New Internet-based System helps link Agency Data to Find Culprits

A new prototype Internet-based system allows U.S. police departments to share information about a particular suspect's criminal records and crime activity across the U.S. by using an intelligence gathering tool known as "Coplink." Developed at an artificial intelligence laboratory at the University of Arizona, Coplink can enable police departments to establish links quickly among their existing information files and those of other police departments, then links and compares the data found from those files by cross-referencing that information. Designed by Hsinchun Chen, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Arizona, Chen says of his prototype Coplink, "It's the Google [an Internet search engine that uses words to locate related Web sites] for law enforcement. Things that a human can do intuitively we are getting the computer to do, too."

The information gathered about the recent U.S. sniper case is being entered into Coplink to help locate other possible victims and information from other unsolved shootings with similar circumstances to determine if these cases have similarities to the activities of the sniper suspects. The information was gathered from the F.B.I.'s computer database system, Rapidstart. Knowledge Computing Corporation of Tucson is now turning Chen's prototype from a prototype into a commercial product. According to its President, Robert Griffin, "The more data you get, the better Coplink works." Citing an example of how Coplink helps find links in crimes, Mr. Griffin cited a Tucson case where a man was found after being run over by a vehicle, still alive and face down with his throat cut. Just before he was put in the ambulance, the injured man said, "Shorty did it." When the name 'Shorty' was entered into Coplink and was cross-referenced with the victim's personal data, within minutes the database records indicated that the victim and 'Shorty' had both done time together in the same prison.

Because Coplink relies on existing criminal records, which are already public information, "Big Brother" information concerns are not immediately raised. However, privacy concerns are still key. "When this kind of knowledge is applied to discrete databases, or an investigation of a single type of crime, say serial rape, then I don't see a lot of privacy issues," according to James Dempsey, Deputy Director of a Washington public interest group advocating issues of privacy on the Internet, The Center for Democracy and Technology. "When you start trying to extend this technology to many different types of crimes or into information other than law enforcement, then the problems multiply rapidly." Dempsey indicated a security concern might exist if Coplink went nationwide and was open to all levels of law enforcement officials. "The nightmare would be when the bad guys tap into it, and we know how many insecure Internet-based systems there are," he said.