* The COPLINK system was initially developed by the University of Arizona Artificial Intelligence Lab with funding from the National Institute of Justice and the National Science Foundation since 1997. With additional venture funding and product development, Knowledge Computing Corporation (KCC), founded by Dr. Hsinchun Chen, distributed, maintained, and updated the commercially available COPLINK Solution Suite. Coplink (TM) is currently distributed by i2; i2 was acquired by IBM in 2011.

Research Goal

• Cross-jurisdictional information sharing, analysis, visualization and research for the law enforcement and intelligence community for border and national security.
• Study policy issues within government agencies and develop a framework for successful information sharing and analysis while taking into consideration the privacy and security of data.
• Develop algorithms that automatically detect false identities to assist police and intelligence investigations.
• Focus on cross-border crime scenarios and organized criminal activity networks to provide value to local and national law enforcement.

Funding

Funding for this research was received from the following sources:

Training Video

This video is an example demonstration of i2 COPLINK in action. COPLINK organizes vast quantities of seemingly unrelated data to provide users with access to shared data. Its proven ability to quickly identify investigative leads helps agencies solve crimes faster, thereby helping to keep officers and communities safer.

Acknowledgements

National Science Foundation   

• NSF and DHS - RISC: Regional Information Sharing and Collaboration. Sept. 1, 2006-Aug. 31, 2007.
• NSF, Knowledge Discovery and Dissemination (KDD) # 9983304, June 2003-March 2004 and October 2003 - March 2004.
• NSF, ITR: "COPLINK* Center for Intelligence and Security Informatics Research - "A Crime Data Mining Approach to Developing Border Safe Research." Sept. 1, 2003 - Aug. 31, 2004.
• NSF, Digital Government (DG) Program, COPLINK* Center: Information and Knowledge Management for Law Enforcement, # 9983304, July, 2000-June, 2003.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI): "Border Safe," Oct. 1, 2003 - March 31, 2005.

National Institute of Justice, COPLINK*: Database Integration and Access for a Law Enforcement Intranet, July 1997-January 2000.

We would like to thank the Tucson Police Department and the Phoenix Police Department for its support and collaboration in the COPLINK* project.

We would like to thank Tucson Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for its support and collaboration in the BorderSafe and RISC projects.

We would like to thank the Compaq Computer Corporation External Technology Grants Program, agreement #US-1998004, for their award of a $198,451 equipment grant allowance toward the purchase of a DECAlpha Server for the COPLINK* project.

Approach and Methodology

Testbed:

• Tucson Police Department
• Pima County Sheriff's Department 
• Tucson Customs and Border Protection

