The Global JXDM and NIEM information exchange standards are revolutionizing the way data is shared between justice agencies around the country. By providing a common ground for data exchanges, these standards have the potential to greatly increase law enforcement and criminal justice efficacy by arming professionals across the justice domain with the most accurate and up-to-date information.
This white paper will introduce the Global JXDM and NIEM data exchange standards and explain their potential for helping disparate agencies within the criminal justice community to communicate more effectively with each other.
Information is crucial to the decision-making capabilities of agencies at all levels of the criminal justice community. Whenever a judge makes a sentencing decision or a correctional official decides to release or hold an individual, their judgement relies on information collected and shared between multiple agencies and jurisdictions. Their success depends on the availability, timeliness and accuracy of the information that they are provided with.
Complications in information sharing arise, however, from the fact that agencies commonly utilize different technical terminology to describe and record identical events. For example, one agency may use “Burglary,” another “125.34,” and another “BUR” to describe identical charging information. This lack of a common vocabulary can cause confusion when information is shared between agencies, and can greatly increase the amount of time it takes to interpret and process data.
In addition to this lack of a common terminology, agencies frequently develop or invest in software independently of one another. While these software packages usually have very similar functionality, they are often vendor-dependant and platform-dependant and are unable to communicate with one another. Without a means to send and receive data electronically, justice agencies often have to resort to archaic and extremely inefficient methods of delivering information, such as sending hard copies of reports via the postal service. While it is possible to create an interface for two disparate software systems, it requires an in-depth understanding of both systems, as well as a large investment of time, money and other resources. Even when such interfaces are created, they are extremely inflexible and only serve as a one-time solution. If updates are necessary or if new data exchanges need to be facilitated, the interface usually needs to be entirely redone.