Drug Investigations
To win the war on drugs, it is essential to keep pace with the increasingly sophisticated methods employed by organized criminal networks. From street level distribution networks to international drug cartels, counter-narcotics operations can generate vast amounts of data in different formats and of varying reliability. Large cases can span across jurisdictions and international borders, and involve hundreds of suspects and thousands of related crimes.
i2 assists narcotics investigators by providing tools that capture and organize multi-format data, quickly discover the meaning and hidden connections in vast amounts of disparate data and communicate the results.
i2 helps narcotic investigators:
- Reveal the nature and scope of the problem
- Identify criminal networks and hierarchies
- Understand communication networks and commodity flow
- Follow money laundering transactions
- Focus the investigation and allocate resources
- Share information with other law enforcement agencies
Investigators and analysts assigned to narcotics investigations collect data from a number of different sources including online public records, existing databases, communications records and surveillance information. i2 software allows analysts to store, organize and access multi-source data without any advanced technical expertise.
Using iBase, a database specifically designed for investigations and intelligence, analysts can quickly build and populate a database readily adapted for all types of data, allow security level access to team members, and run comprehensive reports.
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iBase enables you to rationalize and collate all types of data from a diverse range of sources into a single coherent structure. |
Access to information in existing databases is created through iBridge, a connectivity solution that enables live connections to multiple databases located throughout an organization. iBridge allows analysts to use Analyst's Notebook to query databases without learning advanced query languages or relying on a database expert.
With i2 products, analysts will spend less time searching for and managing captured information, creating more time for analysis.
After collection, analysts and investigators need the ability to find hidden connections and meaning within volumes of disparate data. Analyst's Notebook enables analysts to quickly understand large amounts of data, uncover seemingly unrelated links, and display complex information in intuitive visual charts. Analytical charts can be generated automatically from structured data or the analyst can manually build visual products.
These charts show the relationship between people, places, events, vehicles, phone numbers and more. Analyst's Notebook also provides for common intelligence grading systems such as the widely used 4x4 method. This means analytical charts are more than just pictures. All underlying chart information is captured behind each chart entity and graded on reliability.
Analyst's Notebook is also used to visually analyze call data records to help reveal communication networks, focus the investigation, and draw conclusions about future activity using temporal analysis.
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When suspected drug rings go to great lengths to disguise their call activity, PatternTracer can be used find hidden connections in volumes of call record data. |  |
Those who do not have access to Analyst's Notebook can be briefed with printed charts or electronically using i2's free ChartReader. |
The progress and details of a narcotics investigation may make perfect sense to those who have spent months putting it together, but bringing others up to date can be challenging and time consuming. Analytical charts are used as visual briefing aides that have proven effective in quickly communicating complex cases to team members, prosecutors and juries.
Analyst's Notebook was designed with cross-agency operations in mind, which is vital given the scope of many narcotics operations. Information gathered by one law enforcement agency can be combined with that of others by simply dragging and dropping related charts in Analyst's Notebook. Matching entities are automatically merged, cards updated and new links are established on the chart.
The end result is an information sharing environment where law enforcement organizations can work together to combat the flow of illegal drugs. With over 2,000 law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide using Analyst's Notebook, i2 products are a great way to facilitate information sharing without expensive backend IT expenditures.
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