“Foul!” yells Lewis, aka Traffic Droid, from his bicycle before brandishing a red card in the face of a dumbfounded delivery driver. The scene is not a football pitch, rather the middle of a London street, where Lewis, alias the “Traffic Droid”, is busy enforcing the law. The 51-year-old is one…
The second season of the television programme Hunted opens on Monday 6 November (AvroTros, NPO3). In this programme, 14 “fugitives” spend 21 days trying to escape capture by a team of expert professional investigators. This season the “hunters” will be supported by QUIN, a predictive model for…
The internet, smartphones and social media have become tools for citizens to perform activities that fall within the range of police work and the work of other organisations dealing with public security. Like modern Sherlock Holmes citizens assist the police and go beyond. They report on crimes,…
It’s every parent’s nightmare: you become distracted for a few seconds and suddenly your toddler has disappeared. At times like that, the police quickly arrive on the scene. But it is very difficult for them to work out exactly what has happened. That’s where Real-Time Intelligence (RTI) comes…
The MEDI@4SEC project focuses upon understanding the opportunities, challenges and ethical considerations of enhancing social media use for public security: the good, the bad and the ugly. The good comprises using social media for problem solving, fighting crime, decreasing fear of crime and…
Law enforcement around the world, including the Netherlands, is currently experimenting with predictive policing: policing based on crime predictions. Big Data on past crimes and the help of sophisticated machine learning enable police to use reliable predictions about when and where the next…
Oh Crap! (iOS, Android) is a free app that was developed by a group of Iowa-based attorneys in 2015 to hold police more accountable. Oh Crap! Version 4.0 now offers a brand new chat feature called CrapChat, where users can post and receive notifications about community events as well as speed…
A new research centre exploring how terrorism can be tackled through social media and new technology will be launched in Cardiff. Cardiff University will host the Open Source Communications, Analytics and Research (OSCAR) Development Centre. Funding has been secured through the £10m Police…
In preparation for the seminar on civilian investigations February 10th, I had an interesting interview with Eliot Higgins. It is time to share more about his initiative Bellingcaton this blog, and Elliot tells us about what he does, thinks and dreams. Bellingcat is a prototype example of the…
Last week Sogetit held their 20th anniversary for the VINT symposium where innovative topics have been discussed on stage for two centuries by now. Do follow their blog to get free updates on the latest innovative ICT developments. Below is a report from Jaap Bloem about this symposium which was…
Social media today are the most popular means to share photos, videos, stories, thoughts and everything that engages us in sharing with other people. Whether we know them or not. But all of this information could be used for other purposes too. If you were to work in the advertising business all…
If in social venues something goes wrong you have for example the barman in a pub whom you can talk to, at larger venues, there are porters, but most social media services have entire departments. But they service the whole world. Facebook has, for some time now, a Safety Center that is intended…
ENGLISH QOUTES RELATED TO SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES & INVESTIGATIONS Do you know any other quotes? Please add them in the reply box below. You are what you tweet. – Alex Tew, Monkey Inferno We become, neurologically, what we think. – Nicholas G. Carr Social media doesn’t create…