Until the late 1980's the introduction of information technology followed an uncoordinated path among the various criminal justice agencies. However, a more coordinated approach now exists. Planning now reflects an awareness of the importance of information and the development of a criminal justice information policy, central standards, a common network for communicating between agencies, and nationally specified systems. Other aspects include a small number of centrally maintained databases, ready access to these databases from criminal justice agencies, security and data protection standards, and personnel training. The standards for technology, data, communications, and data security will form the infrastructure for the next generation of computerized information systems.