CHIS

Many private and public sector bodies make use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) as an extremely useful method of gaining information and intelligence which is impossible to acquire by non-covert means.  Increasing legislation, however, and in particular the European Convention on Human Rights (and its national derivatives), make the use of CHIS a risky process, particularly where a CHIS process is deemed to have invaded an individual’s privacy. Agencies that fail to consider this legislation leave themselves open to severe punitive measures.

In order to comply with regulatory requirements when conducting a CHIS operation, then, agencies must record and manage all of the information relating to each operation in great detail, including full information on their sources and the people within the organisation who deal with those sources.  A full audit trail is also required for all authorisations, decisions, meetings, rewards, and authorisation reviews.

To manage this complex information requirement manually, however, is labour intensive, prone to error, and not at all secure, making an electronic system a necessity.  Memex CHIS is a secure, efficient electronic system for the management of the entire CHIS process and its corresponding information requirement.  An enterprise-wide solution, it covers both external (informers/agents) and internal (undercover officers/ internal personnel) sources, and manages the full CHIS lifecycle – from cultivation and recruitment through to multiple use and conduct authorisations, recording and dissemination of intelligence, activity reporting and removal policies.

In-built security ensures staff are assigned to specific groups according to their CHIS informational requirement, and their role in the process, thus preventing them from accessing inappropriate data.  Access to, and modification of, system data is also managed and controlled in the same way.  Memex CHIS manages all required data capture activities, from policy logs and contact sheets, to secure source details (including payments and rewards).  It even ensures that target dates for authorisations and reviews are not missed, through an automatic reminder mechanism.

Memex CHIS can be tailored to meet specific organisational requirements, and rapidly configured to meet emerging needs. It integrates fully with other Memex Patriarch systems such as Memex CIMS and Memex Threat Management, allowing you to track status drift, and automatically transfer sanitised intelligence to other enterprise systems.

In summary, Memex CHIS enables organisations to manage their CHIS system in a manner which ensures compliance with relevant legislation, promotes best practice CHIS management and provides an enterprise-wide view of CHIS activity, all within a highly secure environment.