5 states get grants to improve info sharing

The National Governors Association (NGA) has awarded $50,000 grants to five states to help improve their justice information-sharing systems.

With the financial assistance, the five states – Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, New York and North Carolina – will be able to use the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language Data Model, which is a specific standard designed for public safety agencies, courts and other criminal justice organizations to exchange information in a timely manner.

In North Carolina, the grant will help fund facial-imaging technology, enabling agencies to send and receive digitized images of driver’s licenses, missing or wanted individuals, and prison escapees for authentication or verification.

Iowa officials will use funds to exchange information between county attorney’s offices participating in the Iowa County Attorney Case Management pilot project and other criminal justice organizations regarding operating-while-intoxicated charges, according to an NGA press release.

Minnesota will develop a standard statewide incident-based reporting system with the funds.

Through support from the Justice Department, NGA awarded six states – Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – similar grants last year. Those awards were the basis for this year’s expanded program.