European Law Enforcement Research Bulletin

Preparing Law Enforcement for the Digital Age – an editor’s reflection

Detlef Nogala — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 20:48:57 +0000

Editorial introduction to the Special Conference Edition Nr. 6

Welcome Speech

Montserrat Marín López — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 19:34:06 +0000

Text of Welcome Speech by Executive Director of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training

Welcome Address

Ylva Johansson — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 19:28:30 +0000

Text of Welcome Address by Commissioner

Policing in a Digital Age

Luís Manuel André Elias — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Digital networks are a “new” environment for organized crime, radicalization, recruitment, terrorism, and disinformation. There is a deterritorialization of threats and risks, making digital networks a new dimension for the expansion of criminal networks and for justice and police.
Nowadays, democratic societies, human rights and internal/external security are challenged by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. This “brave new world” has created an illusion within Police and intelligence communities that prioritizing technological intelligence they will obtain immediate and better results.
The central aim of this article is to reflect on security trends in nowadays societies of investing more in hard policing and technological policing and less in community-based strategies.
Artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, analytical software, predictive techniques based on algorithms are increasingly used by law enforcement. This resulted in a gradual devaluing of community policing and human intelligence and raises a set of ethical, deontological, fundamental rights protection, privacy, and, most likely, the systematic reproduction of biases.
We propose to analyze the benefits for Police to promote a comprehensive approach between HUMINT and TECHINT to allow a better understanding of communities’ idiosyncrasies and to improve the relationship between Police and fragile communities, as well as to prevent threats and risks to our collective security.
We seek to prove the advantages of scientific research and innovation in the digital age, and of a comprehensive approach between soft and hard policing, between community policing and intelligence-led policing, promoting at the same time a permanent dialogue between Police and citizens.

Digital Data and Algorithms in Law Enforcement

Matthias Leese — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Digital data and algorithmic tools have over the past years found their way into law enforcement contexts, including modes of biometric identification and matching, automated surveillance capacities, short-term situational predictions, AI-supported analysis for large amounts of data, and the interoperability of large-scale databases and platforms for data exchange and investigation. These tools can help to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement operations on the strategic, tactical, and operational level. They do, however, also come with a number of concerns that must be acknowledged and addressed in order to realize their potential and avoid unintended side-effects and societal frictions. Based on a multi-year research project on predictive policing in Germany and Switzerland, this paper provides a systematic perspective on the challenges involved in implementing new and emerging technologies in law enforcement contexts. Specifically, it will address (1) the nature of data, i.e. how data are socially constructed and present a particular account of the world, inevitably leading to “biased” results; (2) transparency in algorithms and AI, i.e. how “black boxes” undercut human capacities to understand and retrace processes and create problems for public accountability; (3) automation and human control, i.e. the question how human operators can retain meaningful influence over analytical processes; (4) decision-making processes and automation bias, i.e. how humans can be empowered to critically question and override system recommendations; and (5) strategic and societal implications, i.e. the fact that digital tools should not be misused to displace larger programs that address the root causes of crime.

AP4AI

Babak Akhgar, Petra Saskia Bayerl, Grégory Mounier, Ruth Linden, Ben Waites — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The challenge for internal security practitioners including law enforcement and the justice sector is to determine how to capitalise on the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning to improve the way investigators, prosecutors, judges or border guards carry out their mission of keeping citizens safe and rendering justice while, at the same time, safeguarding and demonstrating true accountability of AI use towards society. The AP4AI (Accountability Principles for Artificial Intelligence) Project addresses this challenge by offering a global Framework for AI Accountability for Policing, Security and Justice. The AP4AI Framework is grounded in empirically verified Accountability Principles for AI as carefully researched and accessible standard, which supports internal security practitioners in implementing AI and Machine Learning tools in an accountable and transparent manner and in line with EU values and fundamental rights. The principles are universal and jurisdiction-neutral to offer guidance for internal security and justice practitioners globally in support of existing governance and accountability mechanisms through self-audit, monitoring and review. This paper presents the project approach as well as current results of the project and their relevance for the internal security domain.

