This study reports on strategic planning activities supporting the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in the area of information technology, collecting and analyzing data on law enforcement needs and offering potential solutions through technology assessment studies, extensive outreach and liaison activities, and subject matter expert panels. Strategic planning will help NIJ make the best investments to leverage its limited funds and help the range of technology developers supporting law enforcement better understand the law enforcement community's needs and priorities. By looking across the top-ranking needs, the authors identified 11 crosscutting themes in total. These themes are further grouped into three overarching keynotes — a broad need to improve the law enforcement community's knowledge of technology and practices, a broad need to improve the sharing and use of law enforcement--relevant information, and a broad need to conduct research, development, testing, and evaluation on a range of topics. The latter category includes research on both the "nonmateriel" side of technology, including policy and practices, and more traditional technical development.
