NIEM Newsletter
NIEM Year in Review: Looking Back and Looking Forward
The National Information Exchange Model (www.niem.gov) Program was launched on February 28, 2005, as a partnership between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). For the next two and one-half years, NIEM experienced a rapid development phase with several releases and homeland security and justice pilot projects conducted at the federal, state, and local levels.
The release of NIEM 2.0 in July 2007 marked a significant turning point as NIEM transitioned from a pilot project to an operational program. This change brought on new opportunities and challenges as federal, state, and local jurisdictions and agencies nationwide began aggressive programs to adopt and use NIEM. This article looks back at NIEM’s progress one year after the NIEM 2.0 production release and looks forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead .
Looking Back
Adoption and use are the litmus tests for NIEM’s success, and NIEM’s first year as an operational program has seen widespread adoption of NIEM. In support of the National Strategy for Information Sharing (www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/infosharing/NSIS_book.pdf), the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE) (www.ise.gov) has adopted NIEM as the data-layer standard within the Common Terrorism Information Sharing Standards (CTISS) program (www.ise.gov/pages/ctiss.html). NIEM is the basis for operational exchanges in the Terrorist Watchlist Person Data Exchange Standard (TWPDES).
Both DHS and DOJ have adopted NIEM. DHS has incorporated NIEM into its Enterprise Architecture and has established a comprehensive program to ensure adoption and transition of its information sharing systems to NIEM. All of the major mission components within DHS are using or preparing to use NIEM in the next 6–12 months. The DOJ Law Enforcement Information Sharing Program (LEISP) Exchange Specifications (LEXS) includes a set of NIEM-conformant components that are being used for many law enforcement information exchanges at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels, including the FBI National Data Exchange (N-DEx) system (www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/ndex/ndex_home.htm). The FBI has also selected NIEM for its SENTINEL case management system and plans to migrate exchanges for the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) nationwide information system to NIEM. The N-DEx system is expected to comprise more than 200,000 users engaged in NIEM-based exchanges.
While NIEM adoption at the federal level has met and exceeded expectations, the rate of NIEM adoption at the tribal, state, and local levels has been no less impressive. Many states and local governments have initiated programs to assess and adopt NIEM for information exchange—not only within law enforcement, public safety, and antiterrorism operations, but also for transportation, health and human services, and education, to name a few. The Florida Law Enforcement eXchange (FLEX), the Texas Path to NIEM, the Consortium for the Exchange of Criminal-Justice Technology (CONNECT), New York City’s Corrections and Health and Human Services initiatives, and state fusion center developments are just a few examples of the vast number of state and local initiatives assessing NIEM and developing NIEM exchanges. In the coming months, NIEM News will feature NIEM Adoption and Use Case Studies involving these and other NIEM initiatives at the federal, tribal, state, and local levels.
NIEM Information Exchange Packages (IEPs) are the foundation of NIEM’s business value as an enabler for nationwide information interoperability and sharing. Broad adoption with collaborative sharing of adoption and use experience, best practices, lessons learned, IEP Documentation (IEPD) reuse, and cooperative development IEPDs for nationwide information exchange are critical for achieving the full potential of NIEM. Since the release of NIEM 2.0, there has been a groundswell of IEP development. There are now more than 70 NIEM IEPs registered in the GJXDM/NIEM IEP Documentation (IEPD) Clearinghouse (www.it.ojp.gov/iepd/). In addition, the DHS has more than 50 IEPDs, most of which are in development or operational.
NIEM is serving as an enabler and a catalyst for cooperative development of information exchange standards. One of the most successful NIEM cooperative developments was the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) IEPD [NIEM News, 2/1/08]. The SAR IEPD development was a cooperative effort involving 11 federal agencies, 9 state agencies, 5 local agencies, and 9 nonprofit associations; this development initiative was also exposed to more than 200 private industry firms with active participation from more than 15 companies. In recognition of the success of the SAR development, the SAR program was selected as a finalist by The American Council for Technology for its 2008 Intergovernmental Solutions Awards.
