EAGAN, Minn. – The drug trade has become a high-tech enterprise, as traffickers turn to technology to track shipments, communicate, sell their product and more. Naturally, law enforcement has responded in-kind with the technology and determination needed to investigate and apprehend drug traffickers. The problem, however, is not in law enforcement’s ability to gather evidence and data in drug cases, but rather in sorting through and analyzing the seemingly incalculable amount of data – often in disparate formats – that can potentially paralyze an investigation.

Haystacks of Needles: Law Enforcement Fights Organized Crime with Smart Analytics, a new white paper from the Fraud Prevention & Investigation business of Thomson Reuters, offers views from law enforcement professionals from the Washington/Baltimore High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, technologists and thought leaders from Thomson Reuters, and other industry experts on how law enforcement is unleashing the power of ‘big data’ to confront drug trafficking.

The free white paper is available to download at clear.thomsonreuters.com/analytics.

“Today’s law enforcement agencies must be able to find, analyze and act upon the data that they gather in the course of an investigation, but doing so is not as simple as walking into an evidence locker to pull a file, or asking the tech guy to click ‘enhance’ on a computer screen like in the movies – it’s hard work,” said Steve Rubley, managing director of the Government segment of Thomson Reuters. “Our goal is to offer the solutions that enable law enforcement agencies to work smarter and more efficiently.”

Among the solutions law enforcement can turn to is the Thomson Reuters Communications Analysis Portal, which after the requisite warrant has been obtained, can download smart phone data and develop a report that can be matched against data within a law enforcement agency or compared to information collected and shared by others. One way this is done is through the TETRA Platform™ by 4DD Software. Backed by Thomson Reuters, the platform enables law enforcement agencies to normalize data between content sources, helping to identify the most relevant information more efficiently.

“As the drug trafficking enterprise becomes more sophisticated, law enforcement agencies have responded, and Thomson Reuters is pleased to be on the forefront of innovation in the fight against illicit drug trafficking,” Rubley said.

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