April 1996
The New Horizon
By The Rome Laboratory Law Enforcement Technology Team
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Members of the Rome Laboratory Law Enforcement Technology Team--John Ritz,Donald Spector, Joe Camera, Fred Demma, and Warren Debany--collaborated onthis article, with the assistance of Rome Laboratory researchers Wayne Bonser,Hunter Chilton, Ed Cupples, Dave Ferris, Paul Gilgallen, Joseph Horner, RobertKaminski, John Mucks, Paul Pellegrini, Antonette Pettinato, Fred Rahrig,Lee Uvanni, Bill Wolf, and Frank Zawislan.
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(The Rome Laboratory, which has spent40 years developing technologies for the U.S. military, is now applying itsexpertise to law enforcement as well.)
In the wake of the Cold War, America's attention has shifted from militarythreats abroad to threats posed by criminals at home. As violence proliferateson city streets and in rural towns, society is seeking better ways to stopit. Adding more police officers to department rosters and implementing numeroussocial and economic programs constitute some of the current methods of addressingthe crime problem.
The Government Technology Transfer Program[1] has made anotherpromising approach available to law enforcement. This initiative enablesDepartment of Defense and commercial organizations to work together to assistlaw enforcement through the application of defense-related technology.
As part of this initiative, theNational Instituteof Justice (NIJ) operates the NationalLaw Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC),[2] as well as four regional technology centersacross the country. These regional centers use existing facilities and resourcesto provide specialty support to NIJ's Office of Science and Technology andto the law enforcement and corrections field. Each center has a specifictechnological focus.
Rome Laboratory hosts the Northeast Regional Center. For more than 40 years,Rome Laboratory has developed the technologies that have provided the vitaleyes, ears, and voices for the American military. This article describessome of the defense technologies being converted for law enforcement usesby this regional center.
Law enforcement and defense missions share similar concerns and strategies.A key concept in the defense community is command, control, communications,and intelligence, known collectively as C3I. C3I includes a broad range oftechniques and tech-nologies that increase the effectiveness of a deployedforce. It enables troops to perform operations more rapidly and safely andallows actions to be contained within a desired area or to a specific groupof combatants. Command and control, the first two components of C3I, addressresource allocation and general mission planning--aspects shared by mostlaw enforcement operations. As forces execute the plan, commanders monitorprogress and issue corrective orders to deal with the changing scenario.
The intelligence aspect of C3I refers to covertly acquiring, cataloging,and using relevant information about the enemy or its environment. In a militaryscenario, intelligence could include maps, pictures, or the results ofinterviews. For law enforcement, it also could encompass street maps, trainstation locations, pictures of known suspects, fingerprint files, or anyother information that might provide a clue or help to determine an optimumcourse of action.
Closely related to intelligence is surveillance, which the military mostoften uses to identify both hostile and friendly forces. A radar or multispectraldevice used to detect an airborne threat would be one type of surveillancesensor. Law enforcement applications could include video cameras for streetsurveillance and multifrequency sensors for contraband detection.
The final element of C3I is communications, the infrastructure that tieseverything together. Anything related to the exchange of information fallsinto this category, such as computer links, printed text, voice transmissions,photographs, and other imagery, to name a few.
The parallels between the military C3I concept and a similar law enforcementC3I concept easily can be recognized. Law enforcement applications include,for example, riot control, mission planning, timely decisionmaking, covertsurveillance, and illegal drug interdiction. As more and more law enforcementagencies with adjacent or overlapping jurisdictions join forces to combatcrime, C3I technologies will become particularly useful for coordinatingactivities and making the most effective use of resources.
A good plan can make all the difference in whether an operation succeedsor fails. Similarly, having the pertinent facts about a situation and itsparticipants affects the decisionmaking process. Law enforcement commanderscan take advantage of this to ensure that they have access to the informationthey need to control their operations effectively.
Planning Complex Operations
Many law enforcement operations, such as installing listening devices pursuantto a court order or responding to a widespread civil disturbance, requirecoordination among commanders at multiple locations or even in other governmentalagencies. A distributed collaborative planning (DCP) process can make strategicdeployment and crisis management tasks easier.
