THE POLICE DATA CHALLENGE Copyright Policing Insight/Cognyte 2023 Led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), the operation was launched in July 2020, and has so far led to more than 3,000 arrests, over 1,200 convictions, and almost 8,000 years in combined prison sentences. It also generated huge amounts of data that needed to be collated, analysed, and intelligence and evidence extracted – something which Paul Williamson, at the time the NCA’s regional Head of Investigations for the Midlands, Wales and the West, believes would have been impossible without the use of the latest technology. “It was like standing at the end of a huge hosepipe and getting drenched with a massive amount of data in one go,” explained Paul, now Programme Leader for Policing at the University of the West of England. “When that happens, if you haven’t got the capabilities immediately available, you’ve got to build them very, very quickly. “On Venetic we used AI and machine learning very much bespoke to that operation to actually enable us to extract and analyse the data. You might not have an off-the-shelf solution to deal with the issues you hit on in an operation of that nature. In the case of Venetic it was the volume and nature of the data that required us to adapt our approach so that we had the capability to receive the data, and effectively analyse it to ensure we were targeting the most harmful in accordance with our prioritisation strategy. “The use of link analysis has significantly increased over recent years, and is really, really helpful in serious organised crime investigations to help investigators understand the social connections between suspects or associates. It’s so important, given the fact that serious organised crime groups are much more fluid. We saw that on Venetic.” Completing the data jigsaw Using data analytics to target that ‘fluid’ and expansive organised crime activity is also very much at the heart of the work undertaken by the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) team, led by Detective Chief Superintendent Kate Thacker. By providing intelligence and analytical support to forces undertaking complex investigations, and with staff based in regional organised crime units (ROCUs) across the UK, the team uses data science techniques to deliver evidence-based actionable packages for investigating forces. “Criminal groups exhibit poly-criminality, so we basically said ‘look, stop looking through a threat thematic lens, and start putting these resources together to develop organised exploitation, intelligence and investigations, regardless of the threat type’,” Det Ch Supt Thacker told Policing Insight. Paul Williamson, former regional Head of Investigations, NCA “The use of link analysis has significantly increased over recent years, and is really, really helpful in serious organised crime investigations to help investigators understand the social connections between suspects or associates.” Paul Williams Former regional Head of Investigations, NCA