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Smart database to help Cape Breton police battle crime

By: Nestor E. Arellano
ITWorld Canada  (25 Aug 2006)

Filing large amounts of disparate and seemingly unconnected evidence is standard operating procedure in criminal investigations, but it can also become an administrative burden.

A new "evidence database" being developed for the Cape Breton Police Service in Nova Scotia seeks to resolve this issue.

The database is being created by IBM Research, in collaboration with the Cape Breton Police Service, Cape Breton University and local business software manufacturer ADM Solutions Inc. based in Dominion, Nova Scotia.

Once deployed, it will allow officers to remotely file and recover data from their squad car computer.

In addition to speeding up information filing and retrieval, the database will drastically cut down paperwork, support decision making, help detectives quickly identify links and patterns, and accurately track the progress on an investigation.

Research on the project has been going on for the past eight months and the system will be available for testing by six Cape Breton officers by next week.

Dubbed the Detective Analytic Workbench or DAW, the database digitally stores information such as interview tapes and wiretaps, scanned documents, forensic reports, 911 messages, as well as photos and video footage from surveillance tapes.

The database categorizes and cross-references information and prepares it for instant retrieval over a secured network.

"This project cuts the paperwork so detectives can concentrate on the footwork," said Inspector Miles Burk of the Cape Breton Regional Police.

Rather than searching through files in the police station, an officer at a crime scene can access the system and enter a query for common links, patterns and objects such as vehicles, weapons and even faces. "It gives our detectives the ability to make key decisions faster in determining the direction of the investigation."

Another area where DAW could be potentially used is in preparing material for disclosure in courts.

A typical court case often involves stacks of documents. Where originals are not necessary, digital versions of files can lessen the load and shorten the time to search for specific entries.

With IBM's voice recognition software, interrogators will be able to reduce the number of typed transcripts by using digital audio recordings. Miles said the software has an 80 per cent accuracy rate which may not be acceptable in court but is good enough for investigation purposes.

IBM, Cape Breton University and AMB are working together on the research and development of the database, according to Paul McCullough, business unit executive for public safety and defence at IBM.

The police department, he said, helps in determining features most needed by law enforcement agencies.

For instance, beat officers pushed for the inclusion of a case timeline application to help track the progress of an investigation. This feature was not initially considered by developers.

Sarah Conrod, manager of special projects at the Cape Breton University, said technology course students test the DAW's performance against results of previously solved crimes. "We manage the alpha and beta testing of the applications and provide the other parties with feedback."

Although the project is geared towards the policing community, McCullough said he foresees other uses. "By extracting context out of content, we see possible applications in the commercial and the intelligence communities."

IBM assets being used in the project include the DB2 database content manager software , which manages document life cycles, OmniFind search software designed for corporate Web sites and the WebSphere set of software products that help integrate electronic business applications across Web-based networks.

McCullough said concerns the system would infringe on privacy rights would be unfounded.

He said only information already available and allowable in police files will be fed into the database. The data is encrypted for security purposes.

Another law enforcer thinks the Cape Breton project is going in the right direction. Cpl. David Peters, program analyst for the technology crime branch, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Ottawa says any tool that cuts down paperwork is certainly welcome. "Anyone who has worked in a critical investigation knows that paperwork bogs the investigation down."

He said the RCMP also employs an automated database but is not sure if it is similar to the one being developed in Cape Breton.

Back in 1991, Sgt. Greg Johnson, a serious crimes investigator with little computer knowledge, headed a team that developed the RCMP's Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS), said Peters.

The automated crime database incorporated some of the best features found in U.S. criminal profiling and tracking systems.

The CPIC is a Web-based information network linking all Canadian law enforcement agencies.

Link: http://www.itworldcanada.com/a/News/9b722a79-eaea-41d5-a1ba-51ae271bb404.html

New IBM Data Analysis Technologies Help Cape Breton Police Solve Violent Crimes   ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(CCNMatthews - Aug. 21, 2006)

Cape Breton Regional Police Services will be the first to use new IBM Research technology to help investigators analyze clues and solve violent crimes more quickly.

