Law Enforcement in the Cloud
Many governmental groups are partnering with private companies to safely manage IT operations and host data, so that they can focus public resources on serving and protecting the public. Partnering with a managed hosting company helps to achieve operational efficiencies that alleviate tight government budgets.
With a staff of IT and security experts, Secure-24 helped InterAct Public Safety (formerly EJustice Solutions) host its specialized public safety software. In addition, Secure-24 helped to protect data and meet stringent compliance for judicial and law enforcement organizations.
Law Enforcement Software Provider Turns to Secure-24 for Managed Hosting and Compliance
With the rapid growth and accessibility to public information, municipalities need utmost security measures for their record management and IT information systems. In addition, specialized industry regulation and compliance are increasing for municipal IT organizations that manage law enforcement and judicial data.
A partnership between Michigan-based Secure-24 Inc. and InterAct Public Safety (formerly EJustice Solutions) serves as an example of how software companies and managed hosting providers can team up to offer optimized IT services for police agencies, courts, and prisons.
Growing Software Business through Private-Public Partnership
Over the past 16 years, EJustice Solutions and its law enforcement experts developed and refined a software system that manages the end-to-end public safety process for law enforcement, jail management, and court operations.
In September 2011, InterAct Public Safety acquired EJustice Solutions and the company’s flagship SaaS product, EJustice Online. Now called InterAct Online RMS, the SaaS specialized online law enforcement management software is secure and accessible through an Internet browser. It allows officials to enter and receive data in real-time, anytime, anywhere to deliver valuable and actionable information at the point of enforcement.
The software customers range from small municipalities to large metropolitan law enforcement agencies and military agencies, including the U.S. Navy. As the software company grew organically and then transitioned through an acquisition, it needed higher levels of hosting capabilities beyond its own in-house servers.
In its search for a hosting partner, the software company needed a model that could deliver software-as-a-service on an Oracle Platform in a secure private cloud environment with the highest level of security and redundancy. They turned to Oracle Platinum Partner Secure-24, due to the company’s managed hosting and cloud services, as well as its state-of-the art data centers.
“With the current economic environment and decreasing tax revenues, a lot of agencies are reducing funding for law enforcement which is negatively impacting the ability of public safety organizations to protect the public. By partnering with Secure-24, we offer a revolutionary cloud model to the public safety sector. We operate services in a cloud model, which can be highly scalable and drive cost down significantly,” said Mike McGarry, Senior Vice President and General Manager at InterAct Public Safety.
“This is a rare win-win-win. We decrease the cost structure for public organizations and at the same time provide higher levels of service and security,” said McGarry.
Stepping Up for Law Enforcement Compliance
In order to retain customers and grow, InterAct Public Safety needed to be in full compliance with the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy requirements.
The CJIS Security Policy is published by the FBI in partnership with the CJIS Advisory Policy Board (APB), which is composed of representatives from state and local law enforcement agencies. The objective of the CJIS Security Policy is to provide appropriate controls to protect the full lifecycle of Criminal Justice Information (CJI). The CJIS Security Policy provides guidance for the creation, viewing, modification, transmission, dissemination, storage, and destruction of CJI data.
This policy applies to every individual—contractor, private entity, noncriminal justice agency representative, or member of a criminal justice entity—with access or operational roles in support of criminal justice services and information.
When InterAct Public Safety was faced with an onsite CJIS audit by the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS), Secure-24 fully participated as a private entity.
“It is standard business for Secure-24 to step up for customized compliance audits. We operate like our clients, and compliance is a regular part of doing business,” said Brett Powers, Security Officer-Architect at Secure-24.
“What we were able to do for them is run all our engineers through background checks with the FBI, both state and local, and we partnered with them to do this. A lot of companies and service organizations wouldn’t be able to do that in the time frame that they needed. They have very stringent timelines to get this done, and we met their needs,” said Powers.
In June 2011, Secure-24 went through the onsite audit of the hosted application, services and data center facilities. The auditor found the InterAct Public Safety operation to be in full compliance with the CJIS Security Policy requirements (version 5.0).
This achievement was the result of many months of concerted efforts by InterAct Public Safety and Secure-24. Since then, InterAct Public Safety added more agencies to its client list and is now working on marketing the newly branded SaaS solution to nationwide organizations with similar needs in law enforcement data management.
For more information on how Secure-24 can help you reduce IT costs and gain agility, Contact Us or call us at 800-332-0076.
