The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving increasingly to risk analysis and risk-based resource allocation, a process that is designed to manage the greatest risks instead of attempting to protect everything. Efforts to develop analytical tools necessary to support this approach and institutionalize their use across the department are just beginning. In this context, DHS is exploring how existing risk-analysis tools might be useful for its Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Analysis Center (HITRAC). This RAND report presents the results of three applications of a model routinely used by the insurance industry to assess liability from terrorism risk: the Probabilistic Terrorism Model developed by Risk Management Solutions, Inc. (RMS). Informative and useful findings were taken as a positive indication that the model would be a valuable resource for HITRAC.

Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS.gov) is the national network of lessons learned and best practices for emergency response providers and homeland security officials. LLIS.gov’s secure, restricted access information is designed to facilitate efforts to prevent, prepare for, and respond to acts of terrorism and other incidents across all disciplines and communities throughout the United States.

The Information Sharing Environment Implementation Plan (ISE Implementation Plan) is a product of the requirements outlined in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The ISE Implementation Plan describes the intended actions planned by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for a future information sharing environment (ISE). The ISE Implementation Plan addresses the intended goals of the ISE, outlines the two-phased implementation approach, highlights the major information sharing challenges, and includes the conclusions and recommendations of the Office of the Program Manager Information Sharing Environment (PM–ISE). Included in this document is a description of how the PM–ISE will use the ISE Implementation Plan to manage the ISE. The recommendations cited will impact intelligence operations at all levels in the United States.

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The Justice Reference Architecture consists of four pieces: standards, services, policies, and registries. This paper provides an executive briefing on services. At its simplest, a service involves a producer and a consumer using an agreed-upon technical architecture and business rules to exchange information in support of a business process. There are technical standards and methods for specifying and complying with a number of security, reliability, and privacy provisions. If different agencies and justice associations agree on a set of architectural standards, they can incrementally build up what looks and acts like a single system, virtually without anyone being in charge.

RISS has expanded its services through the Automated Trusted Information Exchange (ATIX) to provide first responders and public safety executives and officials with access to homeland security, disaster, and terrorism information in a secure environment. RISS ATIX™ participants are designated into a specific group—including local, county, state, tribal, and federal government; law enforcement; emergency management; disaster relief; utilities; and, among others, the chemical, transportation, and telecommunication industries—based on their role. RISS ATIX combines four powerful components: RISS ATIX Web pages, RISS ATIX Bulletin Board, ATIXLive, and ATIX Secure E-Mail for participants to utilize in exchanging information.

The tools examined in this document represent the basic tool kit that the intelligence analyst will need to provide the vital intelligence service that is expected in today’s law enforcement environment.

The document Fusion Center Guidelines addresses the development of guidelines for fusion centers as well as the foundation for the development of fusion center guidelines for law enforcement intelligence, public safety, and private sector entities. These guidelines and related materials will provide assistance to centers as they prioritize and address threats posed in their specific jurisdictions for all crime types, including terrorism, and guide administrators in developing policies, managing resources, and evaluating services. The fusion process supports the implementation of risk-based, information-driven prevention, response, and consequence management programs as well as efforts to address immediate and/or emerging threat-related circumstances and events. The document also defines fusion centers and explains that the principal role of fusion centers is to compile, blend, analyze, and disseminate criminal intelligence and other information (including, but not limited to, threat assessment, public safety, law enforcement, public health, social service, and public works) to support efforts to anticipate, identify, prevent, and/or monitor criminal activity.

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The booklet Law Enforcement Analytic Standards discusses the standards created by the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA) as a result of the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP) recommendations. The analytic standards consist of 25 standards that explain the requirements of agencies to adopt the minimum standards for intelligence-led policing in order to support the development of sound, professional, and analytical products (intelligence). The standards are composed of educational standards and intelligence process standards, as well as testimony, data-source attribution, and feedback standards.

This Web site discusses the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML) Data Model (Global JXDM), which is a comprehensive product that includes a data model, a data dictionary, and an XML schema. The Global JXDM is an XML standard designed specifically for criminal justice information exchanges, providing law enforcement, public safety agencies, prosecutors, public defenders, and the judicial branch with a tool to effectively share data and information in a timely manner. Today, more than 50 law enforcement and justice-related projects have been implemented utilizing the Global JXDM.

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