Government Technology - June 2008 - (Page 44)

public safety S TAT E | L O C A L | F E D E R A L j j Synopsis: A trio of Wisconsin municipal police departments assigned its task force to encrypt part of its network and upgrade to high-speed wireless. Shared Connection he cities of Middleton, Fitchburg and Sun Prairie have similar-sized populations, are almost equidistant and are on the outskirts of Wisconsin’s capital city, Madison. They also share some things that are far less obvious: an encrypted wireless network that links their police departments, a bundle of high-tech software and the joint commission responsible for it all. The MultiJurisdictional Public Safety Information System (MPSIS) task force formed four years ago to fix the police departments’ ailing records management systems, and since then it has procured high-tech tools and provided cost savings. “We consolidated a lot of what police departments need to do their job,” said Matthew Prough, the system administrator and sole MPSIS employee. Prough, whose background includes law enforcement and technology, steered the cities’ latest collaborative project: upgrading slow T1 links (in place since 2004) to highspeed wireless and encrypting part of the network’s traffic. The improvement initially presented a challenge for the MPSIS. Agency: Middleton, Fitchburg and Sun Prairie, Wis. Technologies: High-speed wireless network, encryption and records management software. Contact: Matthew Prough, systems administrator, MultiJurisdictional Public Safety Information System, Matthew. Prough@city.fitchburg.wi.us. T Wisconsin police departments stick together to upgrade their network and overcome security challenges. reconfigure. “This gives us an easy ability to establish redundancy and business continuity for our systems,” he said. Redundancy is especially important for public safety entities because a several-minute glitch could endanger people. Prough said the decision to extend the Layer 2 network out to the sites — instead of routing between them — to provide a backup network backbone often comes as a surprise to others. “My experience is that there’s a basic assumption made by people that since we have three separate sites, we route between them,” he said. Some consultants discarded the idea of a Layer 2 network, Prough said, especially when it came to encryption and backup links. Prough suspected that familiarity with routed networks was partly to blame. “But we knew what we wanted to achieve, and simple persistence and patience ultimately allowed us to achieve the results we were looking for,” he said. Segment Solution Because of the wireless upgrade, the MPSIS had to comply with Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security requirements — federal mandates for sensitive information. The requirements are compulsory for police departments, which access state and federal databases (e.g., when pulling license plate data) and information from local police departments connected by a Web-based tool called the Wisconsin Justice Information Sharing (WIJIS) Justice Gateway. Although CJIS compliance with WIJIS policy is not mandatory until 2010, any upgrade or new connection must comply immediately, Prough said. To secure the wireless network, the MPSIS turned to encryption. Of the five responses to the organization’s RFP, three offered wireless radios with built-in encryption and two offered wireless-only solutions with the option to encrypt via a third-party vendor. Going the Wireless Way When the cities looked to upgrade their network, a speedier connection wasn’t on top of the must-have list. Officials wanted the ability to extend a flat Layer 2 network out to the network’s physical locations to prevent disruptions, while also preserving the existing IP network addressing scheme. As a result, if the main Fitchburg server failed, a backup server at a different location would assume operations without the need to JUNE_08 44 BY JESSICA HUGHES | CONTRIBUTING WRITER http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - June 2008

Government Technology - June 2008 Contents Point of View The Last Mile Big Picture On the Scene Four Questions For... 3 Technologies That May Change Your Job ...And Your Life Loosening Medicaid's Grip Better Living Through Technology Immersive Itineraries Help Yourself Taking the Bait Shared Connection Up Close Spectrum Products Personal Computing signal:noise Digital Communities Contents Digital Tactics for a U.S. Recession E-Dilemma Stifling Community Innovation Leadership Interview Estonia Becomes E-Stonia If It Were Up to Me …

Government Technology - June 2008

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