Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS)

The Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Program is composed of six regional centers that share intelligence and coordinate efforts against criminal networks operating across jurisdictional lines. Typical targets of RISS activities are terrorism, drug trafficking, violent crime, cybercrime, gang activity, and organized criminal activities. Each of the RISS centers, however, selects its own target crimes and the range of services provided to member agencies.

The RISS Program is a federally funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. RISS serves over 6,700 member law enforcement agencies in 50 states, Canada, the District of Columbia, Australia, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, England, and Puerto Rico.

The vast majority of member agencies are at the municipal and county levels, but over 400 state agencies and over 870 federal agencies are also members. The Drug Enforcement Administration; Federal Bureau of Investigation; U.S. Attorneys' Offices, Internal Revenue Service; Secret Service; Customs; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among the federal agencies participating in the RISS Program.

Alliance Software's Role

Alliance Software develops and maintains an application that allows RISS member agencies nation-wide to share criminal intelligence data. As an example, a police officer in Iowa could use the application to search for a gang member, and turn up matches from a Drug Enforcement Agency database in Washington. In addition, we have participated in an international effort to develop an XML-based specification for interchange of criminal justice and public safety information.