i2's
Analyst's Notebook Aids Investigation
The
murder of five women in Suffolk has prompted hundreds of calls to the
force resulting in thousands of pieces of information in a bid to track
down the killer or killers.
Years
ago, the task of sifting through that amount of information and determining
its significance would take many hours with no guarantee that something
hadn't been missed. Today forces use sophisticated analytical software
to process large volumes of data to inform an investigation.
One such product is i2's Analyst's Notebook. i2 products are now used
by every force in the country. The company broke new ground with the
Analyst's Notebook when it first appeared and it is now used in over
2000 organisations.
Paul Holroyd, i2 Vice President and General Manager (pictured), explains
the principle behind the technology.
‘Analyst Notebook is about simplifying complexity. We convert information
into intelligence, the bit that can be acted upon.’
This can be done via timelines or association charts which give a visual
means of representing complex information. Instead of reading through
pages of written summaries, the Notebook can plot considerable amounts
of pieces of information and how they relate to each other on one large
page, giving the viewer an instant pictorial understanding of the data.
Like all forces, Suffolk has access to i2's products, but it is not
the first time they have been used in a major inquiry.
Former police officer Mark Grimshaw came across Analyst's Notebook at
an exhibition and introduced it to his own force, Gloucestershire. Four
years later, in 1994, when the now notorious murders at 25 Cromwell
Street came to light, the force already had the software to cope with
the enormous volume of information that began to flood in.
Fred West owned the property where ten sets of human remains were eventually
recovered. Two other bodies were recovered from fields near Much Marcle.
West and his wife, Rose, came from huge extended families.
The software was used to plot those relationships and was also used
to sift through information gathered from decades that surrounded the
murders and the West family.
‘In the first instance we had to get a grip on who was who. Then
we had to keep on top of where the bodies were found. The software was
used to analyse events, victims' details and addresses from as far back
as 1941,’ says Mr Grimshaw who now works as a Law Enforcement Analysis
Consultant.
The house on Cromwell Street, now demolished, had 22 years of occupancy
by various tenants. One 'link' chart was able to show pictorially who
had stayed in which room. No mean feat when several of the occupants
moved from room to room.
In all 7500 events were entered into the database.
i2's
software proved invaluable to the inquiry. It not only aided the investigation,
but dealt with large quantities of data that could easily have overwhelmed
the investigation team.
‘I believe there is some data we would not have looked at that
could have been crucial, if we had not had this tool,’ adds Mr
Grimshaw.
The amount of investigation time saved through the use of the analyst's
notebook has never been quantified. Anecdotally, Mr Grimshaw believes
it saved his team days, if not weeks of checking through information,
looking for vital clues. What impressed him was its versatility.
‘It can be used an investigative tool and an interview aid. It
is an aid to sequencing intelligence, an instrument for sharing information
and helps to develop hypothesis.’
The software comes into its own in large enquiries, but also has shown
its value in high volume crime, such as Domestic Burglary. Using the
software to identify hotspots allows forces to direct their resources
more effectively.
Jez Francis is Senior Analytical Coordinator for Greater Manchester
Police which uses up to 100 intelligence analysts. The force applied
i2 software - i2 Analyst's Workstation - to an area in Manchester that
was experiencing a high number of break-ins and were able to identify
crime hotspots.
The software was also used to identify 63 persistent offenders living
within a 1.8 mile radius of one area. This was then narrowed down to
13 possible suspects.
i2's product range continues to expand. The company now offers i2 iBridge
which allows real-time analysis of vital information by providing a
live connection from i2 Analyst's Notebook to an organisation's existing
databases without having to modify their structure. i2 iBridge facilitates
a 'drill-down' approach to exploring your data and enables information
to be quickly viewed and examined in i2 Analyst's Notebook using standard
link and timeline charts.
It is a far cry from the piles of paper containing snippets of seemingly
unconnected pieces of information that use to accompany an enquiry.
Web: http://www.i2.co.uk