Team Members

Publications

1. S. Kaza, P. J. Hu, H. Hu, and H. Chen, “Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating Information Systems for Law Enforcement: A Long-term Design Science Research Program,” Communications of the AIS, forthcoming, 2012.
2. P. J. Hu, H. Hu, F. M. Hsu, and H. Chen, “Law Enforcement Officers’ Acceptance of Advanced E-Government Technology: A Survey Study of COPLINK Mobile,” Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, Volume 10, Number 1, Pages 6-16, January-February 2011.
3. J. Li, G. Wang, and H. Chen, “Identity Matching Using Social Identity Features,” Information Systems Frontiers, Volume 13, Number 1, 2011.
4. G. Wang and H. Chen, “A Hierarchical Naïve Bayes Model for Approximate Identity Matching,” Decision Support Systems, Volume 51, Issue 3, Pages 413-423, June 2011.
5. Y. Zhang, Y. Dang, P. J. Hu, S. Brown, and H. Chen, “Knowledge Mapping for Rapidly Evolving Domains: A Design Science Approach,” Decision Support Systems, Volume 50, Issue 2, Pages 415-427, January 2011.
6. S. Kaza and H. Chen, “Mapping Ontologies using WordNet and Mutual Information: An Experiment in Public Safety Information Sharing,” Decision Support Systems, forthcoming, 2010. (CWP)
7. G. Wang and H. Chen, “A Hierarchical Naïve Bayes Model for Approximate Identity Matching,” Decision Support Systems, forthcoming, 2010.
8. P. Hu, H. Chen, and H. Hu, “Examining Law Enforcement Officers’ Acceptance of Advanced E-Government Technology: A Survey Study of COPLINK Mobile,” International Conference on Electronic Commerce (ICEC), Taipei, Taiwan, August 2009.
9. S. Kaza, J. Xu, B. Marshall, and H. Chen, “Topological Analysis of Criminal Activity Networks: Enhancing Transportation Security,” IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Volume 10, Number 1, Pages 83-91, 2009.
10. D. Hu, S. Kaza, and H. Chen, “Identifying Significant Facilitators of Dark Network Evolution,” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume 60, Number 4, Pages 655-665, 2009.
11. S. Kaza, Y. Wang, H. Chen, "Suspect Vehicle Identification for Border Safety with Modified Mutual Information," In Proceedings of the Intelligence and Security Informatics: IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI 2006), San Diego, CA, USA, May 23-24, 2006.
12. D. Reis, A. Melo, A. L.V. Coelho, and V. Furtado, " Towards Optimal Police Patrol Routes with Genetic Algorithms," In Proceedings of the Intelligence and Security Informatics: IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI 2006), San Diego, CA, USA, May 23-24, 2006.
13. B. Marshall , H. Chen, "Using Importance Flooding to Identify Interesting Networks of Criminal Activity," In Proceedings of the Intelligence and Security Informatics: IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI 2006), San Diego, CA, USA, May 23-24, 2006.
14. G. Wang, H. Atabakhsh, T. Petersen, H. Chen, "Discovering Identity Problems: A Case Study," In Proceedings of the Intelligence and Security Informatics: IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI 2005), Atlanta, GA, USA, May 19-20, 2005.
15. S. Kaza, B. Marshall, J. Xu, A. Wang, H. Gowda, H. Atabakhsh, T. Petersen, C. Violette, and H. Chen, "BorderSafe: Cross-Jurisdictional Information Sharing, Analysis, and Visualization," IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI), Atlanta, GA, 2005.
16. S. Kaza, T. Wang, H. Gowda, and H. Chen, "Target Vehicle Identification for Border Safety using Mutual Information," 8th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 
17. S. Kaza, J. Xu, and H. Chen, "Topological Analysis of Criminal Activity Networks in Multiple Jurisdictions," The National Conference on Digital Government Research (DGO), Atlanta, GA, 2005.
18. Y. Xianga,*, M. Chau, H. Atabakhsh, H. Chen, "Visualizing criminal relationships: comparison of a hyperbolic tree and a hierarchical list" Decision Support –83.
19. H. Chen, H. Atabakhsh, C. Tseng, B. Marshall, S. Kaza, S. Eggers, H. Gowda, A. Shah, T. Petersen, and C. Violette, "Visualization in law enforcement," CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems, Portland, 
20. J. Xu, B. Marshall, S. Kaza, and H. Chen, "Analyzing and Visualizing Criminal Network Dynamics: A Case Study," IEEE Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI), 
21. B. Marshall, S. Kaza, J. Xu, H. Atabakhsh, T. Petersen, C. Violette, and H. Chen, "Cross-Jurisdictional Criminal Activity Networks to Support Border and Transportation Security," 7th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Washington D.C., 2004. 
22. G. Wang, H. Chen, J. Xu, H. Atabakhsh, "Automatically Detecting Criminal Identity Deception: An Adaptive Detection Algorithm", IEEE Transactions on System, Man and Cybernetics, Part A, conditionally accepted. 
23. Jiexun Li, Rong Zheng, Hsinchun Chen, "From Fingerprint to Writeprint," 2004. 
24. H. Atabakhsh, C. Larson, T. Petersen, C. Violette, and H. Chen, "Information sharing and collaboration policies within government agencies," at 2nd Symposium on Intelligence and Security Informatics, June 10-11 2004, Tucson, AZ, 2004. 
