{"id":344,"date":"2024-04-10T21:54:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T21:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/pathfinder\/?p=344"},"modified":"2024-04-10T22:34:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T22:34:36","slug":"advanced-people-search-for-law-enforcement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/pathfinder\/advanced-people-search-for-law-enforcement\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced People Search: How Law Enforcement Agencies can Unlock OSINT\u2019s Potential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On March 24th of this year, a motorcyclist fled at high speed from a routine traffic stop<\/a> 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<\/a> to a burglar with a quirky wardrobe<\/a> advertising his stolen goods on Facebook\u2019s Marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That well of new data brings challenges of its own, simply because there\u2019s so much of it.  In effect you\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Power, and Frustration, of OSINT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The US government\u2019s official definition<\/a> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes you\u2019ll be lucky, and a criminal will livestream himself into an arrest<\/a> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some don\u2019t 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\u2019 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 \u2013 former head of the UK\u2019s Counter Terrorism Policing Units \u2013 suggests \u201cflexible commercial and procurement methods<\/a>\u201d as a partial solution to the problems and opportunities of OSINT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Value of People Search Tools in Law Enforcement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One of those commercial solutions to LEAs\u2019 need for improved intelligence lies in people search tools.   These products, such as Spokeo\u2019s existing name<\/a>, phone number<\/a>, email<\/a> and address searches<\/a>, are typically marketed to private citizens or businesses<\/a> but  have also been successfully utilized in law enforcement, skip tracing and other forms of professional investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While LEAs have their own sources of data that aren\u2019t available to the public, these search tools are a useful complement to what you can find through official sources.  In effect they\u2019re a high-speed, low-cost aggregator of OSINT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s hands immediately, and \u2013 because they\u2019re consumer-facing products \u2013 have a user interface that\u2019s designed with untrained laypersons in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advanced People Search<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Advanced people search tools, like those available from Spokeo, build on those strengths by drawing from a deeper pool of data that isn\u2019t 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 \u2014 but its key strength is that it seamlessly integrates both regulated and unregulated data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>, but lacks those explicit legal protections.  While it\u2019s typically more available to investigators, its sensitive nature may limit the use or collection of some kinds of unregulated data in specific jurisdictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019 disposal.  In a fast-breaking case, advanced people search may be able to provide actionable leads in moments, without that same administrative overhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Spokeo for Law Enforcement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Spokeo\u2019s tools for law enforcement<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, you\u2019ll benefit from:<\/p>\n\n\n\n