In the DCP process, "distributed" means that it links commanders at multiplelocations and enables them to share data, software decision models, and otherinformation on a real-time basis. "Collaborative" indicates that plannerscommunicate with each other via digital video teleconferences and sharedcomputer "desktops" and databases, passing textual, verbal, and pictorialinformation to one another instantly.
Having a DCP capability allows police commanders to coordinate activitiesand responsibilities among agencies and response teams and to distributeimagery, including surveillance and suspect photographs, and other informationas the situation unfolds. For example, headquarters personnel, en route responsecars, helicopters, and other field units responding to a civil disturbancecould share up-to-date, as well as archived, information drawn from diverselocations, both prior to and during operations. Each unit in the operationcould provide real-time situation reports and work through problems as theydeveloped.
Sharing Information About Offenders
The inability to access critical information about offenders quickly andaccurately represents a significant hindrance to law enforcement today.Traditionally, law enforcement agencies have developed information systemspeculiar to their unique needs, making multimedia information sharing amongagencies nearly impossible. Joint automated booking stations (JABS), originallya DEA-Rome Laboratory pilot project in the Miami area, help overcome thisobstacle by enabling the five Federal law enforcement agencies in theregion[3] to share information more effectively.
JABS combines multimedia information systems, image- and text-oriented databases,image exploitation (enhancing images for identification, detection, anddissemination), and multisource fusion (combining information from many sources).Using computer workstations installed in each agency, agents can share unifiedtext, photograph, and fingerprint information through a centralized database.Each workstation consists of an IBM-compatible computer, a digital videocamera, a live-scan fingerprint system, and both black-and-white and colorprinters. A system administrator manages the centralized database and providesround-the-clock, on-call assistance to the agencies should any problem arise.
The shared data encompass prisoner case information, biographical statistics,voice prints, and images, such as facial photographs, fingerprints, and picturesof evidence. Eventually, advanced signal and image exploitation capabilitieswill enhance the system's ability to identify subjects using speakeridentification, facial recognition, and fingerprint matching. This electronicbooking process will replace the former paper method of booking arrests,although a printout of arrest information can be made. System designers projectthat JABS will reduce the time it takes to process prisoners by 75 percent,significantly cut the number of fingerprint cards rejected by the FBI, improvethe quality of prisoner photographs, and make it easier to access information.
Intelligence on suspects, victims, and crime trends constitutes a criticallaw enforcement resource. A number of technological capabilities can makeit easier to obtain and analyze intelligence information.
Speech-Related Capabilities
Many aspects of intelligence gathering revolve around monitoring conversationsor coordinating complex operations using voice links among operatives. Theneeds for high sound quality and the capability to identify and understandspeakers have led to the development of several speech-related capabilities.
Enhancing Voice Transmissions
Noise and other types of interference often make it difficult to understandwhat people say during phone, radio, or other voice transmissions. Speechenhancement technology, currently used in military operations to clean upnoisy radio communications, reduces noise and interference and enables usersto recover conversations that would otherwise be unintelligible. In airborneoperations, the equipment is on a 6" x 9" printed circuit card; it also comesin a 19" rack-mountable box or as a software package for operation on a personalcomputer with a co-processor.
Speech enhancement technology offers several benefits. It works in real timewith only a 200 millisecond processing delay. It reduces interference causedby a variety of equipment, atmospheric conditions, and other sources, includingreceivers, wire and radio links, tape recorders, automobile ignitions, andpower-line hums. It has been used to recover conversations lost due to low-levelrecordings, malfunctioning equipment, environmental noise, and ground loopconnections. Voice transmissions can be recovered using this enhancementprocess regardless of the language or dia-lect being spoken or the persontalking.
Identifying Speakers
Automatic speaker identification technology determines the identity of thespeaker in a live or taped conversation. Speakers can be identified withas little as 4 seconds of their speech used to characterize the voice forcomparison. Identification does not depend on the language or dialect theperson uses or which words are spoken. Identification decisions can be madeusing as little as one word (approximately one-third of a second).
Currently only available in a laboratory setting, the military uses thistechnology to identify speakers on a military communication network wherethe communications have been recorded. A field version will be availablein 1996. Law enforcement agencies could use automated speaker identificationtechnology in a number of ways, such as tracking individuals using wire orcellular phones, recording and identifying suspects in wire-tapping and othermonitoring operations, and using voiceprints for police sorting and bookingoperations.