25. G. Wang, H. Chen, and H. Atabakhsh, "Automatically Detecting Deceptive Criminal Identities," Communications of the ACM, 47(3): 70-76, March 2004.
26. G. Wang, H. Chen, H. Atabakhsh, “Criminal Identity Deception and Deception Detection in Law Enforcement,” Group Decision and Negotiation, Special Issues on Deception, 13(2): 111-127, March 2004.
27. H. Chen, W. Chung, J. Xu, G. Wang, M. Chau and Y. Qin, “Crime Data Mining: A General Framework and Some Examples,” IEEE Computer; 37(4):50-56, April 2004.
28. Jennifer J. Xu*, Hsinchun Chen, "Criminal Network Analysis and Visualization: A Data Mining Perspective" Forthcoming article accepted for publication in Communications of the ACM.
29. Jennifer J. Xu*, Hsinchun Chen, "Fighting organized crimes: using shortest-path algorithms to identify associations in criminal networks" Forthcoming article accepted for publication in Decision Support Systems (DSS).
30. H. Chen, D. Zeng, H. Atabakhsh, W. Wyzga, and J. Schroeder. COPLINK: Managing Law Enforcement Data and Knowledge. Communications of the ACM, pages 28-34, Volume 46, Number 1, January 2003.   
31. H. Chen, J. Schroeder, R. Hauck, L. Ridgeway, H. Atabakhsh, H. Gupta, C. Boarman, K. Rasmussen and A. Clements, COPLINK* Connect: information and knowledge management for law enforcement. Decision Support Systems (DSS), Special Issue "Digital Government: technologies and practices," pages 271-285, Volume 34, Number 3, February 2003.
32. Ty Buetow, Luis Chaboya, Christopher O’Toole, Tom Cushna, Damien Daspit, Tim Petersen, Homa Atabakhsh, Hsinchun Chen. A Spatio Temporal Visualizer for Law Enforcement. First NSF/NIJ Symposium on Intelligence and Security Informatics. Tucson AZ, June 2003.
33. H. Chen, H. Atabakhsh, D. Zeng, J. Schroeder, T., Petersen, D. Casey, M. Chen, Y. Xiang, D. Daspit, S. Nandiraju, S. Fu, COPLINK*: Visualization and Collaboration for Law Enforcement. Proceedings of the National Conference on Digital Government, May 20-22, 2002, Los Angeles, CA.
34. Chau, M, Xu, J, and Chen, H., "Extracting Meaningful Entities from Police Narrative Reports," in Proceedings of the second National Conference on Digital Government Research, May 2002, Los Angeles CA.
35. R. Hauck, H. Atabakhsh, P. Onguasith, H. Gupta, H. Chen, Using Coplink* to Analyse Criminal-Justice Data. IEEE Computer, pages 30-37, Volume 35, March 2002.
36. J. Martinez, A. Moosman, Report of COPLINK* Detect User Study, August 2002.  
37. Homa Atabakhsh, Jennifer Schroeder, Hsinchun Chen, Michael Chau, Jennifer, Jie Xie, Jing Zhang, Haidong Bi, COPLINK* Knowledge Management for Law Enforcement: Text Analysis, Visualization and Collaboration. National Conference on Digital Government. May 2001, Los Angeles CA.  
38. Michael Chau, Homa Atabakhsh, Daniel Zeng, Hsinchun Chen.  Building an Infrastructure for Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Collaboration: Design Issues and Challenges. National Conference on Digital Government. May 2001, Los Angeles CA.  
39. Hsinchun Chen, Coplink*: A National Model for Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Knowledge Management. Coplink* Center Workshop: Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Analysis:  Technologies and Practices for the 21st Century, January 2001.  
40. Rosie Hauck and Jenny Schroeder, COPLINK*: A Collaboration of Research and Application for Law Enforcement. Coplink* Center Workshop: Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Analysis:  
    Technologies and Practices for the 21st Century, January 2001.  
41. H. Chen, R. V. Hauck, H. Atabakhsh, H. Gupta, C. Boarmana, J Schroeder, L. Ridgeway, COPLINK*: Information and Knowledge Management for Law Enforcement. Photonics East Conference, SPIE, Technologies for Law Enforcement; Boston Nov. 5-8, 2000.  
42. "NIJ Presentation 2000: COPLINK* Overview", April, 2000.
43. Boarman, Christopher, "Coplink*: Database Deployment(ppt)";   "Coplink*: Refreshment Subsystem Design(ppt)  ", April, 2000.
44. Jennifer Schroeder, Hsinchun Chen, Homa Atabakhsh, Emily Werner, Shantel Ekman, Harsh Gupta, Rosie V. Hauck, David Hendriawan, Chris Boarman, "NIJ Presentation 1999." October 20, 1999.
45. Hauck, Rosie V., "Coplink*: Exploring Usability of a Multimedia Database Application for Law Enforcement(pdf)." October 20, 1999.
46. Jennifer Schroeder, Hsinchun Chen, Hauck, Rosie V., "NIJ Final Proposal(abstract)";"NIJ Final Proposal." September, 1999.
47. Hauck, Rosie V. and Dr. Chen, Hsinchun, "Coplink*: A Case of Intelligent Analysis and Knowledge Management(pdf)";   "Coplink*: A Case of Intelligent Analysis and Knowledge Management(ppt), "  International Conference on Information Systems '99.
48. Sochan, John T. and Chen, Hsinchun, "Tucson Police Department COPLINK* Mobile Computing Technology Assessment."
49. Sochan, John T., "CDPD Demonstration Plan for a Tucson Police Department Web-Based Mobile Computing Application," August 22, 1997.
50. B. Schatz, H. Chen, "Building Large-Scale Digital Libraries(pdf),"IEEE Computer, May, 1996. 
51. K. Lynch, F. Rodgers, "Development of Integrated Criminal Justice Expert System Applications," Journal of Forensic Identification, Volume 39, Number 5, 1989.

