Proceedings of the 2005 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium Ellen J. Bass, ed. ABSTRACT The primary barrier to comprehensive crime analysis in United States is a lack of information sharing between law enforcement agencies. A particularly egregious form of this problem is the failure to share spatial data. This situa- tion prevents geographically and functionally connected agencies from performing cross jurisdictional analysis. The Department of Systems and Information Engineering at the University of Virginia is working in partnership with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to create a solution to this problem; the Geospatial Repository for Analysis and Safety Planning (GRASP). GRASP is a web application that serves as an online spatial data repository and utilizes geographic information system (GIS) technology to facili- tate data sharing among law enforcement agencies. The system provides verified users the ability to view and share spatial data over the Internet in a secure environment. Since its inception, the GRASP system has gone through many changes in design and functionality. This year, the focus was on evolving from a previously central- ized system to a distributed design architecture. The team modified the system to be distributable by installation CD- ROM. Furthermore, the capstone team replaced the previ- ous proprietary translation software with an open source software to eliminate any licensing fees associated with adoption of GRASP. In addition, security options for GRASP users were added. The product of this year’s work is a largely non-proprietary, decentralized GRASP system, modified to be distributed by installation CD to law en- forcement agencies around the country. 1 INTRODUCTION In the past, the process of sharing data between different jurisdictions has been inefficient and has hindered effective crime analysis. Approval of data release and the physical mailing of data can take several days. Additionally, differ- ent jurisdictions store data in different formats, further ex- acerbating the problem of information sharing (Jones, Patek, & Tawney, 2004). These impediments to efficient information sharing increase the difficulty of catching criminals who often move through different jurisdictions. Through GRASP, law enforcement agencies now have an efficient means of sharing spatial data. GRASP is a web-based system that serves as an online spatial data re- pository and utilizes GIS technology to facilitate data shar- ing among crime and safety agencies. Users, primarily law enforcement agencies, participate in GRASP by registering and uploading data. Participants gain full access to the publicly data stored in the database. GRASP also contains various security features to enable users to upload, download, and store their data securely. Most importantly, GRASP has the ability to translate data between different GIS formats (Jones et al., 2004). Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is “a com- puter-based system that stores and manages information or data as related to a geographic area” (Thompson, 2000). More simply, GIS data, or spatial data, is data in the form of electronic maps. The advantage of GIS data is that it provides information on a specific geographic point or area of interest (Thompson, 2000). Because crime data often is in the form of multi-layered GIS, spatial data is especially important in the field of crime analysis. One problem for GIS users is that multiple, incom- patible data formats now exist. Incompatible data formats have hindered GIS data sharing. To alleviate this problem, some software companies have developed commercial software that translates data between different GIS formats. Unfortunately, the licensing fees for these commercial software packages are expensive. Alternatively, many open GIS consortia have developed software packages that translate between different formats. Unfortunately, one of the most prominent and persis- tent problems with GRASP is the lack of participation by law enforcement agencies. Due to security issues, many FACILITATING INFORMATION SHARING AMONG LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES: IMPROVING THE GEOSPATIAL REPOSITORY FOR ANALYSIS AND SAFETY PLANNING Stephen Cheung Andrew Daly Jeremy Lam Justin Pan Brian Smith Donald Brown Jason Dalton Department of Systems and Information Engineering 151 Engineer’s Way University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA 22903 U.S.A. Ronald Wilson National Institute of Justice Crime Research Mapping Center 810 7 th Street Washington, D.C. 20531 U.S.A.