The new tool will enable detectives to transmit evidence gathered at a crime scene to a police database, and then retrieve, share, search and analyze it from squad cars, the streets, or other locations and jurisdictions. The technology is currently being tested in Cape Breton using data from a solved murder case.

"Policing costs Canadians about $7.9 billion dollars a year, or almost two-thirds of the total criminal justice expenditures," said Edgar MacLeod, chief of Cape Breton Regional Police Service. "By automating the capture and analysis of evidence, we decrease the administrative burden on our officers, so they can focus on their main responsibility, which is crime prevention."

IBM developed the advanced data mining and content management tool to convert video and audio material such as wiretaps, interrogations and surveillance tapes, and text-based evidence such as interview notes or witness statements, into digital files that can be queried for common links, patterns, objects such as vehicles, or even faces.

IBM is collaborating on the research project with Cape Breton police, ADM Solutions, a local business partner, and Cape Breton University. The university, involved since the project's inception, is investigating how to further integrate voice recognition technologies into the system, developing training and e-learning materials and providing overall project management.

About IBM

For more information about IBM visit www.ibm.com/ca

About Cape Breton University

Cape Breton University is home to national calibre programming, athletics teams, research and innovation. Recently, our graduates ranked CBU number one nationally in the Maclean's Graduate Satisfaction Survey, specifically in Entire Educational Experience and Teaching and Instruction. With a growing national and international focus, partnerships also play an integral role at the university and include Cape Breton Regional Police Services and IBM. www.cbu.ca.

Link: http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=608729

New IBM data analysis technologies help Cape Breton Police solve violent crimes

St. John’s, Newfoundland – August 21, 2006 – Cape Breton Regional Police Services will be the first to use new IBM Research technology to help investigators analyze clues and solve violent crimes more quickly.

The new tool will enable detectives to transmit evidence gathered at a crime scene to a police database, and then retrieve, share, search and analyze it from squad cars, the streets, or other locations and jurisdictions. The technology is currently being tested in Cape Breton using data from a solved murder case.

“Policing costs Canadians about $7.9 billion dollars a year, or almost two-thirds of the total criminal justice expenditures,” said Edgar MacLeod, chief of Cape Breton Regional Police Service. “By automating the capture and analysis of evidence, we decrease the administrative burden on our officers, so they can focus on their main responsibility, which is crime prevention.”

IBM developed the advanced data mining and content management tool to convert video and audio material such as wiretaps, interrogations and surveillance tapes, and text-based evidence such as interview notes or witness statements, into digital files that can be queried for common links, patterns, objects such as vehicles, or even faces.

IBM is collaborating on the research project with Cape Breton police, ADM Solutions, a local business partner, and Cape Breton University. The university, involved since the project’s inception, is investigating how to further integrate voice recognition technologies into the system, developing training and e-learning materials and providing overall project management.

Link: http://www.ibm.com/news/ca/en/2006/08/2006_08_21.html

New IBM Data Analysis Technologies (CBU)

New IBM Data Analysis Technologies
Help Cape Breton Police Solve Violent Crimes

St. John’s, NF – August 21, 2006… Cape Breton Regional Police Services will be the first to use new IBM Research technology to help investigators analyze clues and solve violent crimes more quickly.

The new tool will enable detectives to transmit evidence gathered at a crime scene to a police database, and then retrieve, share, search and analyze it from squad cars, the streets, or other locations and jurisdictions. The technology is currently being tested in Cape Breton using data from a solved murder case.

“Policing costs Canadians about $7.9 billion dollars a year, or almost two-thirds of the total criminal justice expenditures,” said Edgar MacLeod, chief of Cape Breton Regional Police Service. “By automating the capture and analysis of evidence, we decrease the administrative burden on our officers, so they can focus on their main responsibility, which is crime prevention.”

