CINA Annual Report 2021 Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center | U.S. DHS Center of Excellence

From the Director

by Jim Jones

When 2021 started, the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, but we had reason to be optimistic - we had adapted well as a center in 2020, and vaccines were on the way. Unfortunately, 2021 turned out to be the year of the pandemic roller coaster, where the great progress in the first half of 2021 was followed by a pandemic resurgence in the second half of the year. However, by now we had technical solutions for remote delivery and a flexible mindset to prepare for the unexpected, so despite the challenges and the fluid environment, we were able to continue to deliver on the mission of the center.

We continued ongoing research projects and launched new ones, to include projects coming out of the ongoing Open RFP and our Annual RFP, and the research teams on these projects came from a growing and diverse set of colleges and universities. They continue to do groundbreaking work to help solve problems facing DHS and our country, and several of these projects are entering a transition phase where they will have direct and positive impact. We also launched a new Annual RFP in December of 2021, helping to establish a continuing and current pipeline of relevant and impactful research as the center grows and moves forward. We led the planning and successful execution of the first virtual COE summit in May 2021 with creative solutions and great support from our colleagues and sponsors. We placed virtual interns at DHS components, we remotely mentored three MSI summer research teams, all of whom received follow-on funding to continue their excellent work, and we took advantage of the pandemic lull in the Summer of 2021 to hold our annual MSI Week events in person. We then geared up for in-person Distinguished Speakers in the Fall of 2021, but the pandemic had other ideas; as with the rest of our operations, we had prepared for this and were able to pivot to virtual delivery without a hitch.

In this environment, such production does not come without extra effort. Events are planned for both virtual and in person contingencies, research teams have to learn to collaborate and work virtually, and daily operations require creative thinking and flexibility to keep the center running. Yes, this is hard – but our sponsors, colleagues, and citizens deserve no less. We are deeply proud of these accomplishments and the work of the center, we hope that you find the activities presented here inspiring and useful, and we welcome conversations on how we can continue to support our shared missions and goals.

Research Portfolio

The CINA center pursues a comprehensive set of programs and activities that are designed to equip practitioners, end users, decision makers, and U.S. policy makers in the homeland security enterprise with state-of-the-art knowledge, expertise, methods, tools, and technologies to help combat the growing threat of transnational crime.

While advances in information and communication technologies have benefited education, healthcare, and other crucial areas of society, transnational criminal operations have also taken advantage of technology to evolve, become more agile, and expand their scope. Today, transnational criminal networks can easily appear, disappear, and reorganize in response to operational opportunities and authority gaps.

Learn how CINA’s research addresses these complex problems.