The Lee County Sheriff’s Office recently connected to the Florida Law Enforcement Data Sharing Consortium. The Consortium is a statewide system that allows law enforcement to share information instantaneously. It’s used to track criminal activity and strengthen homeland security say’s John Cali, Director of Information and Technology at the Sheriff’s Office.

“If something is stolen, we have somebody that we capture in a burglary situation and we run his name and we find out that he, in another county had a couple of other accomplices, you know and are those accomplices now over here in our county, so it’s just a way of helping the detectives look at data and analyze data from other places to help them solve crime.”

The Data Sharing Consortium started when law enforcement agencies in two neighboring counties realized they had a suspect stealing property in one county and then selling it in the other. The program has been built and maintained through a partnership among Florida’s Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the University of Central Florida, and state and local government.