*   Appropriation
** President's Budget

Skilled Personnel. The Department of Justice has a skilled, dedicated and diverse workforce. Maintaining such a high-quality workforce is critical to mission success, especially in this era of rapidly changing technologies.

The development of training and education strategies for an aging, diverse and dispersed workforce continues to present challenges that the Department is attempting to meet in several ways. Statistical data have shown that the Department's population, like that of the federal sector in general, is aging. The baby-boomers at all levels will be reaching full retirement age within the next 5 to 10 years. In a continuing effort to ensure that qualified, well-trained individuals are ready to step into the breach, several initiatives, short and long term, are currently underway.

The Personnel Staff of the Justice Management Division has developed and will be refining, training for supervisors, managers, and executives. With a view toward succession planning, the Staff has partnered with the Department of Labor on its Senior Executive Service (SES) seminars and developed and produced at least ten in-house seminars on issues ranging from budget to technology for executives. In the coming year, Personnel will look to expand those partnerships to at least two other federal agencies and offer a growing range of in-house seminars. As the curriculum is developed, training will be specifically tied to the Executive Core Qualifications for the Senior Executive Service.

In partnership with other components of the Justice Management Division, expansion of the Department's e-learning/intranet/Internet training capabilities will be explored and implemented, where feasible. Currently, the Department is seeking to expand intranet/Internet information with additional data on training, links to public and private sector opportunities, and increased awareness. Additionally, to date a series of introductory training sessions have been conducted utilizing the latest in e-learning technology. Further steps will be taken to determine the feasibility of departmentwide implementation. The goal is to streamline the learning process, provide just-in-time training at the desktop, and be able to better manage all training at remote locations, thus saving on travel time and dollars. This is particularly important in the law enforcement community.

Technology. The technology initiatives listed in Table 5 provide an overview of the types of forward-looking investment that will enable the Department of Justice to interact electronically with state and local governments, our federal partners, and the public. Improving and strengthening this capability depends on building and maintaining a secure infrastructure that protects the integrity and privacy of the information that we use and share every day. The Justice Consolidated Network and the Justice Wireless Network together with the development of a Public Key Infrastructure will help us to make e-government and e-commerce a reality across the Department.

Over the next five years, we will continue to exploit new ways of replacing paper-based systems with electronic transactions. We will identify ways to help span the "digital divide" to assure that no one, including people with disabilities, is left behind in the Information Age. We are currently developing our short and longer term strategies for increasing our Internet presence, restructuring our information dissemination in functional rather that organizational formats, and conducting departmental business on-line. These strategies will be integrated into the Department's Government Paperwork Elimination Act (GPEA) plan. Equally important, we are continuing to develop and implement electronic systems to better serve the public such as UNICOR's on-line sales to federal customers, the Grants Management System serving state and local program partners, and the INS's revamped web site providing on-line, public access to program information and forms.

With this strengthened information and technical infrastructure, we will have vastly improved capabilities for providing agents and staff information access at the desktop. Networks and systems such as Global, Firebird, and eFBI will assure adequate security and privacy protections using the latest technology regardless of where the data is stored around the world. We will meet cybercrime with cyber-capability. Increasingly, the Department's business will be conducted electronically using the web to access and disseminate information securely while continuing to build and support the major law enforcement systems that are needed to ensure public safety. Major law enforcement information systems such as the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the National Crime Information Center, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the Combined DNA Index Systems, and eFBI, provide the processing power for maintaining critical day-to-day support to the local, state, federal, and international criminal justice communities 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, year-in and year-out.

 

TABLE 5 KEY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVES
Components	Initiative
BOP	UNICOR On-Line Sales UNICOR is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and offers on-line sales of furniture, office supplies, industrial equipment, linens and clothes to government customers through the Internet.
DEA	Firebird Firebird will dramatically improve timely access to investigative information on a standard desktop, provide the capability to search and share investigative case information, and support document management including interfaces to legacy systems. Drug Diversion Control Secure Web Services The Drug Diversion Control Secure Web Services IT pilot program is a joint undertaking with the Department of Veterans Affairs to test electronic transmission of prescription data between physicians and pharmacists using Public Key Infrastructure technology.
FBI	CODIS The Combined DNA Index System will enable the FBI to store and search many millions of DNA samples on behalf of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies across the country. This capability significantly enhances the FBI's ability to support criminal justice needs at the federal, state, and local levels. eFBI eFBI will provide advanced analytical processing of investigative and intelligence information and document management to the agent in the field along with a new enterprise wide database and infrastructure. Systems of Systems The System of Systems integrates the operation and maintenance of three major, interconnected criminal justice systems (the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System, the National Crime Information Center 2000, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System) to best meet the many needs of diverse local, state, federal, and international law enforcement communities.
INS	WeB Access The INS continues to improve customer service by providing on-line access to the most up-to-date information about immigration services and the agency. The new Forms, Fees and Fingerprints information center is just one example of how this web site assists individuals and families to apply or petition for benefits offered by the INS.
JMD	Global Justice Information Network The Global Justice Information Network will provide a single interface to criminal justice information systems at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels that were not designed to share information. Joint Automated Booking System The Joint Automated Booking System will improve the timeliness of federal offender identification at the time of booking and streamline offender processing through the criminal justice system by eliminating redundant data collection and facilitating information sharing among the participating agencies: DEA, FBI, INS, USMS, EOUSA, and JMD. JCN The Justice Consolidated Network will provide increased bandwidth across the Department to support new technologies and, at the same time, decrease costs through consolidated and leveraged purchase of communications services. Public Key Infrastructure Public Key Infrastructure is a departmental initiative to support e-government and e-commerce through the adoption of interoperable technology(ies) that will permit the authorized, verified, and secure exchange of private information along with the capability to provide electronic signatures. Wireless The Justice Wireless Network will provide secure, accessible wireless services to law enforcement personnel across component organizations through centralized management and funding of land mobile radio systems and commercial services.
OJP	Grants Management System The Grants Management System is a web-based information system serving state and local governments by supporting the administration of federal grant solicitation, application, and award to local and state grantees and the administration of all ongoing grants.
USA	Victim Notification System The Victim Notification System will permit the Department to improve its capability to provide victims of crime with timely notification of case events, to promote their participation in the criminal justice process, and to increase data sharing between agencies reducing data entry effort and error.