Failure to Communicate

Gilmartin also says the department is building a data warehouse, which he would not detail. Data warehouses serve as a single, unified repository of organizational data. Either in batches on a regular schedule or in real time as transactions are committed, data is extracted from multiple databases and loaded into the warehouse, where it can be poked and prodded without database administrators having to worry about the integrity of the original information.

That mound then becomes a perfect tool for a big organization looking for patterns in seeming unrelated data.

"We're looking to file the information in that database in such a way [that] it's readily accessible for crime analysis and planning, in the field as well as in headquarters," says Gilmartin, who contends the data warehouse could be up within a year.

As Gilmartin aims to increase the data sharing within his department, he's also looking for ways to speed the information flow between the NYPD and state and federal agencies. Right now, the main NYPD data connection with the state is through the New York State Police Information Network, a New York state repository of motor vehicle information that's linked up to the FBI's National Crime Information Center. The NCIC is a computerized index of information on wanted and missing persons, gang members, and members of terrorist organizations, as well as stolen cars, boats, guns and securities.

There are some other information channels, such as the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) that the FBI has set up with the NYPD and numerous other police departments. But the communication between these organizations happens over the phone or in person, limiting the scope and speed of the information sharing. While the New York Police and the bureau have been working under the JTTF banner for 20 years, the NYPD long has had a problem communicating with the FBI. This, even though the bureau routinely will trail fugitives and other criminals into one of the city's five boroughs.

The problem surfaced publicly in late September. The news operation of the National Broadcasting Co., which is based in midtown Manhattan, received letters thought to be laced with anthrax. After the first one, NBC called the FBI. About a week later, a second letter arrived at NBC's Rockefeller Center offices. This time, NBC security personnel called the NYPD.

An NYPD team arrived on the scene and, according to Kerik, learned about the first letter "sort of by accident." One of the network's staffers casually mentioned that they had received an earlier anthrax letter. Kerik was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe the FBI wouldn't share this information with the commissioner of the New York Police Department.

"We didn't know about it," he says. "Had [the FBI] sent us something, or told us, or called us, or something, the second one would have never happened. We'd have picked up on it."

"One of the worst kept secrets in law enforcement is the chronic lack of communications between federal and local authorities," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in a December opening statement before a Courts Subcommittee on information sharing. "This problem was never clearer and never more threatening than when anthrax was discovered at the NBC Studios in New York. The FBI knew about it for days. But they failed to tell the NYPD. And it's quite possible that because of that lack of communication, steps that could have been taken to protect the public, weren't."

Other officials around the country have their own FBI data-sharing challenges.