Translating Spoken Conversations
Machine voice translation equipment takes in spoken voice in one languageand translates it to another language. It provides the results in printedtext or in audible spoken language form. As with automated speakeridentification, the system does not depend on the speaker.
Three components operate the translation system--a commercial word recognizer,a personal computer that acts as a translator and system manager, and a voicesynthesizer. Currently, it translates only Spanish and English in limitedapplications, but researchers are developing several other language translations.Police departments in localities that have a large Spanish-speaking populationwould have an immediate interest in this technology. It can help officerscollect information at crime scenes, reduce the time needed to acquire criticaltime-sensitive information, and make interrogating suspects less difficultand costly.
Sensor Technologies
Another key aspect of the intelligence component of C3I is knowing whereto find the enemy. A variety of sensors can locate and track suspects. Somesensors also can locate concealed weapons, peer through walls, and see atnight.
Covert Tracking
Passive sensor technology will provide law enforcement with a covert meansfor identifying and tracking suspects by air and by sea. It especially appliesto the drug interdiction arena where covert detection and tracking of suspecteddrug running aircraft is essential. It merges two complementarytechnologies--electronic support measurement (ESM) and bistatic radar.
ESM enables operators to receive and analyze any signal transmitted in theradio frequency (RF) spectrum, such as communications or radar signals. Analyzingsuch signals reveals the angle of arrival, frequency, pulse width, and anycharacteristics unique to a transmitter. This information provides a profileof the targeted emitter, which can be used later to re-identify the target.
Bistatic radar uses existing sources of illumination to detect and tracktargets passively, instead of the more conventional monostatic radar systemsthat actively send a signal and wait to receive a return echo. Bistatic radarstrack targets using signals from television stations or from Federal AviationAdministration (FAA) en route surveillance radars to provide the ambientillumination. The FAA radar energy, for example, reflects off the targetin many directions, including the direction of the bistatic radar receiver.The receiver intercepts this energy and determines the location andcharacteristics of the target. This passive radar system cannot be detectedby the target because it does not send signals, it only receives them.
Long-range Surveillance Conventional radar systems work on the principleof line-of-sight detection and surveillance, which limits their range ofeffectiveness. Over-the-Horizon (OTH) radar, however, exploits the refractiveproperties of the ionosphere at low level frequencies (between 3 and 30megahertz) to provide coverage far beyond line-of-sight distances.
The lower frequencies associated with OTH radar can bounce off the ionosphere,whereas the very high frequencies (above one-half gigahertz) at whichconventional radar operates cannot. Similar to the way pool players bankbilliard balls against a railing to get around their opponent's balls, thelower frequencies associated with OTH bounce off the ionosphere to reacharound line-of-sight obstructions. In addition, the lower frequencies resultin significantly wider beam widths, which in turn allow a much wider areato be monitored.
OTH radar performs three functions better than conventional radar--detectionof targets at the source, continuous tracking of targets from take-off tolanding, and routine surveillance of airfields suspected of being used bydrug traffickers. At present, OTH systems are used in California for Mexicanborder surveillance.
Concealed Weapons Detection
RF sensors also can provide law enforcement agencies with two significantcapabilities: concealed weapon detection and wall-penetrating surveillance.Law enforcement officers could use RF sensors to detect hidden weapons incrowded areas, such as airports or street parties, and to conduct surveillanceof a building's interior and surrounding environment during hostage orcornered-fugitive situations.
These sensor technologies can be divided into two categories: passive andactive. Passive sensors do not illuminate the targets; instead, they detectthermal energy generated from within the target and therefore can be usedto find concealed weapons. For example, the human body emits electromagneticenergy, which can penetrate most types of clothing. Weapons concealed fromview by clothing become visible to the sensor because they block some ofthe energy coming from the body.
Active sensors, on the other hand, illuminate the target with radio frequencyenergy for through-the-wall surveillance. Operators select a frequency thatcan penetrate the wall. The RF energy reflects off the people and objectsin the observed area. The radar receiver then interprets the reflectionsto depict what is hidden from view.
