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Data Mining In Law Enforcement

Posted by Soulskill on from the can't-they-just-google-it dept.

jcatcw points out a blog entry by Scott McPherson, CIO for the Florida House of Representatives. McPherson condemns the state of data sharing and data mining in law enforcement, saying that the US causes itself a great deal of trouble by focusing more on "antiterror armor and nuke-sniffing devices" than a useful information distribution network. He discusses a few such projects, and how they could have directly affected the events of 9/11. Quoting: "One of those ingenious things that actually worked, Seisint founder Hank Asher's brilliant MATRIX system, remains mired in controversy and politics. Hank showed me MATRIX just a few short weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Using law enforcement data and commercial data, all of the commercial data available in the public domain, Asher's query produced [hijacker Mohamed] Atta's photo -- and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers. It was simple data mining and algorithms, and none of the information was obtained illegally."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. I could find 19 terrorists in like 5 minutes! by Itninja · · Score: 1, Funny

    That sounds like an adult version of my 8-year-old saying "I wuz gonna say that" when we watch Jeopardy as a family. It's real easy to come in after the fact and impress someone with results that are already determined.

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    I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
  2. Worst. Clairvoyant. Ever. by Zigurd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hank showed me MATRIX just a few short weeks after the 9/11 attacks. Using law enforcement data and commercial data, all of the commercial data available in the public domain, Asher's query produced [hijacker Mohamed] Atta's photo -- and about 80 others, many of them fellow 9/11 hijackers, many of them associates of the 9/11 hijackers.


    A few short weeks after the Kentucky Derby, I devised a database system that predicted the winner. Impressive, no?

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    I wrote parts of this stuff
  3. pff by Kingrames · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Data Mining In Law Enforcement"

    I'll take "How do you round up the most possible innocent people and make false charges against them" for $500, Alex...

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    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  4. Re:Or not by JesseL · · Score: 2, Funny

    Capital punishment is.

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    "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  5. Re:Or not by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 3, Funny

    Then you believe that suicide bombing will go away because the bombers know they will die?

    Capital punishment has its uses, but as a deterrent it's pretty limited.