Critical success factors for OSINT Driven Situational Awareness

A critical element of successful intelligence-led law enforcement operations is the ability of the police and other security services to obtain timely, reliable and actionable intelligence concerning the problem, incident or investigation under focus. As well as traditional investigative techniques and information sources, open-source intelligence (OSINT) can provide additional capabilities for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to manage an investigation or address the intelligence requirements of a given incident. This position paper introduces the concept of OSINT, identifies and discusses existing effective practices and critical success factors for the fusion of OSINT with traditional intelligence sources. This paper is written as a position piece based upon CENTRIC operational involvement in 14 UK based LEA open source investigations over the years 2015 to 2017

Towards an enterprise architecture framework for community policing

The activities of policing and community policing may be considered fundamentally different from the processes that occur within business organisations; however, at a high-level both groups still require people, systems and processes in order to effectively carry out their functions and achieve their goals. Therefore, through the identification of community policing (CP) stakeholders, the activities, processes and information flows and the governance,training and management procedures all carried out under CP’s remit we are able to understand the current state of play within CP, how we might wish CP to be in the future and the processes that need to be put in place to get there. Using an Enterprise Architecture approach we provide an initial formal description of CP, its interdependencies, relationships, principles and guidelines in order to lay the groundwork for a fully featured CP model in Europe

A platform for discovering and sharing confidential ballistic crime data.

Criminal investigations generate large volumes of complex data that detectives have to analyse and understand. This data tends to be "siloed" within individual jurisdictions and re-using it in other investigations can be difficult. Investigations into trans-national crimes are hampered by the problem of discovering relevant data held by agencies in other countries and of sharing those data. Gun-crimes are one major type of incident that showcases this: guns are easily moved across borders and used in multiple crimes but finding that a weapon was used elsewhere in Europe is difficult. In this paper we report on the Odyssey Project, an EU-funded initiative to mine, manipulate and share data about weapons and crimes. The project demonstrates the automatic combining of data from disparate repositories for cross-correlation and automated analysis. The data arrive from different cultural/domains with multiple reference models using real-time data feeds and historical databases

Maximising the security and safety of citizens by strengthening the connection between the police and the communities they serve

This paper provides a discussion on the objectives, approach and findings of the EU H2020 funded UNITY project. The project aims to strengthen the connection between the police and the communities they serve by providing a suite of ICT tools to improve collaboration, cooperation and information sharing between LEAs (Law Enforcement Agencies) and the communities they serve. The paper defines the underlying concept of community policing, before moving into a discussion about the developed ICTs and the empirical research underpinning their development and the subsequent approach used to test them. Within, we build upon the theoretical notion that ICTs in isolation do little to break down existing cultural, socio-economic and other embedded factors that contribute to absences in collaboration between citizen groups and the police. Instead, ICTs are an important mechanism at can be used to reinforce existing cultures of collaboration and trust, providing an additional vector through which citizens can make a contribution in their local communities, and through which police can be made contextually aware of local crime issues

Application of a new service-oriented architecture (SOA) paradigm on the design of a crisis management distributed system

The complexity and the intensity of crisis-related situations require the use of advanced distributed systems infrastructures. In order to develop such infrastructures, specific architectures need to be applied such as Component-based Modelling, Object-Oriented, Aspect-Oriented and Service-Oriented Design. This paper focuses on the use of Service-Oriented Design techniques for the development of the ATHENA Crisis Management Distributed System. The function of the ATHENA Crisis Management Distributed System is based on the use of data generated by social media for the evaluation of the severity of the conditions of a crisis and the coordination of the appropriate measures in response to the crisis. The paper presents a new definition for Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and specifies the benefits that are generated by the use of this new definition in the development of the ATHENA system. Useful conclusions are also drawn in relation to how the definition considers the different technical backgrounds of users

