In the past, electronic databases had been developed to help investigators, but these were information-gathering tools only, and added overhead to the investigative process without a great deal of benefit. They did summarize data and provide valuable statistics that previously had been calculated by hand, but this benefited the OSI's supervisors more than it did the individual investigators.

I2MS was designed to provide benefits to the investigator in the field on a daily basis. Like previous systems, I2MS summarizes data for commanders at higher levels. But the usefulness of the data goes beyond this. When an investigator enters information in the central database, that data is visible to other agents halfway around the world almost immediately after it is entered. People are entered into the database, but if you try to enter a person that already exists, there are checks to tell you so. People also can be 'related' to different people or organizations, allowing links to be created and easily seen by other investigators.

There are many different 'activity' objects in I2MS, providing the building blocks of an investigation. The investigation details are also captured in I2MS. The end output from the completed investigation is a detailed report suitable for legal use. I2MS produces this with one push of a button.

I2MS has the ability to record arrest data, track the location of evidence gathered, and store photos, fingerprints, maps, and other electronic documents. The number of hours that have been worked can be recorded for different activities. Notifications can be made when something special happens. For example, if another investigator adds a note to an interview activity that you created, you will see an email telling you this. An investigator can look at the details of a suspect, and from there discover details about a separate investigation of an incident that took place last year involving this suspect. As the system is used, the benefits will increase because there will be more data to share.

If you want to read more on the I2MS system, check out our White Paper