Homeland security officials have long known that their success depends on acting locally but thinking globally. Now, as they work to keep terrorists from crossing international borders, some law enforcement organizations are focusing global efforts on making it easier for information about crimes and criminals to flow from one country to the next.

"Terrorism is a global problem, and law enforcement agencies have to get rid of the boundaries between domestic anti- terrorism and international anti-terrorism efforts — they're the same thing," said Paul Wormeli, executive director of the Integrated Justice Information Systems Institute, a nonprofit corporation formed by information technology companies to advocate for better data sharing among public organizations.

International collaboration for homeland security is happening to some degree, partially thanks to Extensible Markup Language standards tailored specifically for law enforcement. But turf battles, legal and political roadblocks, and privacy fears all stand in the way of wider information collaboration across borders.

"Think about the conundrum of sharing law enforcement data," said Jeff Pollock, chief technology officer at Cerebra, a vendor of data-sharing technology with offices in the United Kingdom and United States.

"On the one hand, authorities need central access to up-to-date information, while on the other hand, civil liberties groups are adamant about not creating central databases that make it easier for hackers to gain access to a lot of personal information," Pollock said. "Also, data is collected by a number of different sources, including federal, state and local. Agencies are reluctant to let go of the ownership of their data."

Despite the hurdles, examples of international data sharing offer hope for law enforcement officials anxious for more watch lists and other tools and information that countries could exchange.

Continental view

Data collaboration has some well-established roots in Europe. Interpol, the international police organization headquartered in Lyon, France, manages a stolen travel documents database that holds more than 5 million records, which are available to countries throughout Europe. European countries carried out more than 2,700 searches in the first quarter of this year, said Ronald Noble, Interpol's secretary general.

Interpol's I-24/7 system also distributes online records of fingerprints, DNA profiles and photos of wanted criminals from more than 17 countries. The system uses a virtual private network to provide secure e-mail and the ability to query Interpol's database of international arrest warrants, known as Red Notices. Interpol is sponsoring a pilot program with the FBI to use I-24/7 to share the bureau's stolen motor vehicle database with 60 countries.