REPORT FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL – HONOLULU – Hawaii’s Integrated Justice Information Sharing (HIJIS) program was recently recognized on the national stage by the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Executive Director, Ms. Donna Roy, and members of the NIEM Executive Steering Council. NIEM connects government-wide agencies who share a common need to exchange information in order to advance their mission. The State of Hawaii was awarded the 2013 Best of NIEM award for its leadership and collaboration on the Open Justice Broker Consortium along with Maine and Vermont.
The Department of the Attorney General and its HIJIS program is leading the way in justice information sharing in the State of Hawaii. HIJIS is governed by its participating agencies and at the core of the program is the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center (HCJDC), which serves as the Center of Excellence.
HIJIS recognizes that while the goals of different state agencies operating within the juvenile, criminal, and probation areas may be different, there is a great deal of overlap in the kind of information these agencies collect and use. Through an automated information exchange, developed by the HIJIS team, HIJIS has enabled Hawaii’s criminal booking system, probation and parole case management systems to share information on a near real-time basis. This means that, for example, probation and parole officers will receive near real-time notice if one of their clients has been re-arrested anywhere in the State. Prior to this innovation, agency information sharing may have taken several days.
Attorney General David M. Louie said that the “Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center (HCJDC) has demonstrated exemplary initiative and leadership. The HIJIS program is a national leader in developing ways to share information securely and efficiently, both statewide and nationally, and in ways that will improve public safely and homeland security, while respecting the privacy of citizens.”
As a result of Hawaii’s innovation, the state of Vermont has been able to extend its capability to share this critical data in less than a month. Hawaii and Vermont are part of the Open Justice Broker Consortium, which seeks to share ideas and technologies that support the exchange of critical information within the justice and public safety communities.
Other Best of NIEM recipients include the City of Richmond, Department of Information Technology Public Safety Team, the U.S. Navy Data Engineering Services Center, the New York State Justice Center and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
More information about NIEM award winners can be found here:
https://www.niem.gov/aboutniem/events/best-of-niem/Pages/best-of-niem.aspx