To better coordinate and centralize information for Super Bowl XLIV, the Miami-Dade Police Department's Fusion Center will deploy "Project Dolphin" with technology and tools from Microsoft and other partners.

The initiative uses the department's exisiting Fusion Center, an office that collects crime reports about suspicious activities and analyzes them for terrorist threats.

Fusion centers cropped up all over the country as a result of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 to solve communications problems experienced by emergency responders and intelligence agencies that came to light after Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 Commission noted that there were plenty of warnings that an attack was imminent, but because of the way intelligence experts such as the FBI kept information in "silos," nobody connected the dots that might have warned us of the incoming threat.

"Project Dolphin" will optimize information technology tools from Microsoft, ESRI, GuideSTAR Technologies and Analyst International Corporation (AIC) to enhance current real-time capabilities for intake, analysis and dissemination of actionable data from local, state, national justice and public safety officials responsible for securing Super Bowl XLIV, according to Microsoft.

Project Dolphin is expected to facilitate immediate and enhanced information sharing and collaboration, reduce the duplication of effort, improve situational awareness, expand predictive and responsive analytics, as well as support more thorough and comprehensive investigations. It also provides managers real-time oversight capability of case and incident management, tracking, and reporting.

Intelligence personnel often encounter difficulty working with massive amounts of information to organize, analyze and distill meaningful and usable intelligence. Without access to effective intake, analysis and dissemination of information from sources and partners, it is difficult to effectively identify patterns, trends and relevant relationships among various data sources.

Project Dolphin incorporates the Microsoft and ESRI-developed Fusion Core Solution, which integrates Microsoft SharePoint and ESRI's ArcGIS 9.3.1 server with GuideSTAR's investigative and intel-analysis tool GS/1. The combined technologies enhance the power of instant collaboration and information sharing among analysts and investigators while giving supervisors continual oversight.

The work flow and dissemination power of SharePoint coupled with ESRI's spatial visualization of critical infrastructure and crimes have enabled the Fusion Center to provide expanded awareness for the criminal intelligence investigations being undertaken with the GuideSTAR GS/1 analytics engine.

Editor's Note: Read our story about how the Miami-Dade PD plan to deploy video surveillance during the Super Bowl.