Operational Data Stores
There are two main types of databases in use by public safety and justice agencies: transactional databases, at the heart of CAD, Records and other systems; and data warehouses. Transactional databases are designed for responsiveness - getting the data in and working with it in a particular context. Data warehouses are designed for slicing and dicing the data for analysis - often long-term, statistical analysis rather than real-time decision making.
Typically, when a police officer needs data a federated query is performed against all participating system's transactional databases. Each database is different, of course, and each is optimized for being a CAD or Records, etc., transactional database.
An Operational Data Store (ODS), on the other hand, is designed to get at the data for informational and real-time decision making. If data is already flowing through a system, as it is in Geneva, then no federated queries are necessary if an optional Geneva ODS is installed. A Geneva ODS has a Gateway, just like all the other connected systems, and it subscribes to data exchanges, just like all the other Gateways. Consequently, no federated queries are necessary. Information requests can be sent to the Geneva ODS, a database designed solely for the purpose of providing real-time information to police officers, firefighters and other public safety and justice professionals.
NIEM Based Schemas
Whereas NIEM is designed for data exchanges and is hierarchical in structure, databases are designed for storage and retrieval and are relational in structure. However, NIEM provides the industry with schemas and names for many commonly used entities, such as persons, locations, etc. There are also many reference IEPDs from organizations such as IACP/LEITSC, the FBI, etc., that provide widely applicable and used definitions of more specific entities such as service calls, units, arrests, warrants, etc.
Geneva ODS schemas are based on NIEM and on these reference IEPDs. A user who has worked with NIEM data will immediately be able to understand and work with the ODS.
Below are examples of optional Geneva ODS's currently available.
Master Index
Geneva's Federated Law Enforcement IndeX (FLEx) is designed to be a cross-system master name, master location, master organization, master phone and master everything index. Responding to a location? Find out its history before arriving on scene. Have a suspect? Get his or her history right away.
Many systems participating in a federation already have master indices. But those master indices aren't connected, though many situations, subjects, etc., cross jurisdictional boundaries. Geneva's FLEx can give officers the information they need to formulate all-important links in a federated system.
Status ODS
What's going on in your area? Where are the police, sheriff or fire calls right now? Where are your units and those of other agencies in your, or neighboring, jurisdictions? What's the state of the roads? The power grid? Where are all the on-duty SWAT team members?
Geneva's Status ODS is designed to answer all those questions in real time. It is also designed to allow you to replay history as it can provide complete status snapshots for any instant in the past (or, if you are worried about keeping too much past history around Geneva allows you to keep as much or as little history as you want).
The NIEM-based Geneva Status ODS is primarily based upon the entities and data defined by IACP/LEITSC in IEPDs such as DetailedCFSInformation and UnitStatusUpdate.
Law Enforcement ODS
For those who need more than a set of master indices, a Law Enforcement ODS is often the right answer. Fusion centers, intelligence, even officers on the beat.
The NIEM-based Geneva Law Enforcement ODS implements the entities and data defined by the FBI in their National Data Exchange (N-Dex) Incident/Arrest and Incarceration/Booking/Probation/Parole IEPDs.