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Colo. To Join States Using Data-Mining Program on Criminal Suspects

By Jeralyn

Colorado is getting a spiffy new data-mining program, courtesy of a federal budget earmark. Of course, that's not what they call it (they call it a "crime fighting tool"), but a little digging shows that's what it is and many other states(Arizona is one) are using it too.

Another hint:

On Tues. May 26th the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium will hold a special news conference on the steps of the state capitol to unveil its latest crime fighting tool, a statewide data sharing network called “COPLINK”. This new system will allow street cops and investigators to analyze information regarding individuals, property, vehicles, and incidents from a variety of state and local law enforcement records.

Coplink is sold by Knowledge Computing Corp. [More...] From its website:

COPLINK provides unparalleled analysis and decision support by rapidly identifying criminal suspects, relationships and patterns that help solve crime and thwart terrorism. It works by allowing vast quantities of structured and seemingly unrelated data - including data currently housed in various incompatible databases and records management systems - to be organized, consolidated and rapidly analyzed over a highly secure intranet-based platform. (my emphasis)

It continues:

It enables law enforcement to produce leads in seconds of possible criminal suspects, relationships, and patterns by searching known or partial facts from an investigation. The Solution works by searching vast quantities of structured and seemingly unrelated data - including data currently housed in various incompatible databases and records management systems - to be securely organized, consolidated and rapidly analyzed, making if far more difficult for criminals, gangs and terrorists to operate across multiple jurisdictions undetected. Because of the COPLINK's modular components and tier based pricing structure, the software is available to and customizable for sworn populations of all sizes.

Colorado got a federal grant of $600k in 2007 to start working with the program. But it wasn't enough. This bill passed the legislature a few months ago.

WHEREAS, Even though the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium was able to secure a single license fee for the software for use 20 by law enforcement agencies throughout the state, the costs of implementing the COPLINK program statewide are still prohibitive; and

....Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Sixty-seventh General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein:

...(2) That we encourage law enforcement agencies to apply for federal grants to help offset the costs of implementing the COPLINK program if they are not able to pay for the program on their own; and

(3) That we encourage the members of Colorado's Congressional delegation to help secure federal funds for an expanded COPLINK program in Colorado.

In addition to its data-mining program, Coplink's owners recently announced it acquired the assets Canadian-based Visiphor Corporation:

Under the agreement KCC has acquired Visiphor's Facial, Scene and Image Recognition technology. Facial and image recognition technology is rapidly becoming a required tool for identity resolution. The ability to positively identify an individual from a digital photo or video frame gives law enforcement another weapon in their fight against crime.

"Our plan is to offer a facial and image recognition capability inside COPLINK within the second quarter of this year" said Bill Oliver, KCC Vice President of Advanced Development. "This capability will enable COPLINK users to search for individuals using facial photos or composite sketches. An additional search capability will allow users to search for similar images such as gang tattoos and graffiti."

... While sharing information is at the heart of COPLINK, it is the program's ability to provide tactical lead generation through sophisticated analytics that have driven its adoption in nearly 3000 jurisdictions across the country. (my emphasis)

What will Coplink do for Colorado?

Colorado’s public safety agencies are currently in the unique position to implement an effective and efficient information sharing project known as COPLINK. COPLINK is an automated information sharing program which will provide a significant regional and statewide information collection, analysis and sharing capacity. Once implemented, the COPLINK program will include: inmate descriptors; investigative leads; current case data; cold case data; crime analysis information; crime trends/patterns; suspect descriptors; and actionable intelligence. All of this information will be available for immediate use and exchange by Colorado’s public safety professionals. (My emphasis)

Coplink works with the feds' Global Justice XML Data Model and either already or soon will use the NEIM standards. From an article a year ago:

"Within the system, we'll do correlation of data, pull out entities [incident data] and provide the ability to search the data," says program manager Kevin Reid. Investigators can use the system to make connections among incidents that might help to identify and track down suspects, says Brown.

Here's the webpage for the Justice Department's Global Information Sharing Initiative .

So the cops will electronically share all this information, including data-mined leads. Then come the fusion centers with "the capability of blending law enforcement information and intelligence." More here.

How does it work in practice? They use standardized templates. On the first one, they'll fill in the suspect's name and address. Then they can click through to get a variety of information, from criminal history to ICE records. OK, that's law enforcement related. But, how about this? Check the bottom two records:

Mr. Sanchez was last seen April 19 in the company of...

and

Mr. Alvarez reports Mr. Sanchez placed a phone call to his sister.

It's bad enough that when you are stopped for a traffic violation, the cop has your credit report up on the computer screen in the patrol car. This goes a lot further. The wall between intelligence gathering and criminal law enforcement was there for good reason. Now, it's gone.

And, what happens if the information is compromised? Or, as is more likely, inaccurate? Don't look to the Supreme Court for help, present or future:

Judge Sotomayor’s rulings have sometimes anticipated decisions of the Supreme Court. In 1999, for instance, she refused to suppress crack cocaine found by police officers who were executing a warrant that had been vacated 17 months before but never deleted from a police database.

That kind of error, Judge Sotomayor said, did not require suppression. The Supreme Court came to the same conclusion in January, a decade after Judge Sotomayor’s decision.

So, while Congress and our state legislatures can't afford to provide residents with adequate health care or foreclosure protection, and skimp on education, Coplink and Knowledge Computing Corp. are laughing all the way to the bank.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 27, 2009 (boomark / email).