Innovative Law Enforcement Technology Helps Counterterrorism Experts

The UK has an unfortunate history of terrorist attacks dating back many decades. The sheer number of attacks meant that law enforcement agencies, and the UK Police National Bomb Data Centre based at New Scotland Yard in particular, were facing an information overload.

Back in 1999, they decided to do something about the paper records that were piling up in storerooms. Working in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms in the U.S., they jointly approached ISS Global, a UK subsidiary of Intelligent Software Solutions, to help put things right. Together they devised the Dfuze Intelligent Management System and set about back-record converting all the information they had.

Today the database stores millions of points of visual and textual data about every aspect of bombs, bomb-makers and the methods they employ. The system rapidly became the de facto system of choice of Bomb Data Centres and law enforcement agencies worldwide. The system connects agencies in over 40 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. In the UK the system now contains hundreds of thousands of records. It has grown from its early iteration into a highly sophisticated software offering, underpinned by emerging technologies.

Technology 2.0

Fast forward to 2005, and the horrific attacks on the London Transportation System. It was vitally important to get fast-time information and intelligence from the scenes of the attacks back to the Command Control Centre. Equally important was for each post blast scene examiner to have access to information about what was being recovered at the other scenes. There was no system in place to allow for this flow of information. In the aftermath, ISS Global developed a number of software offerings to again solve the problem. Dfuze Net, Mobile and C2 were born. These allowed for the two-way exchange of information, images and intelligence allowing for more informed decisions to be able to be made in Command. The software now includes a number of unique features to incorporate activities such as facial recognition, image viewing and comparison tools.

The software has been utilized in a number of high profile terrorist investigations worldwide including 9/11, 7/7, the Boston bombings and the transatlantic plot to bring down commercial airlines above the U.S. and Canada. In the latter case the system was used to identify that the batteries utilized in the potential devices were only on sale in Pakistan, enabling investigators to focus on that particular area of the world. It transpired that this plot was being engineered and orchestrated by a terrorist group in Pakistan.

Identifying potential attacks

In these times of “Big Data”, there is a push to develop Prediction Software. This is often referred to as “predictive policing.” But is software ever going to be able to predict when, where and how an attack is going to take place? The “Holy Grail” is becoming ever closer, but the outcome of analysis is still only going to be no more than a “best guess.”

Prior to the London 2012 Olympics, the software—utilizing historic factual information of previous terrorist attacks, together with other data sources such as weather reports, telephone records, open source material, etc.—was used to help identify where potential mortar attacks could be launched from. This information was used to help deploy assets and security presence in areas that the software indicated could be at risk of attack.

In the past a lot of that work was done by a team of analysts trawling through reams and paper of data. Using today’s software offerings allows you to bolt on a computer algorithm that can actually analyze that data for you, based on a number of parameters that you give it. It can help break the information down into percentages and likelihood of something happening in a certain place, at a certain time, in a certain way.
It will still need an experienced eye at the output end to put the information supplied into context, but the more of the grind of human analysis that can be removed from the process, the better.

The Olympics passed off peacefully and no attacks took place. It is difficult, however, to quantify these results. Were assets deployed in the right place and were attacks deterred because of this? Or were no attacks ever planned? I guess we will never know.

A view from the sky

Now imagine having an eye in the sky at any scene, at any time, being able to monitor events on your tablet, mobile or computer, wherever you are in the world. This is the reality that is now being offered. ISS Global’s new offering “OverC2” allows for live video streams from any location via unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), back to Command and Control.

At any ongoing incident, events rapidly change and fast-time decisions have to be made. With the new drone technology the decision-maker can be monitoring and advising on the next steps even from the comfort of his/her own home, without having to forward deploy to the rendezvous point which may be many miles away.

Previously, aircraft and helicopters were the only way of getting the information required, but these were costly and sometimes difficult to organize at short notice. If you add in the complication that “no fly” zones are imposed around major crime scenes, to avoid disturbance from downward wind drafts, these flights were normally a non-starter. Now, UAVs are available at a price that makes them almost disposable. They can be deployed at a cost that conventional aerial technology can’t compete with.

The availability of networks today also means that these video streams are highly accessible. They work via Wi-Fi, satellite 3G or 4G connection. Users can stream multiple feeds live from the scene, or any number of scenes, from anywhere in the world.