Washington, D.C., May 3, 2022. The IJIS Institute is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 annual IJIS Institute Awards. Catherine A. Miller is the recipient of the Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award. Recipients of this year’s Thomas J. O’Reilly Innovation Award included Prince George’s County, Maryland, in collaboration with Motorola Solutions and Mission Critical Partners. The Georgia Department of Community Supervision and Axon received the Corrections IT Recognition. These three awards were presented at the IJIS Institute’s National Symposium’s 20-Year Anniversary and Award Reception on May 3, 2022, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award – Catherine A. Miller is the National Capital Regions (NCR) Law Enforcement Information Exchange (LinX) Program Manager for Montgomery County (MD) Police Department and has immensely contributed to the improvement of public safety technology over her 35 years in the field.
Ms. Miller joined the LinX Program in 2007, where she has led the technical and operational design of reporting, training, and auditing capabilities for the administration of the system while continuing to ensure the integrity of the program. She is a driving force in leading the technology effort to connect the first two LinX Regions (Hampton Roads (VA) and National Capital Region) while also adding the entire Baltimore Region to the NCR-LinX Program. Since then, she has taken the NCR Region from 23 charter members to over 200 while continuing to guide other LinX Regions Governance Boards. Ms. Miller currently serves on the Board of the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Law Enforcement Information and Technology Section (IACP LEIT) and IACP Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Committee.
The Robert P. Shumate National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award, named after the first president of the IJIS Institute, is presented annually to the person from industry or the public sector who made the most valuable contribution to justice and public safety information sharing over his or her career. When asked about being this year’s recipient, Ms. Miller stated, “I am overwhelmed with gratitude to have been selected to receive the IJIS National Public Safety and Justice Contributor to Excellence Award. My work over the last 35 years has been so fulfilling and it means so much to me that the work I am so passionate about also resonates with others. This accomplishment is not something I did alone, and there are many others who deserve to share in this award, far too many to name, but please know I appreciate each and every one of you who I have worked with over my career of justice information sharing and technology. Thank you IJIS!!”
Thomas J. O’Reilly Innovation Award – Prince George’s County, Maryland, and their service provider collaborators, Motorola Solutions and Mission Critical Partners, were presented with the Thomas J. O’Reilly Innovation Award for their Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) i3 Location-Based Call Routing Project. In NG9-1-1, one of the most critical outcomes is routing the 9-1-1 call to the correct Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) via Next-Generation Core Services (NGCS). The NG9-1-1 are the functional elements that enable National Emergency Number Association (NENA) i3 location-based routing.
Prince George’s County, Maryland is leading the way in NGCS by being the first public safety agency in the U.S. to deploy i3 location-based call routing for all 9-1-1 calls in April 2021. The County averages 75,000 9-1-1 calls a month.
The Thomas J. O’Reilly Innovation Award recognizes technical innovation that has significantly contributed to the advancement of information sharing within the IJIS Institute public sector mission domains. In recognition of his immense contributions to the safety and justice community nationally, the IJIS Institute commemorated Mr. O’Reilly’s profound dedication and accomplishments by naming the award after him in 2020.
Corrections Information Technology (IT) Recognition – The Georgia Department of Community Supervision (DCS) was awarded the Corrections Information Technology (IT) Recognition in collaboration with Axon for their efforts with Body Worn Cameras in community corrections. The Corrections Information Technology Recognition honors a team achievement for technical innovation between industry partner(s) and one or more practitioner agency(ies) that significantly contributed to the advancement of corrections information technology in the public sector.
The Georgia DCS has pioneered the use of Body Worn Cameras for community supervision agencies. Under the leadership of Director Michael Nail and Chief Information Officer Phil Sellers, their agency has demonstrated how a best practices approach can be successfully accomplished by examining complex business problems and providing common-sense business solutions that utilize technology to replace antiquated paper-based business.
When asked about this year’s award recipients, IJIS Executive Director Maria Cardiellos stated “As an organization, it is sometimes challenging to select the most deserving recipients for these awards. Though there were numerous choices and significant accomplishments amongst the candidates, the honorees stood out from their peers representing all facets that are sought for each of the awards. We couldn’t be any prouder to have them as members of the IJIS Community. Our thanks to each and every one of them for their contributions to the field!
Awardees represent the highest level of conviction to the IJIS Institute’s mission of driving public sector technology innovation and empowering information sharing to promote safer and healthier communities. For more on IJIS Institute awards, please visit https://ijis.site-ym.com/page/awards.