Using Social Media for Crisis Response : The ATHENA System

Social media is now prevalent in all aspects of society. Any major news event is now accompanied by a stream of real-time social media posts. The ATHENA system turns this stream of information into a vital resource in crisis and disaster response for Law Enforcement agencies (LEAs). The ATHENA system scans the social media environment during a crisis, recognises and collects information relevant to the crisis, and synthesises that information into credible and actionable reports. Via an automated process of classification, these reports are delivered by ATHENA to the stakeholders that most need the information: from the LEA Command and Control Centre managing the crisis, to the first responders on the ground, and to the citizens themselves via a mobile application. The automatic extraction of location data from social media posts allows ATHENA to pin-point crisis activity and resources on a map-based user interface. The citizen, via a mobile device, is provided with fast and reliable alerts of danger, the location of medical help and vital supplies, and direct communication with emergency services. The first responder is given the same intelligence along with additional information pertinent to their search and rescue actions. Command and Control have the ultimate access to all information being processed by the system, where their decision making is supported by computer generated estimates of priority and credibility. Command and Control have the responsibility of validating crisis information before it is disseminated to the public. Social media are also key to the dissemination of crisis information. Dedicated social media entities on the most popular sites are maintained by Command and Control to provide a focal information, advice and instruction broadcasting presence as a trusted source. These social media presences are designed to encourage collaboration between the public and first responders and to provide a channel for communication between all the crisis stakeholders. Thus ATHENA empowers the LEA and the public with a collective intelligence, enabling both to safeguard themselves and others during a crisis

Importance of service integration in e-government implementations

Service integration is one of the most critical issues affecting e-government implementations all over the world. Providing integrated services to citizens, businesses, and all other stakeholders involved in e-government at "one stop portal" is considered to be a big opportunity for governments to improve their services’ efficiency and effectiveness. This paper aims to provide a general background and theoretical foundation towards understanding the importance of service integration in egovernment implementations. To achieve this aim, a comprehensive literature review on e-government, in general, and service integration issue in particular, has been conducted. The paper has shed a new light on the main concepts, definitions, objectives, benefits, challenges, explanations and analytical bases for the topic. As a result of the comprehensive literature review, a model that clarifies the importance of service integration in egovernment implementations is proposed

Towards service integration in electronic government implementations

Service integration is one of the most critical issues affecting electronic government implementations all over the world. Providing integrated services to citizens, businesses, and all other stakeholders involved in electronic government activities at "one stop portal" is considered to be a big opportunity for governments to improve their services’ efficiency and effectiveness. This paper aims to provide a general background and theoretical foundation towards understanding the role of service integration and its importance in electronic government implementations in order to achieve the main aims and objectives of electronic government programs all over the globe by conducting a comprehensive literature review on electronic government, in general, and the issue of service integration in particular. The paper has shed a new light on the main concepts,definitions, characteristics, interactions, models, objectives, benefits, challenges and analytical bases for the topic. As a result, a model that is suggesting a set of key factors to accomplish service integration in electronic government implementations and clarifying the importance of service integration in electronic government implementations is proposed. The main contribution of the paper is to build a good understanding of the nature and role of service integration in electronic government implementations and to establish a foundation for further research in this domain. Keywords : E-government implementation; Service integration; Maturity models; One stop portal; Pillars; Critical factor

AUGGMED: developing multiplayer serious games technology to enhance first responder training

Many serious games are designed for single player access only. However, the benefits of the immersive nature of serious games and virtual reality may be enhanced when teams who usually train together can also do so within a virtual environment. The purpose of this article is to outline the architecture of the AUGGMED serious game and discuss the technical challenges faced when creating a multiplayer counter terrorism training serious game utilising virtual reality, touch screen interfaces and a realistic crowd simulation. AUGGMED is designed using an agile modular approach utilising user centred design principles, with each technical developer owning a set of tools which are continuously integrated, piloted, and improved throughout the development cycle. Constant piloting with first responders enables iterative improvements, which meet end user training requirements. Building a multiplayer training game specialised in providing realistic simulation of real situations, and enabling users to interface with the simulation through virtual reality identifies a large set of technical challenges. The article identifies a number of the challenges faced while developing AUGGMED and the solutions used to overcome them, including barriers and logistical/technical difficulties to integrating multiple existing (Exodus crowd simulation) and new (virtual reality) technologies into a single serious game for training first responders

Tackling financial and economic crime through strategic intelligence: The EMPRISES Framework

For the successful monitoring and combatting of Serious Organised Economic Crime (SOEC) and fraud, further integration of Member States systems across Europe is needed. This paper describes a system for strategic intelligence management providing a more coherent and coordinated approach for detecting and deterring SOEC and fraud. The EMPRISES framework increases the effectiveness of communication between Member States by developing an agreed common language (taxonomy) of SOEC and fraud with automated multi-lingual support. By appropriating and applying existing business tools and analysis techniques to the illegitimate businesses of SOEC and fraud, this new system can support Member States to better target these crimes and the criminals involved