After years of stinging criticism that members of the police force simply lack the investigative skills and tools needed to fight crime, the government is exploring the option of acquiring a sophisticated computer software programme that senior-level cops hope will bolster the Force’s investigative capacity to solve crime.

The software would help investigators and analysts break down data and quickly spot trends, while facilitating easy communication between lawmen across the island.

The technology could be the single most important piece of equipment the police will receive in decades, top police officials told the Sunday Observer.

The software is being sold by the US-based i2 Incorporated, providers of visual investigative software for law enforcement.

The cost will vary, depending on the aspects of the package used. According to i2 Inc’s national sales manager Yonnie Nania, their products range from a low of US$1,500 to a high of US$100,000. All software attracts either a maintenance or support fee that is due every year.

The JCF now has one component of the system, the analysts notebook, which has a current price tag of US$4,094 (J$249,734) plus US$690 (J$42,090) in annual support fees. But it needs the rest of the package to be fully effective.

“I can’t emphasise how critical this (technology) is,” said senior crime analyst in the Jamaica Constabulary Force, Inspector Paulette Green.

The software, she said, could reduce years of wading through data into a few hours of analysis. The ibase component of the package (price tag US$4,450 or J$271,450, plus annual maintenance of US$750 or J$45,750), would be useful in analysing criminal gangs, she said.

“If you want to put together a list of gangs, and what each person’s position is in the gang, then you do it in the form of a link chart,” she explained. “What the link chart does is condense the large volume of data into little circles, on a chart which indicates, for example, who the main players are, persons associated with the main player, the role that each person plays in that organisation. And that is information that can be duplicated for other gangs with similar characteristics and modes of operation.”

This analysis, she said, would then in turn be used to make decisions about how the police would deal with the problem.

“That could inform operation and deployment of resources and personnel. It is critical to 21st century policing,” Inspector Green said.

According to the company’s website, i2 Inc has a range of products that allow law enforcement officials to analyse “complex scenarios and volumes of seemingly unrelated data, perform analysis, and communicate the results”.

Its software, it said, has been used for more than 10 years to help “solve cases of fraud, drug trafficking, counter-terrorism, national security, and corporate security,” said the website, adding that the technology is used by more than 2,000 organisations in over 100 countries.

Its client base, it said, includes the FBI, the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the US Postal Service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, US Customs, and the US Department of Treasury.

Inspector Green sees it as a vital tool needed by the JCF. The software, she explained, could even be used to analyse data supplied through wire taps.

“If you have telephone analysis to do (wiretapping) which is critical to an investigation, after the proper procedures were followed in obtaining that information from the phone company, the toll analysis will then generate information about call frequency, call duration, and make the necessary links between individuals,” she said.

Investigators, she said, would then be given the names of the persons to be picked up, if necessary for the investigation.

“So it make connections, links, analyses crime patterns and most of all identifies persons. That is how essential the technology is and it is badly needed,” said Inspector Green.

However there is one snag.

The company wants to sell the product line, individually, to the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s 19 geographic divisions across the island, a move that would likely push the purchase price out of the cash-strapped Jamaican Government’s reach.

“The way they sell it, it would have to be licensed to the 19 geographic divisions,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Novlette Grant told the Sunday Observer. “The long and short of that is we are trying to have them understand that from an institutional perspective, the cost would be prohibitive if you sell it to individual divisions.”

Grant, who has headed the JCF’s reform and modernisation programme since the launch of the Force’s Corporate Strategy in 1988, said the technology is the best on the market at this time.

Local cops would have to be trained to use the new software but the move towards a technological base for the organisation, she explained, was part of the Force’s reform and modernisation programme.

Once it is in place and being used successfully, the technology could be the fillip the force needs to be considered an effective crime-solving body. With the public using television shows such as the fast-paced investigative crime series NYPD as the standard, and murder figures that have rocketed past the 1,000 mark for years, there has been increasing pressure on cops to perform.

While the police have been able to clear up (cases where they have made arrests) more than 50 per cent of overall crimes annually, for years now the JCF has not cleared up 50 per cent of the murders that have rocked the island.

Apparently ready to head off any complaints about the cost of acquiring the software, ACP Grant pointed to the £14 million that the British Metropolitan Police had earmarked in 1993 to be spent, over three years, to set up and run an operation to investigate corrupt cops.

Law enforcement, she said, was “extremely expensive”.

i2 Inc describes itself as the “leading worldwide provider of visual investigative analysis software for law enforcement, intelligence, military and Fortune 500 organisations”.

i2 Inc’s product list and cost in US$:

. All maintenance and support costs paid annually.

. Total cost depends on the aspects of the system used.

ibase $4,450

Maintenance $750

ibridge $4,450

Maintenance $750

chart reader free download from the company website that can be used with analysts’ workbook.

analysts workbook $4,094

Support $690

visual notebook $1,500

Support $225

workstation $100,000

Maintenance 15 per cent of purchase price ($15,000)

text chart $1,500

Maintenance 15 per cent of purchase price ($225)

Information supplied by i2 Inc’s national sales manager Yonnie Nania.