HYBRID RECORDS AN CHALLENGE FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT

Erik Borglund

A START•Short Bio•What about the hybrid?•Hybrid arena•Hybrid records?•Challenges•Real case•Transferability of results

SHORT BIO•Police14 jan 1991– 31 Dec 2010•Several departments

– Stockholm City Police– National Counter Terrorist Unit– Härnösand Police department

•Various positions– Team leader– Sergeant– Inspector

• B.Sc Information systems & pedagogics• M.Sc Information Systems• Ph.D Computer & System science

– Senior lecture in Archives and Information Science

• Carried out ethnographical studies within the Swedish police since 2003

THE HYBRID?•Some argue that there are no boundaries between the digital and non digital environments•The two “worlds exist as one”

• and in this world the “digital native” exist (according to some)

•But!• In modern police investigations the boundary between

the digital and non digital environments exist

THE HYBRID

•A hybrid is a unit of analysis that is an individual + Information Technology, i.e. the IT cannot be seen as a separate artifact that individuals use. •A criminal acting in a hybrid environment acts as if there are no borders: their activities can be carried out in fully digital, semi digital, and in fully analogue environments.

• That means that the criminal can be seen as a hybrid

DigitalTraditional police officers

Non-Digital IT-Experts

Police reality

Hybrid environmentThe criminal arena

THE HYBRID (RECORDS)•In this presentation the criminal and the criminal acts will be analyzed as a hybrid,

• but the way the police act in response to the crimes cannot be seen as hybrid action

• because the police separate their action into two specialist groups: IT-experts and traditional police officers.

•This means that the analogue police capture only records that they know are important for their tasks, and the IT police capture only records important to theirs. This unfortunately results in situations wherein complete and unbroken chains of criminal activities are not captured.

THE HYBRID RECORDS•Records that are representing the entire crime should be “Hybrid” •The crime is committed in a hybrid environment but the records are captured in either

• Digital environment• Non-digital environment

•(Note! The non-digital environment can still produce digital records)

TASK OF THE POLICE•Police investigations should capture records of both the police activities as well as the criminals’ activities. (Almost SOP) •A crime is often a chain of activities that can together be judged as a crime, and the police need to find evidence for this chain of activities. •The police need to aggregate collected records and evidence into a chain that provides proof “beyond reasonable doubt”. •The collected records often lack the complete contextual richness that is needed to fully investigate a crime that has taken place in a hybrid environment.

 

FOR EXAMPLE•The male sexual offender

• that use Internet to contact young girls, • MSN, Facebook, etc

• Use telephone to send text messages• Use telephone to talk to them• Meet them in non digital world• Commit crime in non digital world

•The full extent of the crime can be understood with a hybrid approach

• Boundary awareness?

PROBLEMS•One problem with the current approach is that the records captured are not fully representing all the activities that the crime produces and encompasses. •It is not possible to understand the full range of the criminals’ behaviour because some activities have not been captured•When records are artificially aggregated without assurance that they are complete, authenticity and reliability of the records can then be challenged.•Another issue that compounds the problem is that neither group accepts responsibility for for records capture when information is exchanged between IT-police and traditional police.

A REAL CASE•Prostitution is illegal in Sweden (i.e. To buy sexual services is the criminal act)•One male pimp •5 prostitutes like nomads in mid Sweden•Advertising through Internet•Contact through email, and text messages•The buyers paid tickets, hotel room with credit cards

THE POLICE•Intelligence analyst

• IT-expert• Univ. degree in IT

• Internet surveillance• Tracing digital footprints, documented those as well

•The traditional police• Street surveillance• Telephone tapping• “traditional police investigations”• Tradtional police officers

Analog world

Digital world

The police is often a step behind. When crossing boundaries information needs to be trasferred between the two police units.

Evidence

Digital world

Analog world

Evidence

Evidence

TIME

The crime is commited in the two ”worlds” i.e. The activitiesneeds to be captured together for a trustworthy record.

TRANSFERABILITY

Knowledge from this research is transferable to other hybrid environments as for example business using social media, virtual communities as part of the advertisement and communication.