Data Management Techniques for Criminal Investigations

Abstract

Good investigative practice should embody a consistent methodology. This methodology should emphasise accountability, standardized processes, and information sharing between investigations and agencies. It should also make use of appropriate tools to organise, manage, retrieve and analyse potentially large volumes of investigative data. However, an investigative methodology alone won’t ensure that evidence is processed in a timely fashion. With greater amounts of data being available to investigators through public sources and data sharing initiatives, and improvements being made to data capture/entry facilities, bottlenecks may occur in the review of investigative data, potentially jeopardizing a successful outcome. Technologies such as text analysis, entity matching and resolution, and network analysis can be inserted into the investigative workflow to speed data processing, prioritise tasks, and facilitate search and analysis.