Building a data-driven law enforcement strategy
Data-driven law enforcement strategies are integral to realize and improve effectiveness, and minimize risks. However, many law enforcement agencies struggle to reconcile data gathered from a range of different systems such as records management systems, a computer aided dispatch, mobile field devices, video devices, crime analysis tools, and more. Law enforcement is also seeing a rise in advanced initiatives such as intelligence-led policing and evidence-based policing. These methodologies require deeper and broader insights derived from multiple data sets in order to move from a reactive policing position to a more proactive policing position.
When this data is aggregated and analyzed effectively it can result in benefits like expedited processing of suspects, decreased downtime and increased uptime in both the field and the station, reduced costs from lost hours of inefficient data processing, and significantly improved analytical capabilities. On the other hand, when data is not handled correctly, critical evidence can be thrown out in court due to avoidable digital data issues.
The procedures in this use case show how you can use Splunk software to realize the benefits of an effective, data-driven law enforcement strategy.
Required data
Law enforcement data, which might include:
- Criminal investigations data
- Insider threat data
- Human trafficking data
- Counterterrorism data
- Health care fraud data
- Fraud investigations data (Covid-19, PPE)
How to use Splunk software for this use case
Ensuring compliance
The Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sets standards for information security, guidelines, and agreements for protecting Criminal Justice Information (CJI). These standards are reflected in the CJIS Security Policy, which describes the appropriate controls to protect the sources, methods, transmission, storage, and access to data.
Splunk is able to support law enforcement agencies in states that have executed a CJIS Information Management Agreement with Splunk. For certain products, Splunk Cloud Platform offers security controls to protect and store Criminal Justice Information (CJI) data through assured controls and workload for Splunk Cloud Platform.
If you are a Splunk Cloud Platform user, note that Splunk Cloud Platform meets the FedRAMP and StateRAMP security standards, helping U.S. federal agencies and their partners drive confident decisions and decisive actions at mission speeds. Agencies can ingest data in real-time and use that same data to address a variety of challenges across various programs and initiatives that span security and IT operations, as well as modernization and mission objectives.
Next steps
The Splunk platform can ingest a wide variety of data sources that are useful to law enforcement including call records, cell tower data, device logs, and network traffic logs. When your Splunk deployment is ingesting these sources, you can investigate many common law enforcement use cases in the areas of:
- Cyber crime
- Personal crime
- Property crime
- Financial crime
- Organized crime
- Public corruption
- Amber or silver alerts
- Social media investigations
While not affiliated with Splunk, you might also want to consider utilizing ChatGPT to help you achieve better data-driven law enforcement outcomes and efficiencies. ChatGPT can be a powerful tool for law enforcement, with potential applications including:
- Analyzing data from multiple sources to identify patterns, connections, and potential leads
- Interpreting non-English languages to reduce the time and effort required for manual translation of evidence
- Analyzing data such as crime reports and demographic information to identify potential hot spots for criminal activity, enabling law enforcement to allocate resources more effectively
- Categorizing and analyzing evidence, making it easier for law enforcement to cross-reference data and identify relevant information
- Detecting fraud by analyzing patterns in financial transactions and identifying anomalies
- Providing virtual assistance to citizens in emergency situations, reducing the need for physical police presence
- Analyzing suspect interviews, detecting inconsistencies and potential lies between statements
- Automating report writing, such as incident reports or crime scene reports, based on inputted data and generating reports in a consistent, accurate, and efficient manner
Finally, this additional Splunk resource might help you understand and implement this use case:
- Tech brief: Splunk for law enforcement
- Use Case: Creating a suspect list with cell tower data
For more information on using Splunk software for law enforcement purposes, see Splunk for public safety. You can also contribute to the Splunk law enforcement Github repository, or contact group1020@splunk.com to learn more about Splunk for law enforcement.