Information Sharing involves the collection and dissemination of pertinent threats and criminal activity data across traditional organizational boundaries. Public safety organizations at any level of government that are either unwilling or unable to share information, compromise the safety and security of the public. Agencies lacking trained field and analytical personnel, insufficient funding to purchase sophisticated technology, and underdeveloped standard operating procedures also contribute to the problem.  

The Bay Area UASI provides grant funds to the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC), a regional component of the California State Threat Assessment System and one of 80 fusion centers nationwide, that serves as a bridge to enable collaboration and partnership across local jurisdictions and between local, state, tribal, and federal agencies. Through information sharing, analytic investigative support, criminal intelligence, and technology, the NCRIC supports law enforcement by staffing specialized expert analysts to bolster the resources available to criminal investigations that are multi-jurisdiction, complex, high profile, or otherwise require novel assistance, and achieving swifter outcomes that are more accurate.

In addition to the UASI funding the assignment of local representatives to the region’s fusion center, investing in statewide common operating picture technology, and developing and adopting policies and procedures for stronger coordination between, local, state, and federal partners, NCRIC staff are frequently deployed in support of high-profile criminal investigations:

Human Trafficking: Operation Phoenix: Operation Phoenix and Operation Cross Country to the arrest of numerous human traffickers and rescue of more than 100 victims, including minors. Operation Phoenix took down a Colombian-based sex trafficking ring that operated brothels from hotels in the South Bay, with the assistance of the Santa Clara and San Jose police departments, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, other Bay Area police and sheriff departments, the FBI, and more.

Other recent high-profile cases from the region: NCRIC staff identified and located an individual wanted for multiple sexual assaults on children; assisting local police departments by identifying a suspect who fired an exploding rocket at police officers during a riot; and identifying suspects and vehicles involved in the murder of a police officer. NCRIC analysts also testify as experts in many criminal cases, such as providing testimony that child sex abuse material on a subject’s cell phone was intentionally stored, viewed, and distributed - the result was 15 year imprisonment.