https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Advances in location analytics fuel law-enforcement applications

Advances in location analytics fuel law-enforcement applications

  • Written by Urgent Communications Administrator
  • 19th September 2018

Analytics have been used by law-enforcement agencies for decades, but gained wider acceptance among large urban police departments in the 1990s, when the controversial “Broken Windows” theory—cracking down on seemingly minor crimes, such as graffiti and broken windows, to signal that more serious crimes would not be tolerated—was used to introduce crime mapping and pattern analysis. This resulted in the lowest crime rates in a generation in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities.

Similarly, clandestine federal government agencies have been using analytics against foreign surveillance targets for years. More recently, the government has relaxed restrictions on how federal agencies are able to search, retrieve, and store data gathered by such agencies for purposes other than national security threats. Private information on U.S. citizens—e.g., credit card data and travel records—now will be stored for five years, and these databases will be subject to data mining – the use of complex algorithms to search for patterns that predict a threat.

The reported driver for this policy change was the failure by intelligence agencies to connect the dots about the so-called “underwear bomber,” who was convicted of trying to detonate plastic explosives, which he had hidden in his under garments, on a Northwest Airlines flight between Amsterdam and Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009. This failure was despite intelligence agencies having intercepted mobile phone communications and field reports related to the attacker prior to the incident.

With this renewed focus on analytics, law-enforcement agencies have an expanded toolbox with which to fight—and often prevent—crime.  

Connecting the dots

Arguably the most powerful capability that law enforcement agencies can possess is predictive analytics. With this in place, they can identify behavior patterns of known criminals and selectively deploy resources to prevent attacks. By monitoring the location of suspects over a period of time, the security agencies are able to create “heat maps” that identify areas of consistent activity. These are then used by the agencies to assign priority to areas for increased monitoring and to optimally deploy personnel and equipment.

 Law-enforcement agencies now can predict the location of suspected criminals based on their observed activities during a given time of day, and work to head them off before they attempt an attack. Using high-accuracy location, the security agencies also have gained the ability to track targets. The locations of tracked targets are then compared against existing security databases to further identify suspicious activity and select suspects for increased surveillance or other preventive actions.

In some jurisdictions, laws enable surveillance of all targets in a given area for the purposes of fighting crime. One standards-based, high-accuracy location solution, RF Pattern Matching (RFPM), uniquely supports mass location surveillance of all subscribers on a wireless network. This capability enables the identification of all subscribers in a defined geographic area and is vital to the monitoring of sensitive or highly vulnerable areas within the country.

For example, law-enforcement agencies are now able to deploy a geo-fence around a known gang headquarters to alert them when any identified targets approach. This greatly enhances the level of security, and enables law enforcement to identify who was in and around an area in the time before and after an incident. This list then can be compared against known gang members to confirm the suspects and augment any subsequent investigation.

Figure: Geo-fence with heat map

Source: Polaris Wireless

RFPM is a network-based positioning method that is based on radio link measurements collected from the network and/or the device. It relies on predictions or models of the radio environment against which it performs an algorithmic comparison of the measurements, in order to determine a best-match estimation of the device location. In short, it uses the device’s own radio signals to identify its location, eliminating any dependency on satellites or other network hardware.

RFPM is able to locate all devices across any air interface and in any environment, eliminating limitations related to the device type or network technology. In addition, it works extremely well in non line-of-sight conditions such as dense urban and indoor environments, and is highly reliable for mission-critical public-safety applications.

Tags:

Related Content

  • New Orleans-area 911 center inks multiyear APEX deal with Carbyne to replace call-handling system
  • Advances in location analytics fuel law-enforcement applications
    Newscan: Feds recover millions from pipeline ransom hackers, hint at U.S. Internet tactic
  • Cyber is the new Cold War, and AI is the arms race
  • Private wireless networks in the US start going public

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

Indoor 5G and how to solve it dlvr.it/SpxKkN

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

Honeywell releases cybersecurity, smart-building tools dlvr.it/SpwxqH

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

Small-cell focus still largely on densification, but private-network opportunity growing dlvr.it/SpwxBs

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

How to leverage digital tools to drive innovation in government dlvr.it/Spwfdg

31st May 2023
UrgentComm

NTIA head Davidson calls FirstNet a ‘success story,’ supports reauthorization before 2027 sunset dlvr.it/SpsWW9

30th May 2023
UrgentComm

How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business dlvr.it/Spj4Pt

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes dlvr.it/Spj3c2

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority dlvr.it/Spj2Ny

27th May 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.