North American Policing in the Digital Age

Maria Haberfeld — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article addresses the varying levels of training preparedness and legal challenges facing the American local law enforcement agencies in the Digital Age. From the example of the New York City Police Departments’ multiple units like: the SMART Unit (Social Media and Research Team), Real Crime Unit, Domain Awareness and Vehicle Recognition Unit to the overview of the majority of smaller police departments that have very limited, if any, type of preparedness. The majority of police departments in the United States are staffed with less than 50 sworn officers and the Digital Age policing challenges are numerous and addressed in a very uneven manner. However, the larger departments, like the N.Y.P.D., can provide a template for a more professional and effective response. Finally, in addition the different modalities of numerous tactical responses embedded in the creation of the specialized units, there are the challenges related the legal aspects of these initiatives. Some of the legal challenges facing the specialized unit are discussed while, focusing on the hurdles in obtaining legal subpoenas for the information posted on various social media platforms like the Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. A template for proper proactive preparedness culminates this overview.

EU Law Enforcement Training Needs on Digital Skills and the Use of New Technologies

Iulian Marius Coman, Noemi Alexa — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Digitalisation, one of the key elements addressed by CEPOL in law enforcement training, is carried out based on the continuing and emerging technological innovations that needs to be given the highest priority across the European law enforcement community. The new European Union Strategic Needs Assessment (EU-STNA), defines the strategic EU-level training priorities of law enforcement officials for the next 4-year cycle, 2022-2025, in line with the EMPACT priorities, emphasizing the importance of digital skills and use of new technologies, as one of the main horizontal aspects that should be addressed in all training activities. Cyber-attacks, had the highest prioritising, as EU training need, within the Member States, indicating more than 7600 officials that would need to be trained. Law enforcement and judiciary authorities would need further awareness raising regarding cyber security, cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crime, but also further improvement in dealing with e-evidence and international cooperation mechanisms. Taking into consideration the deliverables of the EU-STNA process, CEPOL has further launched a structured training needs analysis in 2021, the OTNA on Digital skills and the use of new technologies, in order to define the training portfolio addressing digitalisation of law enforcement for 2023-2025. Amongst most relevant training topics of the responding countries, we can highlight the Digital investigations, use of new technologies and digital forensics, that would need to be included in law enforcement training activities.

Law Enforcement Agency Capacity Building as a Driver for the Adoption of European Research

Michael Whelan, Ray Genoe — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The INSPECTr project aims to produce a proof of concept that will demonstrate solutions to many of the issues faced by institutional procedures within law enforcement agencies (LEAs) for combating cybercrime. Unlike many other H2020 projects, the results of INSPECTr will be freely available to stakeholders at the end of the project, despite having a low technology readiness level. It is imperative that LEAs fully understand the legal, security and ethical requirements for using disruptive and advanced technologies, particularly with a platform that will provide AI assisted decision making, facilitate intelligence gathering from online data sources and redefine how evidential data is discovered in other jurisdictions and exchanged. However, INSPECTr will also require the support of stakeholders beyond the scope of the project, in order to drive further development and investment towards market-readiness. The development of a robust capacity building program has been included in the project to ensure that LEAs can confidently use the system and that they fully understand both the pitfalls and the potential of the platform. During our training needs analyses, various European instruments, standards and priorities are considered, such as CEPOL’s EU Strategic Training Needs Assessment, the course development standards established by ECTEG and Europol’s Training Competency Framework. With this research and through consultation with internal and external stakeholders, we define the pathways of training for the INSPECTr platform in which we aim to address the various roles in European LEAs and their requirements for the effective delivery and assessment of the course. In keeping with the project’s ethics-by-design approach, the training program produced by INSPECTr will have a strong emphasis on security and the fundamental rights of citizens while addressing the gaps in capabilities and training within the EU LEA community. In this paper we describe the process we apply to curriculum design, based on the findings of our research and our continued engagement with LEA and technical partners throughout the life-cycle of the project.

