RISS has been in operation for approximately 30 years providing services to support the investigative and prosecution efforts of law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. RISS was founded in response to specific regional crime problems and the need for cooperation and secure information sharing among law enforcement agencies.

Today, RISS is a national network comprised of six multistate centers designed to operate on a regional basis.

• This regional orientation allows each center to offer support services that are tailored to the investigative and prosecution needs of member agencies, though the centers also provide services and products that are national in scope.
• RISS membership and the commonality of RISS services foster interagency cooperation and criminal intelligence products that are national in scope and significance.

The mission of RISS is to support law enforcement efforts nationwide to combat illegal drug trafficking, identity theft, human trafficking, violent crime, terrorist activity, and to promote officer safety.

Traditional support services provided to law enforcement member agencies are:

• Information sharing resources
• Analytical services
• Loan of specialized investigative equipment
• Confidential funds
• Training conferences
• Technical assistance

RISS operates a secure intranet, known as RISSNET™, to facilitate law enforcement communications and information sharing nationwide. RISS local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement member agency personnel have online access to share intelligence and coordinate efforts against criminal networks that operate in many locations across jurisdictional lines.

The RISS Program is a federally funded program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Each RISS center must comply with DOJ, BJA Program Guidelines. Information retained in RISS criminal intelligence databases must also comply with the Criminal Intelligence Systems Operating Policies (Federal Regulation 28 CFR Part 23).

The Director and policy board chairperson of each center compose the RISS National Policy Group, which has direct control over the policies and operations of the secure nationwide law enforcement communications and information sharing network (RISSNET™) and related resources.

Since inception, RISS membership has grown to serve over 8,100 law enforcement and criminal justice agencies representing close to a million sworn officers around the globe. Membership includes local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement member agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, Australia, Canada, and England. Agencies must join their regional RISS center through an application process established by the center.

RISS history includes many achievements and successes in aiding member agencies to share information and combat multijurisdictional crime problems. A few milestones are mentioned below.

In 1997, RISS implemented RISSNET. Today, many resources are available for electronic access by member agencies. RISSNET resources include online access to RISSIntel, RISSGang Program, RISSLeads, RISSSearch, RISSLive, RISSLinks, RISS center Web pages, secure e-mail, and RISSafe. Member agency officers must obtain a security package and enroll on RISSNET.

During 1999, RISS began expansion of RISSNET to electronically connect state and federal law enforcement agency systems as nodes to provide additional resources to all users. As of May 2008, 18 High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, 30 state agencies, and 17 other federal and regional systems have an established node connection to RISSNET.

In September 2002, the FBI Law Enforcement Online (LEO) system interconnected with RISS. In October 2003, the RISS/LEO interconnection was recommended in the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan (NCISP) as the initial sensitive but unclassified communications backbone for implementation of a nationwide criminal intelligence sharing capability. The NCISP encourages agencies to connect their system to RISS/LEO.

In April 2003, RISS expanded its services and implemented the Automated Trusted Information Exchange (ATIX), to provide additional users with access to homeland security, disaster, and terrorist-threat information. RISS member agencies as well as executives and officials from other first-responder agencies and critical infrastructure entities can access ATIX.

In 2006, responding to the recent resurgence of gang-related criminal activity, RISS expanded the RISSGang Program to include a national gang intelligence database, Web site, bulletin board, secure e-mail, and numerous tools and resources regarding gangs and gang activities. The RISSGang Program is available to member and nonmember criminal justice agencies.

RISS has also developed RISSafe, an officer safety event deconfliction system. The purpose of the RISSafe application is to store and maintain information on planned law enforcement activities. Used in conjunction with a mapping system, upcoming events are posted and monitored for potentially dangerous conflicting law enforcement operations. If a conflict is identified, immediate notification to the submitting officer occurs, as well as notification to the conflicted officers. RISSafe will make a significant contribution towards enhancing officer safety and supporting criminal investigations.