Using Coplink to Analyze Criminal-Justice Data

A s information technologies and applications become more overwhelming and diverse, persistent information overload problems have become ever more urgent. Fallout from this trend has most affected government, specifically criminaljustice information systems. The explosive growth in the digital information maintained in the data repositories of federal, state, and local criminal-justice entities and the spiraling need for cross-agency access to that information have made utilizing it both increasingly urgent and increasingly difficult. Incompatible content and information formats often create barriers to data access and utilization that make knowledge management a complex and daunting process. Nevertheless, numerous applications and approaches to knowledge management technologies have emerged, including aerospace engineering, virtual enterprising, joint ventures, and digital libraries. Several initiatives have been established to address the problems facing digital government’s law enforcement sector. Five bureaus, including the National Institute of Justice, are working together through the Office of Justice Programs Integrated Justice Information Technology Initiative to develop ways to use wired-information technologies to improve the effectiveness and fairness of the justice system through better information sharing. NIJ’s Office of Science and Technology developed the Agile program and other government initiatives (http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov) primarily to address interoperability issues. These initiatives motivated a proposal to develop the Coplink project, which unites the technical expertise of the University of Arizona’s Artificial Intelligence Lab with the Tucson Police Department’s law enforcement domain knowledge. Coplink serves the community by bridging the gap between conducting research in cutting-edge technologies and solving real-world problems such as helping police officers fight crime.