Infrared Night Vision
Existing techniques, such as night-vision goggles and low light-level television,depend on some form of light source, such as the moon, stars, or distantcity lights, and are subject to saturation and "blooming," which can makethem ineffective. The new infrared sensors, however, are completely passiveand inherently antiblooming because they do not rely on a light source. Instead,they sense the heat radiated by the subject and produce its image on a standardtelevision monitor. They can reveal clandestine operations without alertingsubjects that they are being observed.
The military uses such sensors on a number of aircraft and weapons navigationsystems. Law enforcement agencies could use infrared sensing for passiveborder surveillance and drug interdiction on land orwater.[4] Marine vessels can use infrared sensors to findsurvivors in water during both day and night searches. Limited viewing ofconcealed articles, including weapons, also might be possible.
Information Analysis
Investigators must closely examine the data collected during an investigation.In complex, on-going cases involving multiple suspects and broad geographicalregions, a picture of the collected information can be worth the proverbialthousand words. Sometimes, however, a single piece of evidence can providethe link that solves the case. The following computerized techniques canhelp.
Displaying Data Visually
Rummaging through piles of reports, interview transcripts, interrogationresults, and surveillance information can make it difficult to see patternsand cause-and-effect relationships in cases. Using the Timeline AnalysisSystem (TAS), investigators can add a visual dimension to the collectedinformation that can help bring those patterns into focus.
The system consists of a set of software tools originally developed to helpintelligence analysts understand a foreign country's military and politicalbehavior and to project possible intentions. TAS software runs on a personalcomputer and represents each observed event as a meaningful icon on timelinesand maps. For example, in a drug-running case, investigators could recordthe origins, destinations, and frequency of known drug flights, movementsof suspects, and other information. The system would then graphically displayeach event on a timeline and/or a map, showing patterns of behavior.
Scientists designed the Timeline Analysis System to be flexible, so it canbe tailored easily to support various types of cases. Useful duringinvestigations, it also can serve as an effective tool for presenting casesto prosecutors and jurors.
Identifying Firearms
To assist the FBI with forensic identification of firearms, researchers designeda system to enhance the existing Drugfire5 system by automating the matchingprocess. Currently, firearms experts must manually compare the characteristicsof spent shell casings--a task that grows more and more daunting as the sizeof the database increases. The FBI's local database in Washington, DC, forexample, contains more than 2,000 shell casings.
Computerized Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) speeds up the process bynarrowing the number of potential matches for experts to examine. ATR usesa parallel, neural network-based system, which learns to recognize patternsrather than requiring operators to program the patterns. By eliminating obviousmismatches, the system can reduce by as much as 98 percent the number ofimages that must be examined manually. When tested on the LAPD database ofmore than 6,000 spent shell casings, the Automatic Target Recognition systemlinked five homicides.
Image Recognition
The sensitive nature of law enforcement operations often requires agenciesto restrict access to certain areas. Two promising technologies currentlyunder development include an infrared facial recognition system and an opticalcorrelator with a phase-only filter. Both can be used to control access tosecure areas. One major application of the optical correlator is in detectingcounterfeited valuables.
Recognizing Faces
All people have unique facial signatures determined by their underlying vascularstructure. State-of-the-art infrared cameras, in conjunction with computerizedimage processing software, can be used to recognize facial signatures.Researchers envision using this infrared facial recognition system to establishautomated control of access to secure areas.
In a police department, for example, cameras would record the patterns ofheat radiated from the facial area of employees authorized to enter the evidenceroom. The patterns, or thermograms, then would be stored in a computer databaseconnected to the evidence room's locked doorway. As someone approached thedoorway, an infrared camera would capture the person's facial image. Theimage processing software then would compare it to the database of previouslystored thermograms, and in just a few seconds, determine whether it matchedthe thermogram of an employee authorized to enter the area.
This technology distinguishes itself from other biometrics approaches becauseit is passive, not intrusive, light-independent, and invulnerable to disguises.When completed, it could be employed for any military, law enforcement, orcivilian use where personnel need to be identified.
Countering Counterfeiters
To deal with the growing problems of counterfeited currency and other valuableitems, researchers have developed a new pattern recognition device knownas an optical correlator. It uses a laser to compare a stored reference imageto an unknown image to determine their similarities.
