How the police use analytics to disrupt fraud and scams
As they investigate fraud schemes and scams, the police face challenges at every turn. They contend with high volumes of data, staff shortages, and fragmented methods and locations for storing data. Analytics is a crucial tool for law enforcement to use in detecting and preventing these crimes.
Successful investigations start with a strong data management foundation that stores and provides timely access to high-quality, trustworthy and relevant information. When this data is used with analytics, it supports investigators in doing their jobs more effectively. It also helps law enforcement gain the trust of the communities they serve and gives them the information they need to protect people from harm – whether physical, emotional or financial.
Evidence-based policing augments traditional policing approaches with data-driven insights from artificial intelligence (AI) and other analytics-based tools. Together, this improves resource allocation and leads to better outcomes for police departments and the communities they serve.
Due to officer shortages on the front lines, investigators who focus on fraud are often used to fill in gaps. This happened frequently during the pandemic, but it also happens when local police are faced with a large-scale event that requires additional support. As a result, fraud investigators’ specialized skills may be missing from intricate fraud inquiries. Because criminals rapidly develop new techniques, officers investigating financial crimes are behind the curve when they return to their usual duties.
Fraud investigators face tremendous stress in managing large volumes of complex investigations. Their burden is intensified because investigations need to be handled with exceptional accuracy and speed to counter imminent risks. As soon as the criminal’s MO is understood, investigators must share that information and take preventative action to stop the criminal activity and protect innocent people.
The investigative cycle is constantly adapting to keep up to date with continual changes in the criminal landscape and tactics used to carry out the crime. Analytics helps officers understand manipulation techniques, digital mediums used and victim profiles targeted. In turn, officers know which interventions will make a tangible difference in the criminal’s operating environment.
Automation, analytics and workflow management help ease the burden by clearly depicting an accurate view of workflow and volume. Supervisors can easily see:
Guided by analytics insights, supervisors can allocate tasks evenly across teams and identify urgent training needs. Analytics also streamlines the management of heavy volumes of criminal reports. Manual reviews could become burdensome without this technology and lead to investigational inefficiencies.
A central reporting model for fraud and scams solves problems inherent in relying on multiple platforms – and is beneficial for investigating and preventing fraud. With this approach, law enforcement can:
Having a single platform allows law enforcement to collect data centrally in a variety of formats, including victim information. From there, investigators can understand and analyze:
Obtaining a single view of information overcomes many issues inherent to multiplatform solutions. A comprehensive view allows investigators and senior officers to make fast, informed decisions based on all available data. For victims of fraud or scams, these efforts can make a huge difference in their lives by limiting the extent of financial and reputational damage.
In my experience, many officers and staff dealt with convoluted work practices stemming from multiple databases that stored information – constraining their ability to search and find data quickly.
