Safeguarding Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers

RISSafe and the RISS Officer Safety Website

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, more than 19,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have lost their lives in the line of duty. It is estimated that on average, one officer is killed every 53 hours.

RISS recognizes the importance of ensuring the safety of all law enforcement officers, which is why we developed the RISS Officer Safety Event Deconfliction System (RISSafe) and the RISS Officer Safety Website.

What is RISS?
The Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) is a nationwide information sharing and investigative support program composed of six regional centers that provides secure communications and investigative services to thousands of state, local, federal, and tribal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies as well as public safety agencies in the U.S., Australia, Canada, England, and New Zealand.

RISSafe
Conflict between agencies can arise when officers unknowingly investigate or pursue the same suspect at the same time in close proximity to each other. Officers may interfere with each other’s cases, causing investigative efforts to be disrupted or, worse, unintentional harm to officers and others. The RISSafe application allows authorized agency officers or staff members to securely track and share operational information to warn officers of these potential conflicts.

Currently, 17 regional RISSafe Watch Centers monitor operations and events in the U.S. When the application identifies a conflict, an audible and visible alarm alerts the Watch Center, causing a staff member to notify all appropriate agency contacts. 

RISSafe is available to all law enforcement, and can be accessed directly on a 24/7 basis by any law enforcement agency officer with a RISSafe access account, or by contacting a RISSafe Watch Center. Since RISSafe’s inception, more than 353,000 events have been entered into the application, resulting in more than 113,000 identified conflicts.

RISS Officer Safety Website
The RISS Officer Safety Website provides information on all threats to officer safety, including Armed and Dangerous Subjects and domestic terrorist organizations in addition to training material.

All law enforcement can access the RISS Officer Safety Website through the use of a RISSNET user account, or by accessing RISSNET through a federated partner system such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Law Enforcement Online (LEO). We are working toward the goal of providing access through a Simplified Sign-On (SSO) approach.

RISSafe and the RISS Officer Safety Website have been recognized as important components of the U.S. Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Officer Safety Initiative. Those resources, along with the other components of the Attorney General’s program, including the VALOR Program and Bulletproof Vest Partnership, are integral in helping to create a safe environment for our officers. RISS is working with the VALOR Program to enable authorized VALOR Website users to access the RISS Officer Safety Website via a federated identity approach.

For more information about the RISS Program and for contact information at each RISS Center, please visit www.riss.net. For information on accessing RISSafe and the Officer Safety Website, please contact your in-region RISS Center.

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