WHEREAS, law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and the world need the ability to identify, analyze, and, most importantly, share critical criminal and terrorism-related information to effectively address violent crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, and other emerging criminal acts; and

WHEREAS, the Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Program is composed of six regional centers (the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network, the Mid-States Organized Crime Information Center, the New England State Police Information Network, the Regional Organized Crime Information Center, the Rocky Mountain Information Network, and the Western States Information Network) that serve the unique needs of their regions while working together on nationwide initiatives and the RISS Technology Support Center (RTSC); and

WHEREAS, RISS provides investigative support services to more than 150,000 participants and users in more than 9,200 criminal justice agencies at the local, state, federal, and tribal levels in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, England, New Zealand, and parts of Canada; and

WHEREAS, RISS links thousands of criminal justice agencies through secure communications and provides information sharing resources and investigative support services to combat multijurisdictional crimes, including violent crime, gang activity, illegal drug trafficking, terrorism, human trafficking, identity theft, cybercrime, and other regional priorities and emerging threats; and

WHEREAS, RISS operates the RISS Secure Cloud (RISSNET), which connects disparate systems nationwide and enables users to conduct federated searches for public safety information, providing immediate information to law enforcement officers in the field; and

WHEREAS, RISS provides valuable investigative and officer safety resources such as the RISS Criminal Intelligence Database (RISSIntel), the RISS Officer Safety Event Deconfliction System (RISSafe), the RISS National Gang Program (RISSGang), the RISS Automated Trusted Information Exchange (RISS ATIX), the RISSLeads Investigative Website, the RISS Master Telephone Index, the RISS Money Counter Project, the RISS Property and Recovery Tracking System (RISSProp), the Drug Pricing Reference Guide, and other investigative websites and resources; and

WHEREAS, RISSafe dramatically enhances officer safety by storing and maintaining data on planned law enforcement investigative events, with the goal of identifying and alerting nearby law enforcement agencies and officers of potential geographical conflicts to help avoid friendly fire tragedies; and

WHEREAS, the RISS Centers respond to thousands of technical assistance requests from law enforcement agencies and officers; provide access to millions of critical intelligence and investigative records; provide analytical and digital forensics products in support of investigators and prosecutors to help identify, detect, and apprehend suspects and enhance prosecutorial success in court; conduct thousands of database searches and research, which result in access to information by law enforcement officers that they otherwise might not have had access to; support fusion centers nationwide to connect systems to RISSIntel; and offer training opportunities. Now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) acknowledges the RISS Program as indispensable to local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement efforts against crime and terrorism and officer and citizen safety and strongly urges the United States Congress to fully fund the RISS Program.

Submitted by: Individual Member

Co-sponsored by: Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs Committee

IDV.10.19