NEWS ITEMS

   See additional recognitions and news items on the Recognitions page.

1. Software Helps Police Draw Crime Links   
   "Coplink*," the program sifts through tens of millions of police records, from 911 calls to homicide investigations, to deliver a short list of potential leads in just seconds.   
   The Boston Globe, July 17, 2003
2. ‘Google’ for Cops   
   Software helps police search for cyber clues to bust criminals.   
   ABC News, April 15, 2003
3. Crime: A Google for Cops   
   A computerized way for police to coordinate crime databases.   
   Newsweek Magazine, March 3, 2003
4. The PTI Technology Award   
   Coplink* project receives "The PTI Technology Award" in the public safety category for mid-size cities.   
   Public Technology, Inc., January, 2003
5. "Data Miners"   
   Americans got a glimpse of how such a system might work this fall during the Washington-sniper investigation. Two weeks into the shootings, Knowledge Computing, an Arizona company whose COPLINK* system has integrated police databases.   
   Time Magazine Global Business Supplement, December 23, 2002
6. "Coplink*,"   
   an artificial-intelligence–driven search engine for crime characteristics, scans multiple databases for connections among names, vehicles, physical descriptions, and other aspects of a crime or criminal .   
   PC Magazine, December 17, 2002
7. "A Sherlock Holmes for the Internet Age"   
   Content in Chinese.   
   Life Week Magazine, November 18, 2002
8. "A Missing Link Most Wanted"   
   Linking facts in the sniper case will be a big test of what Coplink* can do. Just for this project, all information from Maryland, the District and Virginia and from federal databases such as the FBI's Rapidstart is being collected in a single, searchable data file.   
   The Washington Post, November 7, 2002
9. "An Electronic Cop That Plays Hunches"   
   It is an Internet-based system called Coplink*, developed at an artificial intelligence laboratory, that allows police departments to establish links quickly among their own files and to those of other departments.   
   The New York Times, November 2, 2002
10. "Tucson Cops, local software to help in D.C. sniper probe"   
    A computer database system that Tucson police employ in crime investigations will be used in the hunt for the Washington, D.C.-area sniper or snipers.   
    Tucson Citizen, October 23, 2002
11. "Sniper probe to get help from Tucson"   
    A program developed by the University of Arizona will be used to try to capture the Washington, D.C., area sniper.   
    Arizona Daily Star, October 23, 2002
12. "Regional Information Sharing Project for Huntsville, Texas Law Enforcement Agencies"   
    The city of Huntsville, TX recently granted a contract to implement COPLINK*, a law enforcement records-sharing tool, in an initiative to improve Community Oriented Policing.   
    The Innovation Groups, March, 2002
13. "KM ‘aids and abets’ law enforcement"   
    Law enforcement is an information-intensive process, beginning with data collection at crime scenes and extending through records management and analysis of data to support crime-solving.   
    KMWorld, Vol 11, Issue 3, March, 2002
14. "Super Detective"   
    When University of Arizona professor Hsinchun Chen combined police databases for a consortium of city police agencies, a super-detective was born.   
    DG Online, December, 2001
15. Fischer, Alan  
    COPLINK* nabs criminals faster.  
    Arizona Daily Star, January 7, 2001
16. "Changing the Rules of the Game: How CopLink is Helping Police Departments Match Evidence Across Boundaries of Time and Space "   
    Federal Computer Week news, April, 2000
17. "New Computer Program Improves Information Sharing of Criminal Cases Between Law Enforcement Agencies"   
    Justice Bulletin, National Criminal Justice Association, December, 1999

18. "Coplink*: Database Detective"   
    National Law Enforcement and Correction Center, Tech Beat, Summer, 1999