IBM developed the advanced data mining and content management tool to convert video and audio material such as wiretaps, interrogations and surveillance tapes, and text-based evidence such as interview notes or witness statements, into digital files that can be queried for common links, patterns, objects such as vehicles, or even faces.

IBM is collaborating on the research project with Cape Breton police, ADM Solutions, a local business partner, and Cape Breton University. The university, involved since the project’s inception, is investigating how to further integrate voice recognition technologies into the system, developing training and e-learning materials and providing overall project management.

About IBM
For more information about IBM visit www.ibm.com

About Cape Breton University
Cape Breton University is home to national calibre programming, athletics teams, research and innovation. Recently, our graduates ranked CBU number one nationally in the Maclean’s Graduate Satisfaction Survey, specifically in Entire Educational Experience and Teaching and Instruction. With a growing national and international focus, partnerships also play an integral role at the university and include Cape Breton Regional Police Services and IBM. www.cbu.ca.

Link: http://www.cbu.ca/cbu_main/newsrel/NewsDetail.asp?NewsID=219

The case of the easily crunched database

Groundbreaking tool turns criminal evidence into digital files that simplify investigations,

Sydney, NS, 3 Oct 06 - In the rugged highlands of Nova Scotia, the 220-member Cape Breton Regional Police Service is piloting a crime-solving tool that would make the investigators of CSI and its spin-offs green with envy.

The working name is the Detective's Analytical Workbench, a mundane moniker for a new technology that seems likely to revolutionize not just police work but indeed all database searches and analysis. What drives the Workbench is its ground-breaking ability to use keywords to search databases for unstructured information -- videos, digital pictures, audio tapes and word documents, all randomly stored.

"We estimate that 80 per cent of the information stored in databases is of the unstructured kind and as a result not searchable," says Allen McCormick, whose ADM Solutions Inc. of Dominion, N.S., is a key player in the development of the Workbench.

"What we are looking at now is the potential for this small company to become the Google of unstructured data."

IBM Canada Ltd., another key player in the development of the technology, agrees with that optimistic forecast.

"We can see a tremendous market potential for this technology," says Paul McCullough, business unit executive in IBM Canada's police, safety and defence unit. "That is why we made it one of our First-of-a-Kind programs -- that is an internal process that allows us to fast track research to the commercialization stage."

In essence what the Workbench does is collect every shred of evidence or ancillary material relevant to a crime, translate it into digital form, automatically structure it, then allow investigators to use a desktop PC to search the resulting database by keywords or phrases for specific details of the crime.

The next phase will be to allow investigators to use the system in the field, accessing material through laptops, personal digital assistants or even cellphones and BlackBerry-like devices.


The Workbench promises to speed investigations in an almost geometric progression, says Cape Breton Police Chief Edgar McLeod.

Right now the force uses what is known as the Major Case Management System, which was  introduced to policing in the wake of the Paul Bernardo murder trial. Under that system, evidence is collected and assembled in a single place, such as several storage boxes. Among the evidence might be officers' notes, audio and videotapes of interviews, digital photos of the scene and other evidence. Searching related pieces of evidence requires manually sifting through the material.

 What is more, the evidence must be duplicated for both the Crown prosecutors and the defence lawyers.

 The Workbench automates transcription, organizes all files in a searchable fashion and allows related evidence to be sifted out quickly and easily. Investigators can, for example, type in "red car" and all references to a red car in the collected material will appear on the screen.

"We have seven or eight people here working all day just transcribing documents," says Chief McLeod. Crime fighting has become an increasingly complex and expensive business because of the need for documentation.

"All levels of government spend about $70-billion a year on policing in Canada," Mr. McCormick says. "Policing regularly accounts for 8 per cent of federal, provincial and municipal budgets. This new system could greatly reduce that spending."

The Cape Breton police are working on a test case, a three-year-old solved homicide. The results have proved so encouraging that Chief McLeod says he expects the system to be applied to live cases later this fall.

