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Nearly all public safety professionals report access and security friction when accessing critical systems, highlighting challenges to achieving CJIS compliance

WALTHAM, Mass., June 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imprivata, a leading provider of access management solutions for healthcare and other mission-critical industries, today released new research with Lexipol examining the identity security and access management challenges public safety agencies face as they work to meet the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy requirements. The findings reveal a significant gap between intent and execution: while 79% of public safety professionals say CJIS compliance is a top or high cybersecurity priority, only 32% report their agencies are fully compliant today.

The report, CJIS Compliance in Focus: The Identity Security Challenges Facing Public Safety Agencies, is based on a survey of more than 300 public safety professionals across the United States. The findings suggest that while agencies understand the importance of CJIS compliance, many continue to face significant operational and technology challenges that make compliance difficult to achieve and maintain. Aging infrastructure, staffing constraints, and increasingly complex identity and access management requirements remain roadblocks, even as agencies invest in modernization initiatives ahead of the FBI's October 1, 2027 CJIS Security Policy deadline.

Compliance efforts are slowed or interrupted by operational and technology challenges
For many agencies, the challenge is no longer understanding CJIS requirements, but rather, finding the resources, technology, and operational capacity needed to implement and sustain compliance. These challenges are exacerbated by increasingly complex IT environments and workflows that often include legacy systems, shared devices, mobile users, and limited IT staff.

Notable study findings include:

• 79% of respondents rate CJIS compliance as a top or high priority within their cybersecurity strategy
• Only 32% report being fully compliant today
• Among agencies that are not fully compliant, the most commonly cited barriers are competing agency priorities (47%) and aging infrastructure and legacy systems (47%)
• 40% cite limited IT or security staff as a key obstacle
  
  

“In public safety, secure access has to be both reliable and fast. Our teams cannot afford repeated logins, authentication delays, or inconsistent access controls when they are responding to critical situations,” said Jeff Johnson, data intelligence architect with Denton County, Texas. “As we look to improve security and support CJIS compliance, it is imperative that we keep personnel focused on the work that protects our communities.”

Identity security is becoming central to CJIS compliance
As public safety agencies manage access across users, devices, applications, and locations, identity security is becoming fundamental to achieving and maintaining compliance. Agencies must be able to verify and report on who is accessing critical systems, from where, and under what conditions while ensuring personnel can access information quickly during time-sensitive situations. As a result, identity security is viewed as both a compliance requirement and an operational necessity.

Survey respondents identified cybersecurity risk (67%) and CJIS compliance (64%) as the two leading drivers of identity and access management investments, underscoring how closely security and compliance objectives are now linked.

In addition, nearly all respondents (95%) report experiencing some form of access or security friction when accessing critical systems, with the most common challenges including logging in multiple times across systems (36%) and slow authentication processes (35%).

To address these challenges, agencies are increasingly prioritizing identity-centric security strategies that support both compliance objectives and operational requirements. Common areas of planned investment include privileged access management (as cited by 24% of respondents) and passwordless authentication (23%).

To download the full report, CJIS Compliance in Focus: The Identity Security Challenges Facing Public Safety Agencies, visit https://www.imprivata.com/resources/ebooks/cjis-compliance-focus-identity-security-challenges-facing-public-safety-agencies.

Survey Methodology
Imprivata and Lexipol surveyed 336 public safety professionals across the United States. Respondents represented local, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as other public safety organizations. Participants included professionals working in cybersecurity, IT, compliance, and public safety leadership roles.

About Imprivata
Imprivata delivers simple and secure access management solutions for healthcare and other mission-critical industries to ensure every second of crucial work is both frictionless and secure. Imprivata’s platform of innovative, interoperable access management and privileged access security solutions enable organizations to fully manage and secure all enterprise and third-party identities to facilitate seamless user access, protect against internal and external security threats, and reduce total cost of ownership. For more information, visit www.imprivata.com.

Media Contact
press@imprivata.com