The Challenges of E-Learning in the French Police Nationale

Cédric Carré — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper aims at studying the shortcomings and strengths of the French Law Enforcement administration in the use of E-learning with a focal point on the Police Nationale. The evolution of law enforcement knowledge, techniques, and materials, and even regulations and professional recommendations make continuing education for the Law enforcement professions more essential than ever. Despite the extraordinary rise in digital technology in the training and education field, the French Police Nationale refused for a long time to take the turn of digital progress in the training it offered to cadets but also to experienced officers on the grounds that it was inefficient and approximative in the completion of Police Training. Reputedly monolithic and hard to modernize, the Law Enforcement system in France was reluctant if not closed to the idea of using a tool they saw as unprofessional and unserious. The COVID-19 pandemic shattered their certainties. Unable to give in-person trainings but having to ensure the continuity of curriculums, the French Police Nationale training department had to think out of the box. Facing reluctance, mistrust and sometimes lack of skills from its agents, a cumbersome process ensued for the administration with the construction of a new online training structure, the hiring of new digital experts and education-specialised civilians and the funding for new digital tools to implement quality courses. New training ideas emerged with these new recruits and new tools. Soon, major e-learning projects were achieved, among which the cadet training curriculum and the national language program are now the best examples.

The Influence of Digital Devices on Learning Interest, Engagement and Academic Performance in Basic Police Training

Micha Fuchs; Kristina Ott — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Bavarian Police training aims to equip all 750 police teachers and 4.000 police officer trainees with officially approved police tablet PCs and smartphones by the end of 2025. Following a phased approach, teachers and trainees are being issued with tablet PCs (convertibles) and smartphones. Overall, there is no doubt that the use of digital devices is undoubtedly important and necessary in order a) to prepare the police officer trainees for their future work as police officers and b) to support their learning process. However, the question arises as to how exactly they benefit from using those digital devices. To get a first insight on the impact of digital devices on learning interest and engagement of police officer trainees in the classroom, as well as on their academic performance in general, the Bavarian Police training conducted a digital pilot project with a single unit of 100 police officer trainees and 20 police teachers and trainers for 21 months (December 2019 to August 2021). The findings show that the different digital devices have different impacts on the learning behaviour as well as on the academic performance of the police officer trainees. Above all, tablet PCs and interactive whiteboards have shown to improve learning behaviour. Furthermore, the findings show that digital devices which are not used regularly do not improve the classroom behaviour of the police officer trainees or even worsens things slightly. The study suggests several practical implications for the further implementation of digital devices such as the necessity of training the police personnel, developing new didactic teaching methods as well as new teaching formats.

An Assistive System for Transferring Domain Knowledge to Novice Officers

Héctor López Carral; Paul FMJ Verschure — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Instructional strategies in many operative fields, including law enforcement, have reached a high level of complexity due to dynamically changing task environments and the introduction of different technologies to help the users in their operational work. In the last decades, a transition has been observed from dedicated trainers to the adoption of automated technologies to support the trainees. Based on a review of state-of-the-art literature and direct feedback from law enforcement agencies, we have developed an assistive system to aid in the knowledge transfer from expert to novice officers, and, consequently, improve the time necessary to train novel users. This system is grounded on the most relevant instructional principles derived from cognitive and learning theories. The result is a system that can dynamically deliver suggestions based on previous successful actions from other users and the current performance and state of the user. To validate it, we implemented a knowledge graph exploration task, in which users can receive suggestions from the system. Here, we propose this novel knowledge transfer system by presenting the corresponding literature review together with the conceptualization of the architecture of the assistive system and the implementation of a validation task. With this work, we aim at facilitating the transfer of domain knowledge, which could have a significant impact on the training and education of law enforcement officials in and for the Digital Age.

Children on the Internet - Law Enforcement Challenges

Nicoleta Apolozan, Andreea Jantea — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The current technological development and the increased access of people of different ages to devices connected to the Internet pose new challenges to the law enforcement for preventing, as well as for investigating such crimes. Children, who have access to multiple devices connected to the internet, in association with other factors linked to their age, are a very vulnerable segment of population. As members of the implementation team of the Cyberex RO Project – Improving, cooperating and preventing in the fight against cybercrime, we conducted a research aiming to identify the main risks and vulnerabilities faced by young students aged 10 to 18 in Romania in the online environment. The results were used to train police officers from crime prevention units in Romania, in order to increase their understanding of cybercrime and current trends. This paper discusses the results of the qualitative analysis of interviews with law enforcement officers from ten counties in Romania regarding the main challenges that the police have faced in handling cyber cases involving children, in order to substantiate, on a scientific basis, the activities of preventing cybercrime against children.

