FBI Set To Turn Up Advanced Security Search Engine

coondoggie writes "The FBI says it is set to roll out is N-DEx search engine and information sharing program to a wider swath of the federal, state and local law enforcement community. The FBI has been developing N-DEx since 2008 and says that once this latest round of development is complete, law enforcement agencies will be able to search, link, analyze, and share information such as case reports on a national basis to a degree never before possible, the agency stated."

Comments

Finally?

[RazzleFrog]

Shouldn't something like this have existed 10 years ago? I understand it takes time to collect the data that goes into it but the engine itself? Be interesting to see if it turns any isolated murder cases into serial killer cases.

Re:Finally?

[trollertron3000]

Well in fairness to the FBI they had a huge project failure under SAIC called the Virtual Case File project. That failure most likely impacted this roll out significantly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Case_File

Re:Finally?

[TrisexualPuppy]

Shouldn't something like this have existed 10 years ago? I understand it takes time to collect the data that goes into it but the engine itself? Be interesting to see if it turns any isolated murder cases into serial killer cases.

...Or that arrest that you had at age 19 when you were living across the US and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. A crowd goes rowdy, the cops arrest everyone, and you can't get a job because you were arrested. Makes it kind of hard for those who have made a few mistakes here and there to ever leave something in the past.

Also, as I understand it, this information was more or less available to begin with. Now the FBI makes it a lot easier for LE to hassle you for nothing or to do a mass witch hunt.

You don't tend to think about these things until you've actually been in LE...

Re:Finally?

[mangu]

You don't tend to think about these things until you've actually been in LE..

I don't know why, but I feel worried when someone who has been in law enforcement picks the username "TrisexualPuppy"

Re:Finally?

[TheGratefulNet]

employers do a 'background check' on you these days. its as damned invasive as they are willing to pay for.

And not to be outdone in Redmond...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the Bing team announced they would copy the results...

Ability Greater Than Zero

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

>search, link, analyze, and share information such as case reports on a national basis to a degree never before possible

Since their current ability is essentially zero, this goal should not be too tough to achieve. Although given past failures, they could still manage to screw it up.

Prevent wikileaks

[failedlogic]

One would hope that with such a powerful system in place, there would be safety measures to prevent a Wikileaks type incident with the investigation information. I would also hope extensive background checks are done on the people that have access to this information. With police corruption at hand and perhaps organized crime paying its way into departments, this seems like an ample opportunity for org. crime to influence the local PD to see if they have an FBI file or find out what's in their rival's FBI files.

Hang On.

[TENTH SHOW JAM]

Wikileaks + google = FBIs new search engine?

Re:Remember how a Gov Data Base used to Scare peep

[Locke2005]

Sorry, the many people whom it still scares can't hear you, what with their tinfoil hats covering their ears and all...

Re:Compensate for incompetence with technology.

[DurendalMac]

Illegal? [citation needed]. This is a shared database for law enforcement, you tinfoil twit. It's to allow federal to local agencies to share data, which means a lot less digging and waiting around for records when the cops are trying to catch a serial killer. Do you even THINK about this sort of thing or do you just kneejerk the moment you see "federal" and "database" in the same story?

Cops stalking ex-girlfriends, etc.

[billstewart]

There's already so much misuse of existing police databases that gets reported in the press, and presumably a lot more that doesn't. Some of it's cops stalking ex-lovers, or cops doing a "favor" for somebody to help them stalk somebody (with or without bribes attached to the favor), in ways that are blatantly illegal. Some of it's cops helping their friends in more-or-less-organized crime find out who's after them, or find business partners who are snitching or otherwise about to become ex-partners. Some of it's motor vehicle clerks helping people get their papers in order after driving while intoxicated or driving while speaking Spanish. Some of it's politicians trying to find out about other politicians, or trying to find out what other politicians can find out about them.

Lots of opportunity for Bad Stuff to happen here.