Justice Department Allots Funding for Data Sharing Improvements

The Department of Justice has unveiled more than $12 million worth of new grants for data and information sharing projects involving law enforcement agencies at state and local levels and other government agencies. The goal of the new funding round is to improve crime reduction rates.

According to a press release from the DOJ, U.S. territories and jurisdictions will benefit from the updated information sharing systems. Some of the use cases that the department cited for the funding are jail administrative record data collection, crime-related statistics data sharing improvements and juvenile court case records accessibility improvement.

Individual projects could receive funding worth between $500,000 and $4.5 million, Nextgov reported.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Amy Solomon said in the press release that the investment will support data infrastructure development across the country and will improve the justice system.

The new funding round comes as the Justice Department started allocating more resources for data sharing across international borders. In early December, the U.S. and Australia entered into a partnership to share criminal data to reduce crime. The partnership is an extension of the 2018 Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act.

The Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Institute of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and other DOJ offices contributed to the funding round.