The way the system came into being might be as fascinating as its crime fighting ability. Key elements include an innovative small town university, a police force that has overcome its small size and equally small budget to become a leader in law and order technology, an honorary degree to a previously uncelebrated research scientist, a local software company cutting its teeth on leading edge transcription services and a technology giant keen on creating vast new markets for its software.

In 2001, Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S., joined the Liberated Learning Consortium, a group of educational institutions committed to using IBM's new ViaScribe voice-activated software to create classroom applications, says Sarah Conrod, the university's manager of special research projects. Membership led to a close working relationship with IBM researcher Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky, one of IBM's leading minds.

The IBM-university team brought in Mr. McCormick and ADM to work on their digital file transcription process, chiefly transcribing a series of IBM Web lectures.

In 2004, the team showcased its results at a museum in Baddeck, N.S. That same year it awarded Dr. Kanevsky an honorary doctorate.

"I think that recognition really pleased Dimitri," says Chief McLeod. "He opened up all kinds of research to the university as a result."

Earlier this year, with the Baddeck project finished, the team began looking around for new ways to apply its research, Ms. Conrod says.

"It was all just happy coincidence," she says. "Somebody was talking with Chief McLeod about what we were doing and he immediately saw the potential for police work."

The chief, who also has an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University and is a former president of the Canadian Police Chiefs Association, is regarded as an advanced thinker when it comes to law enforcement and technology. His small force, for example, was the first to be equipped with BlackBerrys, which allow mobile access to the national crime data bank, the Canadian Police Information Centre.

The force had previously adopted the Major Case Management System, and Chief McLeod says the new search technology would be a natural fit.

"It gave us a backbone for the new system," he says.

"It is a testament to Edgar that we are now at the pilot stage," says IBM's Mr. McCullough. "We can see enormous potential and not just in crime investigation."

As Mr. McCormick says: "If this works out as we think it will, this small Nova Scotia company may become the Google of transcription."

Link: http://www.tecsocial.ca/index.php?id2=37 

Byte and Switch: IBM Fights Crime in Canada 

When it comes to data classification and search, IBM has adopted a "grow your own" stance via Java-based development tools called the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA). But a project in the Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia could yield something more generally useable. 

IBM is working with a local company called ADM Solutions (no Website), Cape Breton University, and the Cape Breton Regional Police Services, all of Sydney, Nova Scotia, to create a system that stores, classifies, and searches police crime data. 

Though still in the pilot stage, the system, which will be the first of its kind in Canada, was demonstrated at the Canadian Chief of Police Conference in St. John's, Newfoundland, late last month, and apparently caused a stir, with a range of police departments considering engaging IBM to mimic the system for them. IBM spokesman Steven Tomasco says the results of the project, once they are analyzed later this year, could wind up in a commercialized package. 

"At this point, it really looks excellent, even though there are still areas to be completed," says Myles Burke, a Cape Breton police inspector. 

Like many outfits, Cape Breton's police force has done most of its data classification, analysis, and searching manually. And while lots of products are available to help classify unstructured data, such as those from Abrevity, Arkivio, Kazeon, Index Engines, Njini, Scentric, and StoredIQ, organizations like this police force just aren't equipped to evaluate and implement them. What's more, bigger players like IBM and EMC are eyeing the potential for products tailored to specific vertical applications. (See De-Classifying Data Classification.) 

Enter IBM's UIMA software, the basis for the Cape Breton prototype. UIMA consists of a Java framework delivered in a free software development kit, along with a suite of not-for-free products called IBM's WebSphere Information Integrator OmniFind Edition. All of the UIMA wares are aimed at developers of intranet, extranet, and other Web applications. 

In the case of the Cape Breton police, the UIMA software, implemented by university personnel, members of IBM Research, and ADM, formats and analyzes digitized surveillance videos, audiotapes of interviews and interrogations, voice clips, images of vehicle licenses and police reports, and the like. The goal is to feed in police data and produce information that solves a crime -- or at least helps unravel it. 

