Social Network Intelligence Analysis to Combat Street Gang Violence

TL;DR

This paper presents ORCA, a social network analysis tool designed to assist law enforcement in understanding and disrupting street gang structures through innovative analytical techniques and real-world data application.

Contribution

Introduction of ORCA, a novel social network analysis software tailored for law enforcement to analyze gang membership, influence, and sub-group structures.

Findings

Effective identification of influential gang members

Decomposition of gangs into sub-groups

Application to real police data demonstrates practical utility

Abstract

In this paper we introduce the Organization, Relationship, and Contact Analyzer (ORCA) that is designed to aide intelligence analysis for law enforcement operations against violent street gangs. ORCA is designed to address several police analytical needs concerning street gangs using new techniques in social network analysis. Specifically, it can determine "degree of membership" for individuals who do not admit to membership in a street gang, quickly identify sets of influential individuals (under the tipping model), and identify criminal ecosystems by decomposing gangs into sub-groups. We describe this software and the design decisions considered in building an intelligence analysis tool created specifically for countering violent street gangs as well as provide results based on conducting analysis on real-world police data provided by a major American metropolitan police department who is partnering with us and currently deploying this system for real-world use.