DHS Taps Raytheon To Modernize Case-Management System

Obama's Tech Tools

Raytheon is building a modern case-management system for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency that will improve information sharing across agencies and allow agents to receive notifications about cases via mobile devices.

Raytheon is developing a Web-based system to replace the existing Treasury Enforcement Communication System (TECS) system, which the ICE and other agencies use to investigate and manage criminal immigration cases. These cases include those having to do with human smuggling or trafficking and terrorism, among others. Agents also use the system to make reports and to collaborate with other agencies on these cases.

Raytheon is not disclosing the financial terms of the contract, which is a five-year effort with four option years, said Ernie Simon, Raytheon’s program manager for the ICE case management modernization program, in an e-mail.

Work on the project began Sept. 27, with initial efforts focusing on delivering core investigative case management and independence from the legacy TECS system, which is built on COBOL code with a mainframe architecture and software that’s facing obsolescence, he said.

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The new system will enhance how agencies manage, investigate, and report on law enforcement and intelligence activities by improving data sharing between multiple law-enforcement agencies, Simon said.

It also will improve search capabilities, data integration, and interoperability with other systems by interfacing with more than 100 disparate databases across the DHS and other agencies. Additionally, agents will be able to search across all of those systems, making information easier for them to access, he said.

Another part of the new system includes mobile features that provide the ability to notify special ICE agents and their supervisors via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets during the investigative initiation process, Simon said. Indeed, the federal government increasingly is leveraging mobile devices and adding a mobile element to applications to allow for more information sharing and data dissemination in real time.

Federal contractors working alongside Raytheon as part of the project team are Booz-Allen Hamilton, CSC, Kurrent Logic, Kore Federal, and Blackstone Technology Group.