Investigating High-Risk Firms

Antonio Bosisio, Maria Jofre — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Corporate ownership secrecy has become a central issue in the global debate as the use of legitimate companies in illicit schemes has increased dramatically in recent times. While several measures have been implemented worldwide to increase the transparency of firms and their owners, empirical evidence and knowledge on the subject remain limited to few small-scale case studies. In addition, there is a lack of tools specifically designed for risk assessment and risk monitoring of firms to be used by public authorities. The present paper, based on the results of the EU-funded project DATACROS, addresses these gaps by (i) proposing and validating novel risk indicators of corporate ownership opacity in a large sample of companies, and (ii) implementing them in a user-friendly platform to be used by public institutions, a tool capable of identifying companies at risk of involvement in corruption and money laundering. Machine learning results confirm the relevance of corporate ownership opacity in the facilitation of financial crime. Firms with (i) more complex structures, (ii) links to secrecy jurisdictions, and (iii) links to opaque corporate vehicles, are, in fact, more prone to engage in illicit activities. This urgently calls for the innovation of risk assessment activities based on the intelligent use of corporate ownership information. As such, the present contribution could be used to support LEAs and other authorities in combating financial crime in the sometimes overwhelming and ever-evolving digital age.

Open Source Intelligence and Cultural Property Crimes

Francisco José Rufián Fernández; Agustín José Constante Orrios — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

There is a vast dark market focused on the antiquities trade, the main character of which, when compared to other illicit businesses, is its capacity to intermix with the legal market. This leads to a significant increase in difficulty during investigations. We must also add to this the fact that digital tools have changed our way of life and the manner in which business is conducted, and people undertaking criminal activities have not been left out of this. In this regard, law enforcement agencies need to develop scientific knowledge and IT capacities, in cooperation with academics and society, in order to face the continuous challenges in this field.
OSINT techniques are some of the most valuable tools in this regard, such as carrying out provenance investigations, which are crucial to identifying and proving the illicit origin of any object. This presentation aims to provide a succinct overview of the issue to foster the development of new academic research and investigations within the field.

Art of Money Laundering with Non-Fungible Tokens

Dimitrios Kafteranis, Umut Turksen — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

As the rules for countering money laundering constantly change, criminals find new methods and platforms to launder their “dirty” money. Recently, such new platforms have included the art market and the use of crypto currencies. Subsequently, both of these sectors were added to the list of sectors susceptible to facilitate money laundering. Apart from the traditional art market, criminals may use digital art in order to facilitate their activities. The rise of the digital art market with the expansion of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is a new area of concern for law enforcement agencies. Anonymity and price volatility of NFTs create a unique and exploitable environment for criminals. The complex nature and uncertain legal status of NFTs further complicate the counter measures one can take. This paper explains what NFTs are, analyses their relation to money laundering risks and scrutinises their legal status in the EU. In doing so, it identifies gaps in the law and training needs of LEAs. Finally, the paper provides potential solutions and recommendations in relation to these gaps. The paper offers a novel study on NFTs and aims to pave the way for further comparative studies related to NFTs.

Technology Foresight on Biometrics for the Future of Travel

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In 2021, Frontex conducted a Technology Foresight on Biometrics for the Future of Travel, with the objective of
studying the future of biometrics for its implementation in border check systems that may benefit the work of the European Border and Coast Guard community in the short-, medium- and long-term perspectives. Three experts’ consultation events (two Technology Foresight Workshops and a Delphi survey) took place during the project. A broad group of relevant stakeholders was involved in these events to exploit collective intelligence and stimulate consensus-oriented discussions. A custom Technology Foresight methodology was developed, opening the door to the exploration of the vast field of biometric technologies, which were analysed from various perspectives in the context of border checks. Each of the phases of this complex research study produced its own set of insights.
Due to the substantial amount of information provided and the adopted participatory foresight approach, this
study will directly contribute to an enhanced understanding of the relevance and applicability of novel biometrics and technology foresight, as well as to identify areas of strategic interest and to make informed decisions about paths of future developments in biometrics. In this article we summarise the main results of the research study.

