Information sharing, the challenge

Ex-trooper McCreary gets federal, state and local law enforcement agencies together on data-sharing

The challenge? Get a wide range of law enforcement organizations to solve a problem as technically and politically thorny as sharing information across multiple legacy systems.

The kicker? Persuade them to get on board and modify their own programs without offering much—or, in some cases, any—financial assistance.

Such a task requires considerable diplomacy, empathy and industriousness. Those words, colleagues say, also describe James Patrick McCreary, a senior adviser at the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Assistance. ...

People who know McCreary describe his style as easygoing.

“He is very easy to work with. He is very low key but very focused and organized,” said Cabell Cropper, executive director of the National Criminal Justice Association.

“He knows how to say thank you, and does so frequently,” said Paul Wormeli, executive director of the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, a Justice-funded nonprofit that assists law enforcement agencies in implementing JXDM.