"The program provides detectives with timelines, linkage analysis, and disclosures," says Burke. As data from tapes, videos, and even voice messages enters the system, it will acquire date and time stamps and be parsed so that further analysis can tie information to specific individuals and situations. Data items also will be annotated with the date when each was shown to prosecutors, enabling vastly improved police record keeping. 

To make sure the system works as it should, the Cape Breton police have entered all the information related to a double homicide that occured in Cape Breton and was solved by local detectives. So far, Burke says, the UIMA wares are tying things together just as the police did themselves. 

The Cape Breton project is being paid for by Cape Breton University, but it is being conducted as part of IBM's "First of a Kind" program. This is an IBM Research initiative in which IBM develops applications for specific organizations, which in turn get a sizeable cut on what they would otherwise pay. A spokesperson for the university's end of the project also says IBM has invested heavily. 

The idea for this project evolved from discussions between customers at Cape Breton University, and Allen McCormick, ADM's president and a local technology advocate, whose company outsources transcription services based on IBM technology. One aspect of ADM's work, for example, involves using IBM's ViaScribe speech-to-text technology to give enable IBM Global Services to offer training lectures in a range of media. ViaScribe also will be used in the police project. 

Right now, the Cape Breton project is basically a promise. The system resides on a laptop at the university, even though it clearly will require heftier hardware as it moves into the real life of the police force, which is expected to happen imminently, according to Burke. 

Despite its status as a prototype, though, the Cape Breton police system could wind up surprising everyone. If it works out, it might be a precursor for similar systems nationwide in Canada, while serving as a proof point for IBM's strategy.

? Mary Jander, Site Editor, Byte and Switch 

Cape Breton police test new crime-fighting technology

Police chiefs from across Canada will be briefed today in St. John's, N.L., on a new technological crime-fighting tool currently being tested by members of the Cape Breton Regional Police. 

Known as a detective analytic workbench tool, the program enables investigators to turn pieces of evidence, including everything from wiretaps and surveillance tapes to interview notes and witness statements, into digital files that can be sent from mobile devices and accessed from cruisers. 

The new system also stores all the evidence in a database that can be shared with other police agencies around the world along, with doing sophisticated searches which gives the officer quicker access to common links, patterns, objects such as vehicles, or even faces. 

"This is the first of its kind and a tremendous opportunity for us, " says police Chief Edgar MacLeod, whose force earlier this year become the first in Canada to use BlackBerrys in the fight against crime. 

"We may not have a lot of money or deep pockets, but we have highly trained personnel who want to use these devices," says MacLeod, adding the project further accents his force's strength of working with a host of community partners. 

Developed by IBM Research, the project also involves researchers from Cape Breton University and ADM Solutions, a local business partner with IBM.

The university has been involved since the project was born in 2001, and is continuing to investigate how to further integrate voice-recognition technologies into the system. It's developing training and e-learning materials and providing overall project management. 

Cape Breton investigators are the first officers in the world to use the system, and are testing it with evidence collected from a solved murder investigation. 

"We pride ourselves on being a solutions company. This is a very powerful tool being adapted for the police environment," said IBM spokesman Paul McCullough. 

By way of example, McCullough said British police spent days reviewing videotapes from the 2005 bombings of London buses. By employing this latest technology, portions of their search would have been reduced to hours. 

Delegates attending the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police were scheduled to be briefed on the new technology today during their annual meeting in Newfoundland. 

"We're certainly receiving a tremendous response and interest in this project," said Insp. Myles Burke, himself a former major crime investigator. 

He said such technology will allow an investigator to more quickly make decisions and reduce the chance of having an investigation take a wrong turn based on inaccurate or false information or understandings.- Cape Breton Post 

It is expected that product testing will continue well into 2007. 

McCullough said the company was drawn to using the regional police force as its testing ground given the force's strong ties with the community, its credibility and its strong link to the university. 

Earlier this year, the regional force became the first in Canada to use BlackBerrys as a crime fighting tool. 

