STEPHENVILLE, Texas — Tarleton State University’s School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies this month sponsored the first in a series of three free seminars on call record analysis.
Representatives from 14 North Texas law enforcement agencies attended the first class — focused on using a geospatial software called GeoTime — hosted by the criminology school’s Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing Science.
GeoTime allows visual analysis of events over time. Users can view real-time animated playback of data and use automated tools within the software to identify location patterns, connections between events and trends. Using GeoTime, law enforcement personnel can collect data from mobile phones, satellites, social networking websites, webserver logs and many other sources to help solve crimes.
The daylong class covered formatting, mapping and reporting of call data records. Participants learned how to animate the phones of suspects and capture their movement, as well as best practices for analyzing their key locations and callers, life patterns and proximity to crime locations.
The Level 1 class also included a demonstration on how to produce quick reports from call records to create easy-to-read summaries for detectives.
A Level 2 class, set for August, will cover call data record importing basics, including handling cell tower lists, merging records and playing back call records over time. Participants will learn how to produce animated videos of data for court testimony and intelligence reporting.
For more information on the Level 2 training, email Dr. Olga Semukhina, director of the Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing, at semukhina@tarleton.edu.
For more information on Tarleton’s School of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Strategic Studies, visit www.tarleton.edu/criminology.
Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today’s scholars into tomorrow’s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.
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Contact: Dr. Olga Semukhina, Director of the Institute for Predictive and Analytical Policing
817-484-3686
semukhina@tarleton.edu