The PM-ISE is leading the SAR Operational Study Pilot involving fusion centers in three states: Virginia, New York, and Florida. Based on findings from the Support and Implementation Project, sponsored by the Major City Chiefs Association, PM-ISE has approved an expansion of the SAR Operational Study to include up to nine major cities, leveraging the ISE-SAR Functional Standard and the NIEM SAR IEPD as its data model.
As more agencies initiate NIEM programs, keeping pace with the demands for NIEM training and technical support have been a major challenge. The NIEM Program Management Office (PMO) has sponsored more than 20 training events in the past year. The training program has been totally revamped to better meet NIEM stakeholder needs, and online delivery options are being developed to streamline and expedite the training process (www.niem.gov/training.php). The National Information Sharing Standards (NISS) NIEM Knowledge Base and Help Desk have expanded capabilities to meet the increasing need for NIEM technical support, including deciphering and relaying conformance issues from the NIEM User Guide. The team is well-versed in using the full set of NIEM tools, from the Subset Generation Tool all the way down to the Mapping and Migration tool set.
Not surprisingly, NIEM’s rapid adoption has caused some growing pains; limited resources have been a continuing challenge. Relief was provided, in part, by the NIEM Fellowship Program, which brought three full-time committee support managers on board in January [NIEM News, 1/16/08]. With the Fellows in place, there has been a revitalization of the three NIEM standing committees: the NIEM Technical Architecture Committee (NTAC), NIEM Business Architecture Committee (NBAC), and NIEM Communication and Outreach Committee (NC&OC) [NIEM News, 5/30/08]. These committees provide the principal means for broad-based, participative governance of the NIEM Program.
Looking Forward
The NIEM Program expects to see continuing growth in IEPD development in the coming year and will continue to expand support to the IEPD developer community. As more and more NIEM IEPs are deployed in operational systems, the program will also expand support to the IEP implementer community. With the rapid pace of NIEM adoption and use, the NIEM program anticipates more industry products and services providing support for NIEM, which will further increase the NIEM value proposition. It is expected that new domains will join the NIEM Program, and there will be expanded collaboration across federal agencies and with international partners.
The NIEM baseline products, including NIEM tools, will be improved and expanded to increase capability and ease of use while preserving stakeholder investments in NIEM. The NIEM Program will continue to improve and expand the NIEM best practices and lessons learned Knowledge Base and Help Desk support services, as well as NIEM outreach and training.
Within the next few months, the NIEM PMO will be publishing several document revisions and new documents to support NIEM domain managers and developers and IEPD developers, including a revision to the NIEM Naming and Design Rules, a new NIEM User Guide, and other documents on NIEM quality assurance, NIEM domain governance and versioning, and other topics of interest to NIEM stakeholders.
As NIEM enters its second year as an operational program, we will undoubtedly face new opportunities and challenges. A key strategy in leveraging these opportunities and meeting these challenges is to engage the NIEM stakeholder community, particularly developers and system integrators developing and deploying IEPs in operational systems. With this in mind, the NIEM Communications and Outreach Committee (NC&OC) recently convened a NIEM focus group composed of technologists with hands-on IEP development and implementation experience. The focus group addressed three questions:
- What are NIEM’s strengths?
- What are NIEM’s weaknesses?
- What changes are needed to sustain and expand NIEM’s usefulness in enabling nationwide information interoperability and sharing?
The focus group identified numerous strengths and a wide range of issues needing resolution to move NIEM forward. Several high-priority issues were identified in the areas of NIEM value proposition, NIEM architecture and model content, NIEM conformance, IEPD development and implementation best practices and lessons learned, training, domain governance, and NIEM tools. The focus group findings and recommendations will be the subject of an upcoming NIEM News article.
James "Patrick" McCreary's BJA Justice Information Sharing Team Selected as 2008 Finalist for Service to America Medals
James "Patrick" McCreary's team was honored as one of 29 finalists selected from nearly 500 nominations for a Service to America Medal. They were selected for their achievement in developing "the capability to connect law enforcement databases, with broad information sharing uses that include improving Amber Alerts and supporting the National Sex Offender Public Registry." "The … Medals are important because they tell the true stories of the remarkable work that our federal employees do each and every day. There is not a day that passes where government does not touch our lives in some way — whether it is stopping the spread of disease, combating fraud and corruption, or protecting our environment," said Max Stier, Partnership for Public Service President.