The wireless, hand-held BlackBerrys are viewed as having a major advantage in stakeouts or drug-house takedowns by allowing police to communicate with each other, headquarters or even the Canadian Police Information Centre in Ottawa without going out over scanners that can be overheard by the public or criminals. 

Cape Breton Police prepare searchable crime archive

by Shane Schick 

The Cape Breton Regional Police are preparing to use an open source database tool to analyze information about their investigations - starting with a murder case that's already been solved. 

Officials from the police force, as well as a local high-tech firm and IBM, were on hand at a chief of police conference taking place in St. John's, N.B., Monday to showcase the system, which has not yet been given an official name. IBM has been working on the system in partnership with Cape Breton University, which also has an ongoing relationship with the regional police service. 

Chief Edgar MacLeod said the system will use voice recognition software to digitize transcripts of police interviews, which become searchable in conjunction with other cases that are put in the system. The pilot will use an old murder case to demonstrate how the process would work, he said. 

IBM said wiretaps and surveillance tapes could be also be entered into the system, which would then mine the data for links or patterns such as vehicles or faces related to an investigation. IBM is basing the system on its Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA), an open source database for developing analysis and search components. Big Blue makes UIMA available as a software developer's kit along with the core Java framework for industry and academia. 

ADM Solutions, a local IBM partner, is assisting with the speech recognition component of the system and will, if necessary, use its staff to help fix up digitized transcripts that don't come through clearly.

The voice recognition application includes IBM technology as well as ViaScribe, a U.S. project that the University of Cape Breton integrated into the local Alexander Graham Bell Museum and further developed. 

ADM Solutions president Allen McCormack said the tool would mean a major transformation from the kinds of case management systems in place at many other Canadian police organizations. 

"The feedback that we're getting is a lot of systems are manual," he said.

"Cape Breton has no unsolved murders, but the process is very labour-intensive." 

Although some industry observers have questioned the readiness of Canadian police to work with IT systems on cases, MacLeod said the Cape Breton team would not oppose the kind of digitization the IBM tool offers. 

"This is so front end-loaded it doesn't put any additional work on the officers," he said. "This wasn't a bunch of researchers who pretended they knew what went into an investigation. This is about reducing the amount of work. 

"Transcribing interviews and going through notes -- that's not the stuff that excites them," he added. "What excites them is the ability to get their investigation focused."

Regional force once again finds itself on cutting edge

Byline: Steve Macinnis

Police chiefs from across Canada will be briefed today in St. John's on a new technological crime fighting tool that is presently being tested by members of the Cape Breton Regional Police. 

Known simply as a detective analytic workbench tool, the program enables investigators to turn pieces of evidence, including everything from wiretaps and surveillance tapes to interview notes and witness statements, into digital files that can be sent from mobile devices and accessed from cruisers. 

In addition, the new system also stores all the evidence in a database that can be shared with other police agencies around the world along with doing sophisticated searches which gives the officer a quicker access to common links, patterns, objects such as vehicles, or even faces. 

"This is the first of its kind and a tremendous opportunity for us, " Says regional Chief Edgar MacLeod, whose force earlier this year become the first in Canada to use BlackBerrys in the fight against crime. 

"We may not have a lot of money or deep pockets but we have highly trained personnel who want to use these devices," says MacLeod, adding the project further accents his force's strength of working together with a host of community partners. 

Developed by IBM Research, the project also involves researchers from Cape Breton University and ADM Solutions, a local business partner with IBM. 

The university has been involved since the project was born in 2001 and is continuing to investigate how to further integrate voice recognition technologies into the system, developing training and e-learning materials and providing overall project management. 

Cape Breton investigators are the first officers anywhere in the world to use the system and are testing it with evidence collected from a solved murder investigation. 

"We pride ourselves on being a solutions company. This is a very powerful tool being adapted for the police environment," said IBM spokesperson, Paul McCullough. 

By way of example, McCullough said British police spent days reviewing video tapes from the 2005 bombings of London buses. By employing this latest technology, portions of their search would have been reduced to hours. 

