Improved intelligence gathering

An intelligence gathering tool that enables police forces to trace criminal suspects to their known address has been upgraded to deliver increased accuracy and better functionality.

The tracing device helps reduce the burden on police administrative resources by many hundreds of man-hours by focusing resources to locate individuals quickly.

Used specifically by police and government agencies for the prevention and detection of crime, it works by cross-referencing the broadest and most current spectrum of UK population databases to effectively target the people they need to. This could mean property frauds, suspects in a crime or even key witnesses.

Now GB Group has unveiled the latest version of its intelligence gathering interface – GB Accelerator IQ V5. Based upon the same technology as the group’s e-Trace software and customised for the public sector, where it is increasingly used as a ‘silent’ investigation tool for anti-fraud purposes, GB Accelerator IQ V5 allows users to verify UK population data to build up intelligence quickly and efficiently.

It enables users to gather the most up-to-date and valid information about an individual, their location and their relationships with others in society.

It pulls together information that may be used by police and criminal justice departments from the broadest range of datasets available through a single online search interface, maximising the chance of a perfect match.

It also gives access to brand new data sets, such as Land Registry for property ownership, and additional business information including ‘directors at home’. A version is also available with AddressBase™ data, the definitive source of national address and property information from GeoPlace and now available under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA).

In addition, the interface now allows organisations to investigate individuals more accurately using fewer resources. By colour coding results, eliminating tabbing and having all the results displayed on a single page, GB Accelerator IQ V5 provides a better interactive experience. Also, by linking to Google’s Street View functionality, users now have access to geographic information about the landscape in question.

Deployed across Norfolk Constabulary’s Intelligence Units fully since the start of September 2009, IQ has already delivered significant operational benefits. It has helped Norfolk Constabulary to detect crimes which may not have been detected otherwise; targets the police forces’ resources to better interventions; and even boosts confidence and satisfaction through the ability to track and trace individuals.

For example, a high-value fraud case was held up for over ten years because of trouble in finding the required witnesses. With the GB Group’s IQ on hand, all the ten witnesses were located within ten minutes and the case is now going ahead.

In a case involving harassment of a ten-year-old girl, IQ quickly turned up the address of an extended family member who turned out to be the guilty party. In another example, a longstanding suspect (at large for over a year) was traced to Suffolk and could be investigated further.

“Gaining intelligence on where people are based or up-to-date contact details is never as easy as you would hope,” explained a spokesman from Norfolk Constabulary’s Intelligence Directorate. “Since the roll-out of GB Group’s identity management tool IQ, I have noticed a marked increase in the availability and speed of intelligence my department is able to source and Norfolk Constabulary’s service is all the better for it.”

GB Accelerator IQ V5 has access to 63.6 million consented landline and mobile phone numbers (each reverse searchable) and over 900 million more records from data sources such as full Electoral Roll, homemovers and deceased information.