IAC names top Excellence.gov projects
Connecting state and local government leaders
The Justice Information Sharing system is the first non-federal project to be named a top finalist.
District of Columbia police officers now can find information on potential suspects with a quick keystroke, including photographs, pictures of tattoos or other distinguishing marks, prior arrest and conviction records, and whether they have an upcoming appointment with a parole officer or other city law enforcement agency.
Using the Justice Information Sharing (Justis) system, police officers, the federal and local court systems, and other law enforcement agencies are integrated on one online system to more easily find and use data.
Justis earned a place among the top five projects today during the Industry Advisory Council's Excellence.gov awards ceremony. This is the first time IAC has honored a nonfederal project as a top-five finalist.
IAC named 20finalists in January and recognized all of them today at a luncheon in Washington and named the top five projects.
'When I'm asked, 'How can the government drive effectiveness?' I say we need to deliver better information to citizens or decision-makers,' said Clay Johnson, the Office of Management and Budget's deputy director for management and the keynote speaker at the event. 'These 20 projects are wonderful examples of this.'
The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council started work on Justis in 1998, implemented it in 2002 and has upgraded the application three times, including in January 2006, officials said.
'We needed a system that would connect at whatever capability the agencies had at the time,' said Richard Catalon, IT liaison officer for the council. 'Now it gives real-time information to everyone.'
Nancy Ware, the council's executive director, said 22 federal and city agencies now use Justis, which consolidates and integrates data from more than 70 systems.
'It really is a search engine that reaches into other agencies' databases with the correct security rules,' said Brook Hedge, a judge with the D.C. Superior Court.
Along with Justis, IAC honored as top-five projects:
- The Disaster Management.gov project from the Homeland Security Department
- The E-Rulemaking e-government project from the Environmental Protection Agency
- The Federal Aviation Administration's Knowledge Service Network
- The Veteran Affairs Department's MyHealtheVet.
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