Last week at SAS Global Forum, SAS launched a new solution for law enforcement. Powered by SAS® Visual Investigator, SAS® Intelligence and Investigation Management helps agencies integrate information to uncover sophisticated criminal activity, make connections in real time, and enhance collaboration in investigations.

Data and analytics can provide tremendous value to analysts and investigators trying to identify actionable intelligence and build cases. The challenge is understanding which solutions provide the greatest value, while allowing them to leverage existing technology investments. Below are five key items law enforcement agencies should know about SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management:

Complement and enhance; not replace

Public Safety agencies have made significant investments in Computer Aided Dispatch, Records Management, Jail Management, and other operational systems. They require analytics solutions that can integrate structured and unstructured data from their existing systems without having to replace them. SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management increases the value of agency data by enabling analytics, alerting, and visualization capabilities. It also allows emerging data sets not currently being examined to be coupled with their existing data.

The more data the better

Entity extraction, entity resolution, and link analysis is improved with every data set added to SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management. I was recently part of a team that spoke with a Bureau of Criminal Investigation about the state’s opioid problem. Their stakeholders are looking to enhance data sharing between public safety agencies and increase enforcement activities.

But how can they more effectively determine which individuals or groups to target? And how can they disrupt trafficking and distribution at a higher level? We shared with them how law enforcement data from multiple jurisdictions can be integrated into SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management to provide greater visibility into key players, distribution methods, and victims. We also shared how prescription data could enhance the law enforcement data by identifying over-prescribing doctors and pharmacies that may be acting illegally. With additional data, we could also build “strategies” within the solution to help identify early opioid users who may benefit from social services and avoid negative future outcomes.

Show analysts what to analyze

During the SAS Public Safety Summit, my colleague and former intelligence commander in the New Jersey State Police, Steve Serrao, gave a great demonstration of SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management and expressed that technology now allows investigators to analyze known links, instead of spending time identifying them. SAS can automatically build link charts based on resolved entities across integrated data sets. And the more data that is integrated, the more links it can uncover. An analyst can dig deeper into the newly revealed associations. Automating the identification of associations and patterns increases the efficiency of an agency and helps improve public safety.

Combat top initiatives

SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management can provide value across the top initiatives that public safety agencies face. The opioid epidemic, violent crime, gang activity, terrorism, narcotics, human trafficking, and cyber-crime are among the top priorities for enforcement agencies. Investigations into these activities can be aided by the alerting and link analysis capabilities within the SAS solution. Our subject matter experts can help agencies build customized strategies that allow investigators to focus their time and energy on top leads and intelligence.

Value across public safety & criminal justice agencies

The more discussions we have, the more we understand how SAS can provide both operational and strategic value to multiple types of public safety and criminal justice organizations. State Police, Departments of Public Safety, Fusion Centers, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTAs), Local Law Enforcement, Federal agencies, Corrections, Attorneys General, Bureaus of Investigations, Casino Control, and others have seen the value that SAS Intelligence and Investigation Management could provide their organization.

The new solution offers criminal justice and public safety agencies capabilities they’ve never had before.  The SAS Justice & Public Safety team is eagerly engaging with these agencies to help them transform intelligence and investigations to break complex cases and bring more criminals to justice.

Watch the video below to learn more, or visit the product page to learn more about features and request a demo.