Delegates attending the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police were scheduled to be briefed on the new technology today during their annual meeting being held in Newfoundland. 

"We're certainly receiving a tremendous response and interest in this project," said Inspector Myles Burke, himself a former major crime investigator. 

He said such technology will allow an investigator to more quickly make decisions and reduce the chance of having an investigation take a wrong turn based on inaccurate or false information or understandings. 

It is expected that product testing will continue well into 2007. 

McCullough said the company was drawn to using the regional police force as its testing ground, given the force's strong ties with the community, its credibility and its strong link to the university. 

Earlier this year, the regional force became the first in Canada to use BlackBerrys as a crime-fighting tool. 

The wireless, hand-held BlackBerrys are viewed as having a major advantage in stakeouts or drug-house takedowns by allowing police to communicate with each other, headquarters or even the Canadian Police Information Centre in Ottawa without going out over scanners that can be overheard by the public or criminals. 


The Globe and Mail

The case of the easily crunched database
Groundbreaking tool turns criminal evidence into digital files that simplify investigations, TERRENCE BELFORD writes

TERRENCE BELFORD

Special to The Globe and Mail

In the rugged highlands of Nova Scotia, the 220-member Cape Breton Regional Police Service is piloting a crime-solving tool that would make the investigators of CSI and its spin-offs green with envy.

The working name is the Detective's Analytical Workbench, a mundane moniker for a new technology that seems likely to revolutionize not just police work but indeed all database searches and analysis. What drives the Workbench is its ground-breaking ability to use keywords to search databases for unstructured information -- videos, digital pictures, audio tapes and word documents, all randomly stored.

"We estimate that 80 per cent of the information stored in databases is of the unstructured kind and as a result not searchable," says Allen McCormick, whose ADM Solutions Inc. of Dominion, N.S., is a key player in the development of the Workbench.

"What we are looking at now is the potential for this small company to become the Google of unstructured data."

BM Canada Ltd., another key player in the development of the technology, agrees with that optimistic forecast.

"We can see a tremendous market potential for this technology," says Paul McCullough, business unit executive in IBM Canada's police, safety and defence unit. "That is why we made it one of our First-of-a-Kind programs -- that is an internal process that allows us to fast track research to the commercialization stage."

In essence what the Workbench does is collect every shred of evidence or ancillary material relevant to a crime, translate it into digital form, automatically structure it, then allow investigators to use a desktop PC to search the resulting database by keywords or phrases for specific details of the crime.

The next phase will be to allow investigators to use the system in the field, accessing material through laptops, personal digital assistants or even cellphones and BlackBerry-like devices.

The Workbench promises to speed investigations in an almost geometric progression, says Cape Breton Police Chief Edgar McLeod.

Right now the force uses what is known as the Major Case Management System, which was introduced to policing in the wake of the Paul Bernardo murder trial. Under that system, evidence is collected and assembled in a single place, such as several storage boxes. Among the evidence might be officers' notes, audio and videotapes of interviews, digital photos of the scene and other evidence. Searching related pieces of evidence requires manually sifting through the material.

What is more, the evidence must be duplicated for both the Crown prosecutors and the defence lawyers.

The Workbench automates transcription, organizes all files in a searchable fashion and allows related evidence to be sifted out quickly and easily. Investigators can, for example, type in "red car" and all references to a red car in the collected material will appear on the screen.

"We have seven or eight people here working all day just transcribing documents," says Chief McLeod. Crime fighting has become an increasingly complex and expensive business because of the need for documentation.

"All levels of government spend about $70-billion a year on policing in Canada," Mr. McCormick says. "Policing regularly accounts for 8 per cent of federal, provincial and municipal budgets. This new system could greatly reduce that spending."

The Cape Breton police are working on a test case, a three-year-old solved homicide. The results have proved so encouraging that Chief McLeod says he expects the system to be applied to live cases later this fall.

