Case Study: How a local Police Department and a Sheriff’s Office Broke Down Silos to Share Gang Crime Intelligence and Improve Public Safety
In today’s complex law enforcement environment, collaboration isn’t just a bonus—it’s a necessity. For Riverton Police Department and East River Sheriff’s Office, working in the same jurisdictions meant facing many of the same criminal actors, trends, and public safety challenges. But for years, their investigative efforts were largely isolated. That changed when both agencies decided to take a bold step: building an intentional partnership to share data, intelligence, and investigative leads—improving operations and safety for everyone involved.
This case study outlines how they made it happen, the lessons they learned, and the impact it’s had.
This case study uses fictional names for the involved jurisdictions to protect agency confidentiality while illustrating real-world collaboration between law enforcement partners.
The Problem: A Shared Challenge, Separate Siloshase 2 (late 2010s–early 2020s): Platform churn, performance, and encryption
Both the Riverton PD, which serves a large urban population, and East River SO, which covers the surrounding rural and unincorporated areas, often found themselves investigating similar suspects, responding to overlapping incidents, and working parallel gang crime cases.
Despite this overlap, the two agencies operated with siloed gang and criminal intelligence analysis data, uncoordinated investigative files, and limited protocols for sharing field contact information or intelligence bulletins or investigative tools. Detectives, investigators and analysts sometimes discovered, after weeks of effort, that their counterparts across jurisdictional lines had already made contact with the same suspects or obtained key pieces of evidence.
These missed connections created:
- Duplicative work
- Delayed case resolution
- Increased officer risk in the field
- Frustration among investigators
The Turning Point: A Call for Collaboration
The shift began during a joint task force operation. As both agencies coordinated efforts, it became clear that each had valuable intel the other didn’t—intel that could have shortened the investigation and increased officer safety had it been shared earlier.
This realization sparked a series of informal meetings between agency leadership, criminal intelligence analysts, and IT staff. Both departments agreed: something needed to change.
The Process: Building the Bridge
Riverton PD had a very large dataset of information collected over the years and they had purchased and licensed the use of IntelScope software, a criminal intelligence database which helps capture, analyze, search and share intelligence on criminals, gangs, gang members, vehicles, addresses and much more. Riverton PD had easy and user-friendly ways of analyzing their large dataset.
On multiple occasions during joint tasks, Riverton PD shared with the East River SO analysts their use of the IntelScope software. East River SO was very interested in acquiring IntelScope and both departments dreamed of being able to collaborate even further by having the ability to view each other’s data since they would be using the same IntelScope software.
They approached the IntelScope technical team and voiced their dream. IntelScope staff met and collaborated and worked out a plan to start making the dream a reality.
Key Points in the Collaboration:
- Leadership Buy-In: Key personnel from both agencies committed to transparency and long-term cooperation.
- Information Auditing: Each agency needed to maintain ownership of the information they entered into IntelScope. Each agency would also need the ability to mark certain information they did not want to share as non-sharable.
- Policy Development: Together, they drafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
- Officer and Analyst Training: Training sessions were held to ensure staff from both agencies understood how to use the system and interpret shared data.
Implementation: Turning Plans Into Practice
Phase 1 went live recently. Key analysts have begun to share information about criminal individuals.
Soon investigators began to report benefits.
Results: Faster Cases, Safer Streets
The collaboration between Riverton PD and East River SO has already producing tangible results:
- Joint Investigations: Detectives & Analyst have launched joint investigations reducing duplication and maximizing resources.
- Increased Morale: Officers report higher confidence knowing their intel is part of a bigger picture.
“We used to find out someone else had the same suspect information by spending time calling the other department—getting information sometimes weeks after the fact. Now, we know it right away. It’s a game changer,”
Lessons Learned: What Made It Work
- Trust Before Technology: The agencies built a working relationship before sharing information.
- Policy Matters: Clear rules around information sharing.
- Start Small, Scale Smart: Starting with data sharing about criminal individuals allowed early wins that built support for a broader rollout.
- Leadership Consistency: Ongoing commitment from key personnel kept the momentum alive.
- Invest in Training: Officers needed not just access to data, but context and confidence in using it.
What’s Next: Expanding the Model
Encouraged by their success, more information will be made available to be shared:
- Exploring integration of vehicle & gang information
- Enhancing the shared platform with geospatial mapping of all documented crimes and contact information.
- Seeking funding to support wider regional adoption with other state and federal partners.
Conclusion: A New Standard for Collaboration
In a world where crime and information move fast, agencies can’t afford to work in isolation. The partnership between Riverton PD and East River SO shows what’s possible when agencies align on a shared mission: protecting their communities with the best tools, information, and cooperation available.
This case is a reminder to law enforcement professionals everywhere—the more we share, the more we solve.
The GangScope Team
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GangScope™ is an intelligence database that helps capture, analyze, search and share intelligence on criminals, gangs, and more. GangScope acts as a first-tier, internal database that manages data on known and suspected criminals and gang members. Intelligence is collected per incident and can include qualifiers, associates, acquaintances (points of contact), witnesses, images, and documents. GangScope’s collection of detailed information aids in investigations, analysis and ultimately solving crime. The software complies with standards outlined by federal (28 CFR) policies. While complying with standards, GangScope™ boasts usability through simple yet extensive data mining via search, reports, profiles, and watches.
The overall goal of GangScope™ is to provide law enforcement personnel/ crime analysts/ correctional officers/prosecutors with maximum data through a friendly user interface while remaining cost-effective.
A non-gang version – IntelScope is also available if needed.
To learn more or to schedule a full demo of our system – request a demo here. We would welcome the opportunity to show you how Gangscope can help your department organize and store your data in a secure and compliant way.