Race, Ethnicity, Biotechnology and the Law

Andras L. Pap, Eszter Kovács Szitkay — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The authors, working a project mapping how law conceptualizes and operationalizes race, ethnicity and nationality, provide an assessment of the triadic relationship between law, law enforcement practices and science. The article begins by providing an overview of the obstacles, challenges and controversies in the legal institutionalization and operationalization of ethnic/racial/national group affiliation. Subsequently, the article turns to the assessment of how “objective” criteria, data and constructions provided by science and biotechnology translate into the legal discourse and more specifically law enforcement practice in the digital age. The case study in the final section of the article provides an overview of how suspect description and the datafication is ethnicizied in Hungarian digital law enforcement registries.

Artificial Intelligence and Interoperability for Solving Challenges of OSINT and Cross-Border Investigations

Amr el Rahwan — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The major investigation challenges are summarised as multiple-identity, fraudulent actions, lack of interoperability and absence of an effective technical solution for exchanging Cross-Border information, and complexity of OSINT investigations. The EU published Regulations (EU) 2019/817 and 2019/818 for establishing a framework for EU interoperability be-tween information systems in the field of borders and visa information systems, police and judicial cooperation, asylum, and migration. Existing systems such as EURODAC, SIS / SISII, and VIS must share data, and new systems such as ECRIS-TCN, EES, and ETIAS also need to follow these guidelines. Although the eu-LISA will implement the interoperability framework in 2023, new challenges will emerge, such as investigating multiple-identity and identity frauds due to the different formats and structures of data, low quality of biographic and biometric data, and low accuracy of matching algorithms.
Furthermore, the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) investigation process is not automated, consumes a lot of
time, and is overwhelming. When border security and law enforcement officers use methods of OSINT to investigate terrorism and serious crime, it is very difficult to match and link the identity-related data and facial images of the suspects stored in the EU systems, Cross-Border systems, and open sources.
The paper argues different Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods and algorithms and interoperability could be the
optimum solution for the challenges mentioned above. The paper highlights a Person-Centric approach using
Artificial Intelligence and interoperability to solve the challenges that emerge during investigations, such as multiple-identity, identity frauds, exchanging Cross-Border information, and the complexity of OSINT investigations.

Developing a Judicial Cross-Check System for Case Searching and Correlation Using a Standard for the Evidence

Fabrizio Turchi, Gerardo Giardiello — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 19:37:29 +0000

In a recent EU publication, a report commissioned by the European Union related to the Cross-border Digital Criminal Justice environment, a set of specific business needs have been identified. Some of the most relevant ones have been: i) the interoperability across different systems needs to be ensured, ii) the stakeholders need to easily manage the data and ensure its quality, allowing them to properly make use of it (e.g. use the data as evidence in a given case) and iii) the stakeholders investigating a given case should be able to identify links between cross-border cases. Therefore, solutions are needed to allow the stakeholder to search and find relevant information they need for the case they are handling. The study presents a set of solutions to address the highlighted needs, including a Judicial Cases Cross-Check system. Such a system should provide a tool being able to search for case-related information and identify links among cases that are being investigated in other EU Member States or by Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) agencies and EU bodies. To facilitate the development of the above solution, a standard representation of the metadata and data of the Evidence should be adopted. In particular the ontology Unified Cyber Ontology (UCO) and Cyber-investigation Analysis Standard Expression (CASE), dedicated to the digital forensic domain, seems the most promising one to this aim and moreover it provides a structured specification for representing information that are analysed and exchanged during investigations involving digital evidence.

Mobile Forensics and Digital Solutions

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Mobile devices have become an indispensable part of modern society and are used throughout the world on a daily basis. The proliferation of such devices has rendered them a crucial part of criminal investigations and has led to the rapid advancement of the scientific field of Mobile Forensics. The forensic examination of mobile devices provides essential information for authorities in the investigation of cases and their relative importance advances as more evidence and traces of criminal activity can be acquired through the analysis of the corresponding forensic artifacts. Data related to the device user, call logs, text messages, contacts, image and video files, notes, communication records, networking activity and application related data, among others, with correct technical interpretation and correlation through expert analysis, can significantly contribute to the successful completion of digital criminal investigations. The above underline the necessity for advanced forensic tools that will utilize the most prominent achievements in Data Science. In this paper, the current status of Mobile Forensics as a branch of Digital Forensics is examined by exploring the most important challenges that digital forensic examiners face and investigating whether Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions can revolutionize the daily practice with respect to digital forensics investigations. The utilization of these emerging technologies provides crucial tools and enhances the professional expertise of digital forensic scientists, paving the way to overcome the critical challenges of digital criminal investigations.

