Using Coplink to Analyze Criminal-Justice Data

Abstract

As information technologies and applications become more overwhelming and diverse, persistent information overload problems have become ever more urgent.1 Fallout from this trend has most affected government, specifically criminaljustice information systems. The explosive growth in the digital information maintained in the data repositories of federal, state, and local criminal-justice entities and the spiraling need for cross-agency access to that information have made utilizing it both increasingly urgent and increasingly difficult. The Coplink system applies a concept spaceâ a statistics-based, algorithmic technique that identifies relationships between suspects, victims, and other pertinent dataâ to accelerate criminal investigations and enhance law enforcement efforts.