The way the system came into being might be as fascinating as its crime fighting ability. Key elements include an innovative small town university, a police force that has overcome its small size and equally small budget to become a leader in law and order technology, an honorary degree to a previously uncelebrated research scientist, a local software company cutting its teeth on leading edge transcription services and a technology giant keen on creating vast new markets for its software.

In 2001, Cape Breton University in Sydney, N.S., joined the Liberated Learning Consortium, a group of educational institutions committed to using IBM's new ViaScribe voice-activated software to create classroom applications, says Sarah Conrod, the university's manager of special research projects. Membership led to a close working relationship with IBM researcher Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky, one of IBM's leading minds.

The IBM-university team brought in Mr. McCormick and ADM to work on their digital file transcription process, chiefly transcribing a series of IBM Web lectures.

In 2004, the team showcased its results at a museum in Baddeck, N.S. That same year it awarded Dr. Kanevsky an honorary doctorate.

"I think that recognition really pleased Dimitri," says Chief McLeod. "He opened up all kinds of research to the university as a result."

Earlier this year, with the Baddeck project finished, the team began looking around for new ways to apply its research, Ms. Conrod says.

"It was all just happy coincidence," she says. "Somebody was talking with Chief McLeod about what we were doing and he immediately saw the potential for police work."

The chief, who also has an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University and is a former president of the Canadian Police Chiefs Association, is regarded as an advanced thinker when it comes to law enforcement and technology. His small force, for example, was the first to be equipped with BlackBerrys, which allow mobile access to the national crime data bank, the Canadian Police Information Centre.

The force had previously adopted the Major Case Management System, and Chief McLeod says the new search technology would be a natural fit.

"It gave us a backbone for the new system," he says.

"It is a testament to Edgar that we are now at the pilot stage," says IBM's Mr. McCullough. "We can see enormous potential and not just in crime investigation."

As Mr. McCormick says: "If this works out as we think it will, this small Nova Scotia company may become the Google of transcription."

NEWS (06:55) (CJCB-AM), 06:57AM, Length: 00:00:35, Ref# 6E527C-5

Anchor/Reporters: GREG MACLEAN, Reach: 13,000 

LOCAL: CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE ARE GOING TO USE A NEW DEVICE FROM IBM THAT WILL HELP THEM ANALYZE CLUES AND SOLVE VIOLENT CRIMES MORE QUICKLY.

CHIEF EDGAR MACLEOD SAYS THE GATHERING OF EVIDENCE CUTS DOWN ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR OFFICERS. CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY IS ALSO INVOLVED WITH THAT TECHNOLOGY. THE REGIONAL FORCE IS THE FIRST IN CANADA TO USE BLACKBERRYS. 

NEWS (07:00) (CKPE-FM), 07:02AM, Length: 00:00:35, Ref# 6E52AE-5

Anchor/Reporters: GREG MACLEAN, Reach: 13,000 

LOCAL: CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE ARE GOING TO USE A NEW DEVICE FROM IBM THAT WILL HELP THEM ANALYZE CLUES AND SOLVE VIOLENT CRIMES MORE QUICKLY.

CHIEF EDGAR MACLEOD SAYS THE GATHERING OF EVIDENCE CUTS DOWN ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR OFFICERS. CAPE BRETON UNIVERSITY IS ALSO INVOLVED WITH THAT TECHNOLOGY. THE REGIONAL FORCE IS THE FIRST IN CANADA TO USE BLACKBERRYS.

NEWS (08:00) (CKPE-FM), 08:02AM, Length: 00:00:24, Ref# 6E53E4-5

Anchor/Reporters: GREG MACLEAN, Reach: 13,000 

LOCAL: IBM HAS ENLISTED THE SUPPORT OF CAPE BRETON REGIONAL POLICE TO TEST ITS LATEST TECHNOLOGY. CHIEF EDGAR MACLEOD SAYS THE GATHERING OF EVIDENCE CUTS DOWN ON THE ADMINISTRATIVE BURDEN FOR OFFICERS.

 

 

 

 

 
 
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