Forensic Linguistics

Rui Sousa-Silva — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The recent technological developments have granted citizens worldwide access to the Internet, including in handheld devices, and offered them new communication possibilities. Nevertheless, it has also exposed them to more cybernetic attacks, as criminals gained new opportunities for cybercriminal practice. The (perceived) increase in the number of cyberattacks faces Law Enforcement with two major challenges: firstly, the higher the volume of cyberattacks, the harder it is to dedicate the necessary resources, including human, to fight them; secondly, the range of sophisticated stealth technologies used by cybercriminals to remain anonymous online hamper the work of the forces. This paper argues that, since (cyber)criminals use language to communicate, their anonymisation can be undermined by the language that they use because language use is idiosyncratic, so each speaker of language makes a particular use of their language (Coulthard, 2004). This is enabled by Forensic Linguistics, which can be broadly defined as the application of linguistic analyses in legal or Law Enforcement contexts. This article presents two illustrative cases of cybercrime to show the potential of the forensic linguistic analysis. The first is the case of an anonymous set of text messages spreading defamatory contents, whose linguistic analysis enabled the sociolinguistic profiling of the author, and hence narrow down the pool of suspects. The second presents a cross border cybercriminal practice: fraudulent and deceptive messages sent to citizens for purposes of extortion. The article concludes by discussing the potential of the linguistic analyses in the fight against (cyber)crime, and making recommendations for Law Enforcement.

The Identification of Invalid Information about the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic on a Social Networking Platform

Georgios Lygeros — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The outbreak of COVID-19 caused a parallel contagion which affected the sphere of information called infodemic. Social media as a popular communication channel, enhanced the phenomenon of misinformation causing multidimensional effects both in societal and individual level. Twitter as a web forum, host various types of false content that either deliberately or unintentionally were posted from experts, politicians or civilians. This democratized environment may offer the opportunity of opinion exchange but can maximize the consequences of misinformation. Conspiracy theories, false therapies and dystopian future prediction monopolized Twitters daily activity highlighting the need of a supervisory mechanism which would eliminate such content. In this paper, Machine learning techniques are implemented in order to detect fake COVID-19 related content. For this purpose, algorithms of Natural Language Processing (NLP) are utilized. The data used to train the algorithms are derived from a publicly accessible dataset that contains tweets related to the current pandemic and were published in Greek language. These tweets were classified and annotated in three categories, true, irrelevant, or false. Once a sufficient number of data has been annotated, the most common words are visualized through word clouds for each category. In addition, a set of linguistic and morphological features were extracted from them by applying methods of converting texts into vectors, as well as features related to the subjectivity of the tweets’ texts.

Cold Case - Solved & Unsolved:

Tatjana Kuznecova, Dimitar Rangelov, Jaap Knotter — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

On average 125 murders take place in the Netherlands on an annual basis. However, not all such incidents can be solved. Currently there are more than 1700 unsolved homicide cases on the shelf at the National Police that classify as a ‘cold case’. Investigation into these types of capital offenses takes a lot of time, money and capacity. Applications of the current working method and available techniques are very labor-intensive and time-consuming. In addition, the pressure on the executive police officers is high - from the police organization, the Public Prosecution Service, the media, the next of kin, as well as society in general. From an investigative point of view, it is relevant to gain an overview and to be able to provide direction in the criminal investigation, in which ‘tunnel vision’ should be prevented. From a scientific point of view, more research into homicide cases in the Netherlands is of eminent importance. Remarkably little has been written in scientific literature about this type of crime. Saxion University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands in collaboration with the Dutch Police Academy initiated a research line to investigate to what extent data science techniques and modern digital technologies can be used to facilitate or support homicide and other crime investigations. The first project ‘Cold Case: Solved & Unsolved’ focused on the use of open sources to collect the data and gain more insight into homicide cases in The Netherlands, explored applicability of modern data processing and analysis techniques, as well as developed a pilot tool for structuring the investigative process. The project was integrated with a study course ‘Minor Cold Case’ in Saxion to facilitate the use of the developed knowledge/tools in the educational programs.

