City of Austin, Texas, Selects i2 for Fusion Center Implementation

AUSTIN, Texas, July 13 /PRNewswire/ -- i2, the leading provider of intelligence and investigation software, announced today a contract award with the city of Austin, Texas, to provide a complete suite of crime analysis and information sharing solutions to the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC).  ARIC joins more than 50 percent of fusion centers across the U.S. that rely on i2 products to help prevent and disrupt terrorist and criminal activity.  Once i2 platforms are implemented, ARIC analysts and officers will have access to a repository of data from 10 law enforcement agencies that can be leveraged for strategic and tactical purposes.  

"The planned deployment of COPLINK and i2 products by customers including ARIC are part of what we envisioned when i2 and Knowledge Computing Corporation merged last year," said Robert Griffin, CEO, i2.  "ARIC will bring together a set of tools that its law enforcement partner agencies can use to sift through large amounts of data from disparate sources, create actionable intelligence and disseminate it to all the right levels at the right time."

ARIC is a collaborative effort of 10 Public Safety Agencies in Hays, Travis and Williamson Counties. Its mission is to maximize the ability to detect, prevent, apprehend, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.  ARIC will analyze information and disseminate actionable intelligence used to address an "All Crimes" public safety perspective in a manner that exceeds applicable state and federal regulations regarding privacy.

Under terms of the contract, i2 will provide ARIC with an end-to-end system that includes:

• COPLINK – a tactical lead generation and information sharing platform used by 80 percent of the major police departments in the U.S.  Modules to be deployed include:
  • Base Module – Drawing from existing crime data, the module will provide ARIC personnel with the ability to identify associations among different persons, organizations, locations, vehicles, firearms, property, security, phones, events, documents and pawn records across multiple jurisdictions.
  • Incident Analyzer –The application will assist law enforcement in uncovering and instantly responding to criminal patterns based on known crime investigative facts identified through spatial and temporal analysis.
  • Activity Correlation Technology (ACT) – The key technology will aid ARIC personnel in monitoring suspicious activities around specified critical infrastructure such as nuclear power plants, water treatment facilities, schools and hospitals in multiple buffer zones.
• Analyst's Notebook – ARIC intelligence analysts will have the ability to pull crime data from disparate sources to help visualize and tell a story, such as identifying other persons of interest that could help close a case or open an additional investigation.
• iXa Search Service – The search service will increase analytical productivity for ARIC intelligence analysts by automating and accelerating the lengthy research process of capturing, enriching and collating crime data.
• COPLINK Analysis Search – ARIC crime analysts will have the capability to instantly access and analyze the criminal data from Hays, Travis and Williamson counties as they work to prevent and solve crime in the Austin metropolitan area.  

The ARIC project team is composed of representatives from the Austin Police Department, Hays County Sheriff's Office, Travis County Sheriff's Office, Williamson County Sheriff's Office, Austin Independent School District Police Department, Georgetown Police Department, Round Rock Police Department, Pflugerville Police Department, San Marcos Police Department and the University of Texas at Austin Police Department.

Fusion centers, such as ARIC, were created following the 9/11 attacks as a joint effort between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to ensure and facilitate collaboration and information sharing between local agencies, across state lines, and between the state and federal levels, with a particular emphasis on preventing and responding to terrorist and criminal activities.  Though many of the country's fusion centers have developed independently and remain different in size and scope, they share the same mission of protecting citizens against criminal acts and activities. The widespread adoption of i2 platforms will contribute to this effort by providing across-the-board consistency and unprecedented information sharing capability.  

About i2

i2 is the leading provider of intelligence and investigation solutions for defense, national security, law enforcement and commercial security. Over 4,500 organizations in 149 countries rely on the i2 Intelligence-Led Operations Platform to proactively deter, prevent, predict and disrupt the world's most sophisticated criminal and terrorist threats. i2 started the intelligence revolution in 1990 and continues to lead the industry in innovation with products like Analyst's Notebook® and COPLINK®. These solutions enable public safety officers, analysts, managers, detectives and investigators to uncover hidden connections faster, deliver timely and actionable results and communicate complex situations more clearly than ever. For more information, please visit www.i2group.com.  Follow i2 on Twitter @i2group and read the i2 blog iConnect.

SOURCE i2