NCJ Number
220215
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 55 Issue: 7 Dated: July 2007 Pages: 65-68
Date Published
July 2007
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses the national database that the State of Florida created and utilizes.
Abstract
The 2004 National Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act cited the lack of information sharing between intelligence agencies as a key contributor to the 9/11 tragedies and called for the creation of a national database that could process, analyze, and share information on a local, State, and Federal level. In response to the commission’s findings, the State of Florida created a working group that consisted of numerous sheriff’s offices, municipal police departments, State agencies, and the University of Central Florida’s Public Safety Technology Center. From the working group, the Florida information Network for Data Exchange and Retrieval (FINDER) was created. FINDER was primarily developed by Michael Reynolds, an associate professor of criminal justice at the University of Central Florida (UCF). FINDER allows police chiefs and sheriffs throughout the State to electronically monitor information regarding suspects, suspicious vehicles, and stolen property. In 2005, FINDER earned a Homeland Security Award from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation who “encourages and supports research, study, and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind.”