PROJECT: IOWA INTEGRATED JUSTICE

(formerly named Criminal Justice Information System, or CJIS)

DESCRIPTION:

Iowa Integrated Justice (IIJ) is a centralized, seamless data sharing system that moves secure messages between Iowa’s local, county, and state agencies in real time. IIJ was created as “CJIS” in 2007 out of a need for various state computer systems to be able to communicate with one another.

The goal of Iowa Integrated Justice (IIJ) is for data to be entered only once, and then shared automatically with other agencies that need the same data. IIJ increases efficiency and improves public safety.

IIJ has received national awards for excellence and has helped make Iowa a national leader in criminal justice information sharing. IIJ has become a part of Iowa’s daily critical infrastructure, and it continues to grow as more exchanges are developed. IIJ requires steady maintenance and updates. As state agencies replace and update legacy computer systems, IIJ must also update the exchanges moving in and out of those systems.

In 2025, IIJ made an important decision to move to the Cloud. For many years, IIJ resided on servers on the DPS network. A combination of factors prompted the IIJ migration from hardware to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) including expensive hardware reaching end-of-life, occasional issues and outages on the DPS network, and the opportunity to save money while also modernizing our technology system. The IIJ migration to OCI was completed in November of 2025 and the legacy system was decommissioned. This move will save money and lead to greater system performance and stability.

WHO WE SERVE:

All 99 counties receive a benefit from IIJ. The system has grown to include data exchanges between 10 state-level agencies including:

1. Judicial Branch

2. Department of Management (DOM)

3. Department of Corrections (DOC)

4. Department of Public Safety (DPS)

5. Department of Transportation (DOT)

6. Department of Natural Resources (DNR)

7. Secretary of State

8. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

9. Office of the Attorney General (AG)

10. State Public Defender (SPD)

IIJ serves 72 County Attorney offices, as well as nearly every law enforcement agency in the state, including:

The Iowa State Patrol 99 county sheriffs 256 local city police departments, 3 university police departments, 3 railway police units, one airport police unit, the Meskwaki Nation police department, the Iowa State Fair police, and Veterans Affairs police.

IIJ serves these officers by delivering 33,000 traffic citations and 16,000 criminal complaints from law enforcement agencies to courts and county attorneys every month.

PROGRESS OF WORK:

IIJ is represented by the lines in the diagram below. The Judicial Branch (shown as Court) is either a sending or receiving agency in 20 of the 25 data exchanges that IIJ currently maintains. IIJ is the secure bridge connecting the Judicial and Executive Branches to improve the services these agencies provide to Iowans.

IIJ builds exchanges that provide efficiency and expediency to Iowa agencies, such as:

• Delivering Hearing Orders from the Courts directly to the calendars of County Attorneys in 72 counties

• Delivering Notices and Case Information from the Courts directly to Public Defenders who have been appointed on a case

• Delivering Case Outcomes (Dispositions) from the Courts to DPS so that DPS can keep its Computerized Criminal History complete and current

IIJ also builds and maintains exchanges that are critical to the safety of Iowans, such as:

• Immediately delivering signed Protective Orders from the Courts to DPS

• Returning instant information from DPS, DOC, and the FBI about a person/suspect, including a photograph, when an officer runs a query

• Sending mental health orders and other firearms prohibitors from the

Courts to DPS, where DPS in turn sends that information to the FBI as part of its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)