Data collection and information management
Investigation purpose
Information management
A criminal investigation refers to the process of
collecting information (or evidence) about a crime
in order to:
1) determine if a crime has been committed;
2) identify all the victims, the perpetrators and
associates ;
3) apprehend the perpetrators and associates
4) provide evidence to support a conviction in
court.
5- allow the victim to go to court to seek redress
Theory:
Criminal investigation process looks like a « battle » between the
police and the perpetrators over crime related information.
Offenders in committing the crime leave behind information of
various sort (fingerprints, DNA, witnesses…), « signals » which
the police attempts to collect through investigation activities.
If perpetrator manages to minimize the amount of information
available for the police, he won’t be arrested and wins the battle!
If the police is able to collect a signifiant amount of signals, the
perpetrator will be identified and the police will win the battle !
Information management
General aspects
Problem for the police:
- Massive amount of information available but relevance
unknown at the first stage
- Information is often incomplete and inaccurate
Investigators will have to:
- Evaluate the relevance
- Determine the utility of the information collected
From investigator perspective :
What is information?
Who gives « interesting » information?
What kinds of information are interesting?
How to enrich it ?
How to classify the information collected and
enriched it?
How to establish priorities?
Information management cycle
Information : what is it?
What kind of information do you need to
efficiently conduct an investigation?
You need ..
Strategic information :
All analysis conducted by different departments
and related to the phenomenon (including
statistics, trends, data about routes,
nationalities of the victims, modus operandi of
the networks … at national, regional or
international levels)
To get an overview on the phenomenon
You need…
Operational information :
Personal data : name, date of birth, documents,
vehicles, telephone numbers of individuals
involved;
Information related to operating mode of the
perpetrators: often collected via surveillances
Fact-based information: Data related to crime
itself (physical information as fingerprints,
blood, fibers);
Who gives you operational
information ?
Victims, witnesses, criminals, experts, local
communities, other police departments,
partners, informants, repentant criminal,..
Other actors ?
Information coming from physical
evidences…
= tangible nature directly connected with the crime:
fingerprints, blood, fibers, hairs, DNA…
= Forensic or scientific evidences.
Can serve, at least, 2 important functions:
- Establish the material element of the crime
- Link victims to crime scene, offenders to crime scene
- Allow to establish associations/ cross-matches
Information coming from people
= witnesses, victims, suspects, informants etc…
Witness: Direct knowledge of the crime: Modus operandi
of the perpetrators, eye-description and
identification
Often inaccurate and unreliable
Suspects: Process of testing/verifying already developed
information.
Offenders objective is to deceive investigator. Ultimate
objective of investigator is to obtain a confession.
Violation of suspect rights
Information coming from people
(2)
= witnesses, victims, suspects, informants etc…
Victims: Direct knowledge of the crime: Modus operandi
of the perpetrators, eye-description and
identification.
Incomplete information, post-traumatic
stress..
Informants: Can I trust him/her ???
What kinds of operational data
are also interesting ?
Accurate information on criminal plans of a
potential trafficker (name, locations, telephone
numbers, vehicles used, way of life, locations
where offenses are committed, fake
documents, financial aspects) ;
Unexploited information coming from a previous
case (telephone numbers of contacts,
unexploited phone extractions...) ;
Unexploited information coming from another
LEA agencies, partner agency, private sector
partner….
How to « enrich » information?
- Check against data bases (national data bases,
partners data bases, documentation...);
- International police cooperation (bilateral,
regional …);
- Open source (google);
-
Traditional investigation methods;
-
Experience …
Purpose: associations/ cross-matches
How to classify the information
collected and enriched?
= Establish a sort of a hierachy …
Value of the information : how far the source can
be trusted ?
Added-value ?
Urgence ?
Danger ?
Any other ?
…. To define priorities.
How to classify the information
collected and enriched?
Practically :
- Excel, access (i.e : exploitation of telephone
numbers, itemized billings);
- Criminal analysis: summary tables, charts,
diagrams, graphs.
Information management
Criminal analysis :
Make all available data operational by
formulating
suppositions,
probable scenario …
Support to criminal investigation
Information management
Allows to :
- Materialize connections between people,
telephone numbers, people and vehicles,
people and locations etc …
- Make the cross matches concrete.
Have a good overview of the organisation of
the network, the role of perpetrators
Diagrams and charts
Data collection and management
Thank you for your attention
Any question ?
