Crimefighting 2.0

New York Times' Brad Stone had a piece today featuring 3VR's CrimeDex service. The article reviews how Police and private organizations are using collaborative Web 2.0 approaches to track and fight crime. What does that mean exactly? Well if 3VR is "Google" for surveillance, then think of CrimeDex as "Facebook" for bad guys. Together the technologies make quite a pair.

From the NY Times:

CrimeDex, now owned by 3VR, a San Francisco company that makes an image recognition system for surveillance cameras, says it is used by more than 1,000 law enforcement agencies and private businesses like banks and retail chains. For a monthly fee, members can submit information, photographs and videos related to possible crimes and make comparisons with data from agencies that may be seeing similar patterns or suspects.

“It’s the digital equivalent of the old-fashioned Western sheriffs nailing a wanted poster to a tree,” Mr. Hudson said.

Some investigators swear by it. Carol Byrum, a vice president and senior investigator at Wells Fargo, said it helped prosecutors build a case against Eduard Kholstinin, a Russian national who was caught in 2007 using fabricated A.T.M. cards to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the accounts of California Wells Fargo customers.

After he was arrested in Oregon while carrying counterfeit driver’s licenses and credit cards in his car, the surveillance images that Ms. Byrum had posted to CrimeDex helped to link crimes in the two states. Mr. Kholstinin was convicted of money laundering and identity theft and is now serving a sentence in federal prison in Oregon.

3VR will be demonstrating a new and more advanced version of its CrimeDex service at the upcoming International Security Show (ISC) in Las Vegas in early April.

Biometrics Are Breaking Through

We're starting to see some pretty powerful and simple uses of biometrics in the security industry. In this case, government agencies were able to access fingerprint info through a shared database, which led to keeping 365 suspected terrorists out of the country. Now granted, there has been a LOT revealed about what constitutes a terrorist suspect these days, but my point here is on the technology. It works, it's easily shared, and it's effective at connecting the dots. Of course, I believe that facial biometrics hold even more promise as mug shots and surveillance images are often much more readily available than finger print dossiers. 3VR CrimeDex is the best example of next generation biometric infrastructure that makes this kind of sharing possible. Mug shots are uploaded to a shared database that all members can access; plus, if a member has a 3VR system, they can even set alerts associated with a CrimeDex mugshot. So far the system has been used to catch hundreds of fraudsters at banks; we're pretty confident it will have similar success in other realms.

Connecticut's Facebook for Bank Robbers

New Technology is being used by banks to help prosecute robbers. The Connecticut Bankers Association recently launched a Web site that enables Facebook-like profiling of bank criminals including surveillance photos whenever possible. It’s already generating some interesting results.

As of mid-November, the FBI reported 103 bank robberies in Connecticut this
year, compared to 60 at the same time last year. The FBI says about
41 percent of robberies this year have been solved. Improved technology has
helped to get surveillance photos out to the public almost immediately, but more
could be done.

Great idea, but I am a bigger fan of this particular Internet crime-fighting technology, however.