NIEM Adoption and Use: Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) Case Study
“Alabama is proud of our participation in the NIEM Policy Academy. The enhanced level of information available to law enforcement and fusion center personnel that result from these efforts will help protect the safety of citizens in Alabama and beyond.” —Maury Mitchell, ACJIC Director
This case study highlights the successful development of two NIEM 2.0-conformant Information Exchange Package Documents (IEPDs) and electronic data transmission involving the N-DEx subset of Uniform Crime Report (UCR) incident/offense and arrest data and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) data, through the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC).
Challenge
The ACJIC intrastate UCR Local Template for Reporting and Analysis (ULTRA) was developed prior to the establishment of NIEM 2.0 as the national standard. Additionally, ACJIC’s intrastate Secure Homeland Access and Reporting Environment (SHARE) must be complemented by the amount of SAR information that it collects and has been limited by the amount of information that gets entered by law enforcement and private sector security personnel.
Solution
The funds appropriated to ACJIC through the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) were used to ultimately develop two NIEM 2.0-conformant Information Exchange Package Documents (IEPDs) and to transmit data for sharing Alabama’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data with other states through N-DEx and Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) data generated by Alabama law enforcement agencies and private security personnel with fusion centers located in other states.
Results
Results include the ultimate creation of two NIEM 2.0-conformant IEPDs.
Featured FAQ
Am I required to use NIEM?
Possibly, depending on where your project falls within an agency, program, or funding authority. NIEM is a requirement for all DHS and DOJ grant-funded projects that include an information exchange function. NIEM may be a requirement for other procurements as specified in the Request for Proposal (RFP). Agencies and components at various levels may mandate NIEM for certain exchanges within and/or across organizational boundaries. You may also be required to consume and produce NIEM-compliant exchanges with agencies that have adopted NIEM or with systems that are NIEM-conformant, e.g., the FBI’s Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) system. NIEM capability is also being incorporated into an increasing number of vendor products that will offer off-the-shelf support for NIEM-conformation exchanges.
NIEM Clearinghouse Update
Total IEPDs Submitted in Current Month
6 (NIEM) and 1 (GJXDM)
Total IEPDs Submitted Year to Date (YTD)
49 (47 NIEM and 2 GJXDM)
Total IEPDs Posted
139 (71 NIEM and 68 GJXDM)
Summary of IEPDs for June
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (IEPDs related to law enforcement agency queries including HotFile)
- Minnesota HotFile Confirmation/Response and LEMS Integration IEPD
- Minnesota Warrant Service IEPD and Integrated Search Service IEPD
- Minnesota Unsolicited Law Enforcement Messages IEPD
Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts
- Court Case Event (CCE)
Texas Department of Public Safety, Crime Records Service (SAR)
- Suspicious Activity Report developed for the Texas Path to NIEM project
Ohio Department of Public Safety (basic incident information from police RMS to court system—currently under development)
- Public Safety Incident Package version 1
National Center for Forensic Science, University of Central Florida (Digital Evidence Markup Language Exchange [DEML] IEPD)
- The Digital Evidence Markup Language Exchange (DEML) is designed to provide law enforcement agencies with a common set of exchange specifications to share digital evidence information
Updates on IEPDs
FBI (Law Enforcement National Data Exchange [N-DEx] updates on two IEPDs—Incarceration/Booking and Incident/Arrest information)
- Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Incarceration/Booking Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) v. 2.0.0 beta1 (based on NIEM 2.0 and LEXS 3.1.1)
- Law Enforcement National Data Exchange (N-DEx) Incident/Arrest Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) v. 2.0.0 (based on NIEM 2.0 and LEXS 3.1)
State of Connecticut, Criminal Justice Information System
- IEPD0001 CT Criminal Justice Information System DMV Endorsement Offender Match
Upcoming NIEM Trainings
- August 12–14, 2008, Dallas, Texas—Texas DPS
- August 19–21, 2008, Clark County, Nevada—Clark County IT
- September 16–18, 2008, St. Paul, Minnesota—Minnesota CriMNet
- September 23–25, 2008, Ashburn, Virginia—National Training
- November 4–6, 2008, Montgomery, Alabama—State of Alabama