Building CJIS-Compliant Law Enforcement Software: A Technical Guide from 16 Years Experience

If you're building software for law enforcement—whether it's a case management system, mobile app for officers, or crime analytics platform—you need to understand CJIS compliance. The FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy is the baseline security standard for accessing criminal justice information in the United States.

After 16 years building law enforcement systems deployed across 15+ US jurisdictions, we've learned CJIS compliance the hard way—through audits, security assessments, and real-world deployments. This guide distills that experience into practical, technical guidance for software developers.

Understanding CJIS Compliance

CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) is the FBI division that manages criminal justice data. CJI (Criminal Justice Information) is the actual data—anything related to criminal history, warrants, arrests, etc.

Technical Requirements Breakdown

The CJIS Security Policy covers 13 core security areas. Here's what software developers need to implement:

Architecture for CJIS Systems

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Law Enforcement Users           │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
         ↓ MFA + VPN
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│   Application Layer (Web/Mobile)        │
│  - Role-based access control            │
│  - Session timeout (30 min inactive)    │
│  - Audit logging                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
         ↓ TLS 1.3
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      API Layer (Backend)                │
│  - Authentication/Authorization         │
│  - Business logic                       │
│  - Audit trail generation               │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘
         ↓ Encrypted connection
┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Database Layer                     │
│  - AES-256 encryption at rest           │
│  - Row-level security                   │
│  - Backup encryption                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Data Encryption Requirements

// C# example: Encrypting sensitive data
using System.Security.Cryptography;

public class CJISEncryption
{
    public static byte[] Encrypt(string plainText, byte[] key)
    {
        using (Aes aes = Aes.Create())
        {
            aes.KeySize = 256; // AES-256 for CJIS
            aes.Key = key;
            aes.GenerateIV();
            
            using (ICryptoTransform encryptor = aes.CreateEncryptor())
            {
                byte[] plainBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(plainText);
                byte[] encrypted = encryptor.TransformFinalBlock(
                    plainBytes, 0, plainBytes.Length
                );
                
                // Prepend IV for later decryption
                byte[] result = new byte[aes.IV.Length + encrypted.Length];
                Buffer.BlockCopy(aes.IV, 0, result, 0, aes.IV.Length);
                Buffer.BlockCopy(encrypted, 0, result, aes.IV.Length, encrypted.Length);
                
                return result;
            }
        }
    }
}

Access Control & Authentication

CJIS mandates strict access controls to ensure only authorized personnel access CJI data.

Audit Trail Implementation

Every action must be logged with tamper-proof audit trails. These logs are critical for CJIS audits and security investigations.

// Example audit log entry
{
  "timestamp": "2026-01-05T14:32:18Z",
  "user_id": "officer_12345",
  "action": "READ",
  "resource": "case_file_67890",
  "ip_address": "10.0.1.45",
  "result": "SUCCESS",
  "mfa_verified": true,
  "session_id": "abc-123-xyz"
}

Mobile App Considerations

Mobile devices for law enforcement require additional security controls due to their portability and risk of loss or theft.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

After 16 years and dozens of CJIS audits, here are the most common mistakes we've seen (and made):

Frequently Asked Questions