AI Potential to Uncover Criminal Modus Operandi Features

Ana Isabel Barros, Koen van der Zwet, Joris Westerveld, Wendy Schreurs — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Technological innovations such as digitalisation have an increasingly important role in our society. This development is also reflected in police work. In particular, the access to information on a global scale has increased the international character, adaptivity, and fluidity of criminal organisations. As such, there is a pressing need to better understand the evolving nature of these organisations and their associated modus operandi. While digitalisation enables access to lots of information and yields information overload challenges, developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) offer new opportunities to tackle these challenges. In particular, they provide support in the automatic extraction and analysis of unstructured sources of information to efficiently make sense of large amounts of textual information sources. In this paper, we will explore the potential and challenges of various AI methods to extract criminal modus operandi from unstructured open text sources, like law court sentences. Such open text sources are reliable information sources that includes detailed validated information on the criminal activities and the modus operandi evolution in a given country. The application of this approach offers an alternative to the examination of classified police information and it also facilitates cross-country comparisons. The inherent complexity of modus operandi and the unstructured character of law court sentences yield the need to align and structure the modus operandi question with particular text mining methods. Specifically, we propose a step-wise approach to analyse automatic extraction of modus operandi-related problems via exploration, detection, and categorisation analysis. This decomposition enables to align these problems to specific functions of text-mining or machine learning methods, such as similarity detection, clustering, or named entity recognition. Using practical examples we demonstrate how this approach enables to automatically extract relevant information from court cases sentences for analysing modus operandi evolution in time.

The Potential of AI and Data Science in Reducing the Vulnerability of Ports to Undermining Crime

Nienke de Groes, Willem-Jan van den Heuvel, Pieter Tops — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The port of Rotterdam is an important gateway to Europe and an important logistic hub for global trade. However, factors that ensure the competitive position of the port of Rotterdam are also attractive for drug criminals. In this paper the findings of an empirical study on the potential of AI and data science in securing ports against undermining crimes are presented . The study consisted of a qualitative research, which was conducted through semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews and an expert meeting.The port of Rotterdam is an important gateway to Europe and an important logistic hub for global trade. However, factors that ensure the competitive position of the port of Rotterdam are also attractive for drug criminals. In this paper the findings of an empirical study on the potential of AI and data science in securing ports against undermining crimes are presented . The study consisted of a qualitative research, which was conducted through semi-structured interviews, in-depth interviews and an expert meeting. The findings of this research show that developments in Data Science and AI at ports could have a strong effect on reducing the vulnerability of ports against illegal activity. With the advent of smart technologies, the vulnerable human factor (in the context of undermining crime) in port processes could, gradually, become less important and be replaced by technology. However, new vulnerabilities may arise in the field of data ownership and cybersecurity. To realise the potential of AI and Data Science to protect ports from undermining crime, attention must be paid to these vulnerabilities, as well as ensuring the acceptance of the new (automated) technologies and adopting a systems approach.

Evidential Validity of Video Surveillance Footage in Criminal Investigation and Court Proceedings

Ksenija Butorac; Hrvoje Filipović — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The paper analyzes several aspects of the video surveillance system application, starting from the prevention of misdemeanors and crime according to the Council Decision on the establishment of the European Crime Prevention Network. The second aspect relates to the use of video surveillance systems in the misdemeanors and crime investigation, and the third one relates to the evidential value of video surveillance systems in court proceedings. For this purpose, the case law analysis of the highest level was made, namely of the High Misdemeanor Court, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia and of the European Court of Human Rights through case studies. The paper discusses the evidential value of the footage important for criminal investigation. However, the central issue is a question whether digital evidence in the form of video surveillance can be decisive in court proceedings or not, since no court order is required as it for other evidentiary actions. The paper proposes solutions de lege ferenda given that video surveillance systems are becoming more widespread and have proven to be very effective in criminal investigation, but, contextually speaking, also in procedural terms. The respective contextual approach requires the interpretation of current case law emphasizing that the content and significance of the footage in court proceedings must be perceived as a whole and that besides the right of defense, the public and the victim’s interests are to be taken into account.