Homeland Security and Law Enforcement present is a very complicated service with numerous challenges and risks presented to all levels of government. It is not only the terrorist attacks but also the natural disasters and other crises that impact day-to-day operations, our lives, and our wellbeing. Government and industry need to respond with an integrated and collaborative strategy to combat the impact and will require updated, sophisticated...

Embracing Digital Agility and Digital Transformation are of paramount importance for the DoD given the rapidly evolving cyber, technology, and threat environments. When IT is implemented correctly it can greatly improve security, resiliency, and usability ensuring high value and effectiveness on the investment. Unfortunately, adopting new paradigms and approaches across the larger DoD enterprise is not easy; requiring coordination of cultural...

In October 2020, DOJ announced a policy that permits state and local officers on DOJ Task Forces to wear and activate BWCs when the use of force is possible - while serving arrest warrants, executing other planned arrest operations, and during the execution of search warrants. On June 7 2021, based on recommendations from the Department's law enforcement components, the Attorney General directed the Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, To...

The role of Chief Information Security Officer is important making security is front and center in protecting organizations in a post SolarWinds and Log4j world. As the need to share information between different agencies with both connected and disconnected applications increases, agencies need to think beyond DevSecOps and Zero Trust. Existing approaches to building software and the use of automation need to be reevaluated. The Department of...

When the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Act became law at the beginning of 2021, it added resources and high level support for the government’s expansion of its pilot AI projects into large scale applications. A new AI Initiative Office was created at the White House to provide policy guidance and help speed the use of AI to leverage government data. The Government Accountability Office published its Federal AI Accountabilit...

This month’s AI in Government featured guest speaker is Brett Vaughan, Chief AI Officer (CAIO) and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) AI Portfolio Manager at the US Navy! AI is proving an essential technology to enhance and accelerate modern militaries. It should come as no surprise then that the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research is looking into AI applications to enhance and optimize areas related to AI assisted human decision ma...

Two years after the White House issued an executive order creating a national strategy for artificial intelligence, agencies are moving past pilot projects and are looking for the next level of AI in government. Although some of the most visible projects are at NASA, DOD and IRS, many agencies are working on developing AI projects that support services, improve mission effectiveness and decision making and automate repetitive tasks. There is a...

Whether it's delivering better care for veterans, transforming internal business processes to make federal employees more effective and efficient, or improving the citizen experience on federal websites, digital government aims to enable better government. New tools and technologies are an essential part of these efforts, but the true transformation takes place in the analog world -- rethinking business processes, changing the workplace cultur...

The Federal Data Strategy's action plan was reworked in response to the COVID-19 crisis, while state and local governments are simultaneously expanding health data initiatives and looking for more cost-effective data solutions. Add in the growing importance of data-intensive cyber threat detection and the broad potential of AI and automation, and it becomes clear: Agencies' data challenges are evolving rapidly, and a solid data strategy is mis...

Emerging technologies offer the promise of better, faster, cheaper processing and problem solving, but they also bring the possibility of bias, security breaches and new privacy issues. Most agencies are experimenting on a small scale and testing out standards on privacy and security. Workforce also has been a concern as emerging tech matures—both to ensure displaced workers are reskilled and to make certain the job classifications are a...