News item (July 7, 2016)

More Training is Needed to Keep up with Changing Technology
July 7, 2016 Kristofer

More Training and Collaboration Are Needed to Keep up with Changing Technology

As digital content’s role in investigations continues to increase, law officers are relying on advanced technology to help solve a slew of cases – from child exploitation to national security and white collar crimes. However, without the proper training and collaboration to share best practices, these tools will never be used to its potential.

To help meet this need, The International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts (IALEIA) and The Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Units (LEIU) have come together for the past 35 years to make it possible for law enforcement officers around the globe to get the support they need to be successful.

This year, the 2016 LEIU/IALEIA Training Event in New Orleans, LA had its biggest year yet with 800 law enforcement intelligence professionals from 16 countries in attendance. The incredible demand and interest from attendees demonstrated the real need for professionals in the law enforcement field to have the resources available to network and receive training to advance their skillset.

The passion behind the work

Leading the conference is a group of leaders, each with their own experience in law enforcement, including Radek Ostoja-Domaradzki, a Polish police officer since 1995. Ostoja-Domaradzki currently holds a senior analyst position that focuses on child exploitation in the Netherlands, as well as serving as IALEIA’s International Director. His role is to ensure that the organization is an international force that continues to support regional chapters across the world – from networking opportunities to proper training. “We are the only conference that incorporates this group of intelligence analysts,” said Ostoja-Domaradzki.

Working alongside Ostoja-Domaradzki is Shelagh Dorn, a seasoned law enforcement intelligence professional and President of IALEIA, where she oversees the international board of directors and leads advocacy with the global members and federal agencies, such as the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and CLACIP (Comunidad Latinoamericana y del Caribe de Inteligencia Policial). She knows firsthand why the conference and training is so important for law enforcement officials. “IALEIA was a lifeline for me to advance my skills and to form relationships with other seasoned intelligence analysts in the field,” said Dorn. Her time as a member of IALEIA has been important to a satisfying career in law enforcement intelligence – giving her the opportunity to discuss challenges and successes of technology with those facing similar tasks worldwide.

Evolving technology requires training

Dorn and Ostoja-Domaradzki, along with other board members of IALEIA, look for the top technology to advance the skill sets of crime and intelligence analysts in attendance. This year, Ostoja-Domaradzki invited Johann Hofmann, Director and Head of Griffeye, to the conference after using Analyze for Victim ID for his analyst work in Europe. A premier intelligence and visual big data platform for collecting, processing, analyzing, visualizing and managing images and videos, Griffeye’s Analyze technology helps law officers around the world solve a variety of intelligence cases.

“I was honored to represent Griffeye at the 2016 IALEIA/LEIU Training Event and speak about our technology,” said Hofmann. “One of our biggest initiatives as a company is to improve training for law officers to use our intelligence tools to the best of the ability. This conference gives us a chance to help analysts to create and follow best practices in their work.”

The future of global training

Yet, as Dorn and Ostoja-Domaradzki pointed out, the evolution of technology in the field is meant to advance the skills of analysts, not replace them. With help from companies like Griffeye, analysts will learn how to use these tools to the best of their ability to solve a wide range of cases – from child exploitation to national security and white collar crimes. While technology is important, the human touch is still needed. The analyst role cannot be replaced.

In the future IALEIA and LEIU will continue to grow the annual training conference and ensure analysts don’t need to re-invent the wheel with each new challenge. This year, IALEIA saw their average attendance jump from 500-600 up to 800, making this the biggest conference yet. Dorn and Ostoja-Domaradzki plan to develop IALEIA’s international memberships in particular, giving them the opportunity to expand their training efforts to even more regions – including developing countries.

And what does Griffeye have in store? “Our goal is to support analysts and help them succeed in solving cases. We want to ensure our technology is part of the training at this unbelievable conference,” said Hofmann.

Ostoja-and-Dorn,-IALEIA-conference-2016

Other updates