Privacy and Civil Liberties Protections for Information Sharing Practitioners Implementation Project

Efficient and effective sharing of information between and among justice agencies and their partner organizations is at the heart of today's efforts across the nation to protect public safety. This grant funds a program to assist federal agencies and other participants with implementing the document titled "Information Sharing Environment Privacy Guidelines." The guidelines are designed to achieve the dual goals of increasing terrorism-related information sharing while ensuring that privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties are protected. The program allows privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties professionals and law enforcement practitioners to work together on various efforts to protect the rights of Americans as expressed in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The project is a collaborative effort between the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Office of the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE). NCA/NCF

This program was initally funded under the Edward Byrne Memorial Competitive Grant Program (Byrne Competitive Program) and the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. Authorized by Pub. L. No.112-55, div. B, title II, 125 Stat. 552, 615, the Byrne Competitive Program helps communities improve the functioning and capacity of their state and local criminal justice systems and provides for national support efforts including training and technical assistance programs strategically targeted to address local, state and tribal needs. The JAG Program (42 U.S.C. 3751(a) et seq.) is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions, and JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system.

The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and under the leadership of the Office of the Program Manager, Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE), will support coordinated policies, standards, promising practices, technical assistance, and technology solutions for use by federal agencies and nonfederal entities, including the private sector, in the area of protecting privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties (P/CRCL) in the ISE. IIR will further the efforts of BJA, the PM-ISE, and other ISE mission partners in the ongoing implementation of the ISE Privacy Guidelines. This level of effort will also focus on the provision of guidance on P/CRCL issues to key ISE initiatives, such as implementation of the Compliance Review Self-Assessment, the development and implementation of a framework for streamlining the development process for terrorism-related information sharing agreements, the provision of subject-matter expertise to support the development of an ISE P/CRCL core curriculum, and a host of other functions and activities to support the mission processes of the PM-ISE and cooperatively achieve successful program delivery.

NCA/NCF