On March 24th of this year, a motorcyclist fled at high speed from a routine traffic stop in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He was taken into custody three days later, after posting video of his escape and other traffic violations on his Instagram. Similar incidents have been reported in recent years from around the country, from a parole violator caught flashing cash and guns on Facebook to a burglar with a quirky wardrobe advertising his stolen goods on Facebook’s Marketplace.
Each of these arrests hinged on the use of open source intelligence (OSINT). With the rise of the so-called data economy, and especially social media, new sources of potentially useful information have proliferated and are relatively easy to access.
That well of new data brings challenges of its own, simply because there’s so much of it. In effect you’re still looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack, but the haystack has grown exponentially larger. Making actionable sense of that data requires new approaches, including a range of OSINT tools and advanced people search products.
The Power, and Frustration, of OSINT
The US government’s official definition describes OSINT as publicly available information, which is collected and distributed to address a specific intelligence requirement. Those sources may include traditional news media, anything that’s publicly available on the internet (including public social media posts), and the vastly larger quantity of less-accessible information found on the so-called Deep Web.
Sometimes you’ll be lucky, and a criminal will livestream himself into an arrest like in the examples we opened this article with, but more often investigators will need to sift through the available OSINT in order to find leads. While the body of potentially useful data is huge, winnowing it down to actionable intelligence can be a massive task. Unsurprisingly there’s a thriving marketplace of OSINT-centric products and services for law enforcement agencies to make this process more efficient (Spokeo included, but more on that down below), but not all LEAs can take full advantage of them.
Some don’t all have the IT infrastructure needed to deploy in-house software tools, or the budget to purchase those tools or finished reports from consultants. Administrators may not feel any urgency to improve their agencies’ OSINT capabilities, and front-line investigative personnel may lack the skills and knowledge to maximize the value even of ordinary web searches. Citing these and other shortcomings, Sir Mark Rowley – former head of the UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing Units – suggests “flexible commercial and procurement methods” as a partial solution to the problems and opportunities of OSINT.
The Value of People Search Tools in Law Enforcement
One of those commercial solutions to LEAs’ need for improved intelligence lies in people search tools. These products, such as Spokeo’s existing name, phone number, email and address searches, are typically marketed to private citizens or businesses but have also been successfully utilized in law enforcement, skip tracing and other forms of professional investigation.
While LEAs have their own sources of data that aren’t available to the public, these search tools are a useful complement to what you can find through official sources. In effect they’re a high-speed, low-cost aggregator of OSINT.
People search tools vary in the exact information they draw from, but the good ones capture a representative cross-section of open-source data. More importantly, they do it in seconds, putting actionable intel in an investigator’s hands immediately, and – because they’re consumer-facing products – have a user interface that’s designed with untrained laypersons in mind.
Advanced People Search
Advanced people search tools, like those available from Spokeo, build on those strengths by drawing from a deeper pool of data that isn’t available through the consumer-facing version of the product. Spokeo draws on billions of data points from thousands of public sources, as well as proprietary information sourced from data partners — but its key strength is that it seamlessly integrates both regulated and unregulated data.
Regulated data such as credit header or motor vehicle data is hedged with a ring of legal protections. LEAs have access to regulated data through several channels, but it typically involves several steps and a time-consuming process, some queries require inter-agency communications or perhaps a subpoena. Unregulated data can also be highly sensitive and revealing, but lacks those explicit legal protections. While it’s typically more available to investigators, its sensitive nature may limit the use or collection of some kinds of unregulated data in specific jurisdictions.
In the case of advanced people search tools like Spokeo for Business can surface both regulated and non-regulated data seamlessly in searches by LEAs or other responsible agencies. Here again, speed and ease of use are key differentiators between Spokeo and the existing tools at LEAs’ disposal. In a fast-breaking case, advanced people search may be able to provide actionable leads in moments, without that same administrative overhead.
Spokeo for Law Enforcement
Spokeo’s tools for law enforcement have been refined through years of development and feedback from active users within the law enforcement community. That begins with its easy to use dashboard, where investigators can manage their teams, monitor searches, view saved search results, search regulated and unregulated data distinctly, and more.
Additionally, you’ll benefit from:
- Unique, detailed profiles of over 300 million individuals
- Aggregated official data from across jurisdictions
- Information pulled from over 120 social platforms, apps, and forums
- Proprietary data from Spokeo’s data partners
- Access to regulated identifying data elements to improve identification, verification, and subject engagement.
- A wide range of available data points on persons of interest, including their residential history, known aliases, family members, and even cryptic online usernames
- Dedicated specialists available 7 days a week to help your investigators with onboarding and training, and to provide assistance with especially thorny searches
To revisit the traditional metaphor, you won’t be looking for a needle in a haystack anymore: the haystack will spit out the needles for you; neatly organized, displayed and labeled. You’ll receive available intelligence within seconds.
Of course, unlike ordinary citizens, LEAs want to know the sources of the data. Spokeo provides descriptions of those sources. You can also take advantage of its Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to integrate Spokeo’s outputs and reporting tools with any existing OSINT tools you may already be using, and vice versa. These capabilities are currently available only for unregulated data, though work is underway to extend them to regulated data as well.
Test-Drive Advanced People Search in Your Department
The Department of Homeland Security has put forth a white paper laying out a framework for the ethical use of open source intelligence. It’s non-binding and has no legal status, but provides useful guidance for LEAs wanting to take advantage of OSINT opportunities like those Spokeo offers.
No matter how good a product sounds, there’s no substitute for trying it out for yourself in a real-world setting. To inquire about a demonstration, or to request a trial, contact Spokeo by telephone at (888) 895-5122, or use the Contact form at the bottom of this page.
About the author: Stephen Henderson Jr.
For more than 30+ years, Stephen Henderson Jr. has worked and held senior positions for both Fortune 500, startup and Business Process Outsourcers. Prior to becoming the Client Services Manager of Spokeo’s Law Enforcement & Government Division, Stephen Henderson, Jr. served as an exceptional intelligence and law enforcement officer for over two decades, including as full time Dignitary Protection for the former US Ambassador to Spain as well as at the Fullerton Police Department and Orange County Sheriff’s Department. He honorably retired from public service in May 2018 with the rank of Reserve Lieutenant. Today, Henderson Jr. leverages this brackground to lead Spokeo’s efforts to accelerate new growth and provide real value to the buisnesses that rely on Spokeo’s data for mission-critical operations.
Sources:
Police 1: Motorcyclist Accused of Fleeing Tenn. Deputies Arrested After Posting Videos on Social Media
American Police Beat: Man Violates Parole with Facebook Post Showing off Guns, Cash, and Marijuana
American Police Beat: Oklahoma Police Catch Serial Burglar Thanks to his SpongeBob Clothing
The Los Angeles Times: Man Arrested After Livestream Shows 2 Bodies in Vacaville Apartment
The Police Foundation: Open Source Intelligence – The Cinderella of the Investigative Family?
ISACA: Categorizing and Handling Sensitive Data
AFCEA Signal: The Rise of OSINT: Few Rules, Many Opportunities
Vox: Here’s How Police Can Get Your Data – Even if You Aren’t Suspected of a Crime
US Department of Homeland Security: Ethical Frameworks in Open Source Intelligence