Staff report
alexandrianews.org
The Alexandria Police Department is the first local law enforcement agency in the national capital region to launch a new text analytic technology that will vastly increase its capacity to more effectively analyze and utilize huge volumes of crime data. Through a partnership with IxReveal, APD is implementing analytic technology software called uReveal, which is already used by major federal agencies, intelligence organizations and corporations.
This technological tool allows analysts to rapidly and simultaneously analyze massive volumes of unstructured and structured data, digging deeply through the use of “concepts” to find insights that traditional systems routinely miss. “Concepts” created by analysts can include a broad range of details, including the names and nicknames of all known suspects (and even their tattoo patterns). The software enables crime analysts to search police reports for patterns, series and cross-matches, utilizing concept-related information found anywhere in the Police Department’s Record Management System.
The Police Department will use uReveal to analyze the numerous police reports generated on a daily basis, based on analysis of years of historical data, as well as data from other jurisdictions. APD will be able to collaboratively share concepts and findings with researchers in other organizations (locally and across the nation) who operate on different IT systems.
