Just like a country within the global setting, an information-sharing network is a member within the global realm of criminal justice. Legitimacy will be established for an information-sharing enterprise when it is competent to function as a sovereign entity within the criminal justice realm. It must operate autonomously apart from any single agency directive, just as a country must establish itself as a legitimate, single power. Such legitimacy requires that the information-sharing enterprise function under a governing body, legitimized by a legal framework that establishes its parameters and accredits it within the community it serves. The governing body is mandated to ensure that information-sharing operations adhere to appropriate regulations that control data usage. All data rules and regulations that affect the participating agencies must be understood and followed as they provide input to and access information in the database. In discussing the issues that must be addressed by this governing body, this article focuses on the scope of the project, the charter (ideology), the control of participating agencies, data quality, data availability, financial position, law enforcement/criminal justice community position, technical understanding, legitimized decisionmaking, technical decisionmaking, and security and privacy.