The Joint Regional Intelligence Center provides an open space for analysts and investigators to communicate. In the rear are three of the many “multimedia boards” that are used to present information to representatives from multiple agencies.
Intelligence work is serious business, but that doesn’t mean law enforcement personnel don’t like their toys. In the rear, the projector shows the news map, a tool that uses Google News to display the most-reported stories on the Net.
A typical workstation at the Joint Regional Intelligence Center. Many of the PCs are Dell, while the monitors come from ViewSonic and the telephones come from Cisco Systems. The printer is a Hewlett-Packard. In the background, the news map tool projected on the wall to gauge which news stories are biggest.
Six flat-panel televisions suspended from the ceiling display various TV news stations, including Arab channel Aljazeera in the top-right corner.
Richard Diaz (left), captain, and Gregory Hisel, battalion chief, represent the Los Angeles County Fire Department at the Joint Regional Intelligence Center.
JRIC personnel chat in front of a giant display of Los Angeles area air traffic.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff addresses the media after a short tour of the Joint Regional Intelligence Center, JRIC, in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk.
Stanley Salas, a section chief at JRIC and a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. “Technology is fun, but we could do this on index cards if we had to do it and had the right information,” he said.
Bill Detwiler is the Editor for Technical Content and Ecosystem at Celonis. He is the former Editor in Chief of TechRepublic and previous host of TechRepublic's Dynamic Developer podcast and Cracking Open, CNET and TechRepublic's popular online show. Previously, Bill was an IT manager in the social research and energy industries. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisville, where he has also lectured on computer crime and crime prevention.
