-LInX is currently working with additional DHS law enforcement sections, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) Headquarters, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to bring these agencies into the Program. Florida Regional (FLRGNL-LInX) The Florida Regional LInX Program was established in 2015 when LInX was selected to replace an existing regional data sharing system that had been formed by the domestic security task forces from North, Southeast, and Southwest Florida along with statewide law enforcement. Since joining LInX, 122 agencies have been mapped into production and are sharing almost 140 million event records and over 5 million mugshots. An additional 40+ agencies are planned to be in production by the summer of 2018. Rocky Mountain (RM-LInX) The Rocky Mountain LInX Region continues to implement a new regional data warehouse for the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium (CISC) members. The data warehouse is up and running and to date 13 agencies are sharing their data into RM-LInX. The remainder of LE agencies will continue to be mapped and shared with RM-LInX. Colorado is home to many military installations and is of great importance to the Department of Defense. Currently Rocky Mountain LInX agencies have contributed over 9 million event records and almost 75,000 mugshots. 2010 - 2016 The LInX System and How It Is Evolving

Training and Advanced Analytics Many of the LInX Regions continue to offer numerous in-class and on-line training opportunities for administrators, trainers and users. On-line training sessions for administrators completing the annual audit were conducted this year by NCR-LInX with participation by five different regions. Over the last year, the SE-LInX and NCR-LInX teams worked together on the development and delivery of targeted training sessions for users working on specialized investigations, such as Robbery, Gang and Human Trafficking offenses. Not only does this further refine a user’s skills on their investigative focus, but also satisfies the NCR LInX biennial refresher training requirement. Future goals include developing training sessions for the Domestic Law Enforcement Awareness Program (DLEAP), deploying updated Computer Based Training (CBT) modules to the LInX Regions, and updated Advanced Analytics training. In addition to new training, we are continuing to work on enhancements to the advanced analytics export tool to provide additional data and improve the functionality of exporting data from the system. This feature can by used by any Region that approves its use. NCIS is also researching the addition of a new mapping component to LInX so stay tuned. Domestic Law Enforcement Awareness Program (DLEAP) NCIS is also working to expand the DLEAP capability to include more LInX Regions. Currently the DLEAP includes D-DEx, Southeast LInX, and the National Capital Region LInX Programs. The data from DLEAP can be used to provide the capability for agencies to know when something has an actual or potential DoD nexus, or is a threat to DoD people or assets and to provide similar capabilities to the law enforcement agencies for specific concerns in their regions. What’s New in LInX LInX Handhelds/Mobile Devices Don’t forget! The LInX Regions have the ability to securely access LInX from a handheld device such as a Droid phone, iPhone, iPad, tablet, etc. Users are able to query on names, license plates, addresses, and pawned/stolen property from these devices. Work has been completed and some of the LInX Regions Governance Boards have approved its use by member agencies as long as the agencies have a handheld usage policy in place. Some agencies have added the hand held usage policy within their already existing mobile computer usage policies. Most Recent LInX System Enhancements One of the reasons users find LInX / DDEx so valuable is that it is never stagnant; there are always improvements and enhancements to query capabilities, reports and administrative functions; often based on the users’ feedback! The LInX / DDEx integrator, Northrop Grumman, managed the deployment of two releases, 5.2 and 6.0, with new features for users and administrators. The following items are select highlights; for a full list of changes, please refer to your LInX Region’s homepages. * Enhanced query results: users can now ATF Washington, D.C Uses LInX to make multiple selections for drop down menus such as eye, hair, or vehicle color. Identify Firearms Traffikers * Users can now conduct a tattoo search entering up to three criteria (previously An ATF agent using NCR-LInX was able to only one was permitted). connect relationships between straw purchasers * Users now have the ability to print the of firearms that were being trafficked to New results screen. Jersey and being used in violent crimes. The * Users can differentiate between Event agent is quoted saying “I utilize LInX on a Reports that have or have not been very frequent basis in many different facets: recently viewed. providing leads, identifying persons, and * Users now can run a ‘watch’ on a person or compiling information for my investigations. entity directly from their results and can see LInX is single handedly the most valuable tool the search criteria behind the watched person. that we have and itself is an ongoing success * Additional enhancements to the training and story day in and day out!” online audit sections of LInX. Law Enforcement Information Exchange