The Air Force has launched a new, up-to-date computer system that will allow it to report criminal data, replacing an older system that dates back to the 1990s.
The new $5.7 million Air Force Justice Information System was rolled out in phases, and went live for all security forces units, including those in the Reserve and National Guard, Oct. 31, said project leader Lt. Col. Sandra Thompson in a release from the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center. The first case was uploaded to the system, which was developed in 10 months, at the end of September.
The Air Force in 2017 began looking for a system to replace its ’90s-era Security Forces Information System, and conducted a cost-benefit analysis that year.
But the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas — in which a former airmen killed 26 people and wounded 22 more — prompted the Air Force to accelerate its procurement of the new system, Air Force spokesman Robert Leese said in an email Monday.
In 2018, a scathing Pentagon investigation found the Air Force could have prevented the shooter, Devin Kelley, from buying the weapon used in the massacre if investigators had followed proper protocol and submitted his fingerprints and information on his assault conviction to the FBI.
“The modernized system will allow for the application of analytical tools required for trends analysis, automated workflows and alerts when cases meet [the National Instant Criminal Background Check System] reporting thresholds and ensuring fingerprints and DNA are collected and processed,” Leese said.
Experts at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland have been testing its case management and global blotter modules, and are giving feedback to the team and vendor that developed the system, the Air Force said.
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“The rapid launch of this system is unprecedented in the world of IT,” Thompson said in the release.
Thompson’s team worked with the Army, Navy and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations to replace the at least two decade-old Security Forces Management Information System.
“This is a monumental step in the modernization of [the] security forces criminal data reporting system, providing a centralized hub of criminal data reporting, automatic flagging of federally reporting of offenses, providing installation breach tracking and criminal data reporting trends, and … predictive analytics,” Master Sgt. Elizabeth Sadler, who led the efforts to develop the system, said in the release.
Thompson also said a recently stood-up Air Force Criminal Justice Information Cell will help the service with its long-term criminal data reporting requirements.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