Image processing usually involves transforming an image into a frequencyspectrum representation. The components of this representation can be thoughtof as a set of ripples on the surface of a pond. The ripples have a magnitude(or height) and a phase (or relative time delay) associated with them. Anoptical correlator has been developed based on a phase-only filter, whichdisregards the magnitude and only uses the phase information. This filteringtechnique is more effective than other image processing techniques and requiresfar less information storage.
Developed originally for military use, the optical correlator based on thephase-only filter has been used by the Army Missile Command to track targets.For law enforcement, Rome Laboratory has built a prototype that performsreal-time analysis of fingerprints. This could be used to control accessto a secure area or a computer file.
As crime spreads beyond traditional boundaries, criminal justice agenciesacross jurisdictions must join forces to enforce the law. In large part,this requires enhanced communications capabilities, in terms of both speedand of compatibility. The technologies described below will help law enforcementstay one step ahead of crime.
High-speed Networks
The advent of the National Information Infrastructure, a seamless web ofbroadband communications networks, computers, and databases, will providelaw enforcement agencies with vast amounts of multimedia information. Thesenetworks will allow federal, state, and local agencies to share text, voice,image, and video data in a timely manner through one network.
In a military environment, these networks allow for rapid exchange of criticalinformation, such as intelligence resources and weapon quantities, drawnfrom sources in diverse locations. In the law enforcement arena, high-speednetworks will enable agencies to access FBI databases to perform rapidfingerprint identification, conduct live teleconferences with other agenciesin situations that require shared planning and coordination, and provideimmediate, widespread dissemination of pictures of wanted or missing persons.
Compatible Communications Systems
Components of the C3I system use both wide- and narrow-band services, whichflow across land-lines, satellites, fiber optic cables, and terrestrial radiolinks. The divergent characteristics of each of these media have requiredusers to obtain many types of often incompatible equipment. Rome Laboratoryresearchers are working to mitigate this problem with both short- and long-term solutions.
A quick fix for the problem of communications systems that cannot interactis a rapidly deployable set of radio switching and computer equipment thatcan serve as an interface among systems. Under computer control, this centralcommunications center enables the exchange of information among virtuallyall forms of transmission media, including facsimile, data, and voice. Itcan be configured quickly for a variety of communication capabilities. TheU.S. Coast Guard currently uses a central communications capability in itsdrug interdiction and other law enforcement operations, as well as duringresponses to natural disasters.
A longer range approach involves development of a new concept for radio systems.Sponsored by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the "Speakeasy" programseeks to standardize radio equipment to establish common and flexible systemsfor radio communications among the various military services.
Speakeasy is a modular system in which many of the modules have multipleuses and can serve a variety of radio types. It takes advantage of the newestmicrocircuit technology in several ways. First, it employs an open systemsarchitecture, meaning that interface specifications at all layers and connectionpoints are published in open salutations and U.S. standards documents. Withwidely published specifications, more than one vendor can design and improvecomponents that will be mutually compatible.
Second, the Speakeasy system will be programmable, enabling the same radioto be configured for different operations. It also will be multiband, thatis, capable of operating in a variety of frequencies, and will operatesimultaneously in more than one mode. For law enforcement, this system willprovide the capability for radios designed for different purposes to operatetogether. It also will provide the foundation for a greatly improved, easilyupgradable radio system for all types of law enforcement applications.
Over the past 40 years, researchers at Rome Laboratory have developed a vastarray of technological tools for the military to employ in our national defense.Within the shared framework of command, control, communications, andintelligence, many of those technologies apply to the domestic law enforcementmission as well. As one of NLECTC's regional law enforcement technology centers,Rome Laboratory will continue to make substantial contributions to the waron crime by developing technologies that meet the needs of law enforcement.
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Endnotes
1 Federal Technology Transfer Act of 1986, P.L. 99-502.
2 For more information on the regional technology centers,write to NLECTC, Box 1160, Rockville, MD 20849, or call 1-800-248-2742.
3 The five agencies currently participating in the projectare the Bureau of Prisons, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FederalBureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, andthe U.S. Marshals Service.
4 Because of its current high cost, this important technologyhas not been applied widely to law enforcement missions. However, Rome Laboratoryhas developed a new, more affordable infrared sensor technology. The equipmentconsists of a palm-sized video camera that uses standard rechargeable batteries.
5 Drugfire is a system that matches spent rounds to the weaponsthat fired them in order to identify firearms used in crimes.
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