Systems and Methods for Acquiring, Accessing, and Analyzing Investigative Information

• US 20160239932A1
• Filed: 04/21/2016
• Published: 08/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Original Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Inventors: Sidler, James S., Viola, John J., Polozola, Michelle L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,990,683 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/04 Segmentation; Word boundary detection
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/088 Word spotting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/302 gathering intelligence information for situation awareness or reconnaissance
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/301 Management of recordings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods which provide availability of information on a network wide basis, with the network or information technology (IT) fabric spanning a wide range of institutions and other sources of information, including correctional facilities, without regard to which jurisdiction the source of information belongs, e.g. police, courts, federal investigation agencies, public databases etcetera. Embodiments provide an electronic based capability to identify useful information and for locating, collecting, compiling, aggregating, distilling, and/or reporting robust data.

Claims

1. An investigative information acquisition, access, and analysis system comprising:

a communication services module operable to provide communications between residents of a controlled environment facility and non-residents; and

an investigative tools module in communication with the communication services module operable to allow an investigator, distinct from communicating residents and non-residents, to monitor a selected one of the communications that is ongoing and to place event identifiers in association with a recording of the selected one of the communications in response to signal inputs from the investigator while connected to a communication stream of the selected communication, filtered from the communication stream of the selected communication, each event of interest associated with a select signal input, the event identifiers comprising a plurality of bookmarks representing different events of interest.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal inputs are dual-tone multi-frequency signal inputs.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the signal inputs are out of band signal inputs

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered signal inputs are not discernible to the communicating individuals;

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the investigative tools module further comprises a word search module configured to implement speech to text analysis to identify particular words within the communications and place event identifiers in association therewith, wherein responsive to identifying particular words within a selected communication, the investigative tools module is configured to enable connection of the investigator to the communication stream of the selected communication.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the investigative tools module provides an interface configured to display a dashboard including a timeline of the selected communication to the investigator, the timeline including the event identifiers as with the selected communication and configured to scroll as the communication progresses.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the dashboard is further configured to include graphically represented buttons enabling the investigator to control presentation of a recording of the selected communication, while monitoring the selected communication.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications comprise telephone calls.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the communications comprise video communications.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the different events of interest comprise presence of a threat in the selected communication.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the different events of interest comprise presence of a keyword in the selected communication.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the different events of interest comprise reference to a person of interest in the selected communication.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the different events of interest comprise placing of a comment with respect to the selected communication.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the events of interest represented by the plurality of bookmarks are defined by the investigator.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the investigative tools module comprises an event detection module configured to identify a particular event being initiated with respect to the communications and to place event identifiers in association therewith.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the investigative tools module further allows the investigator to control one or more aspects of the selected one of the communications.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more aspects comprises termination of the monitored selected one of the communications.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more aspects comprises muting at least one party of the monitored selected one of the communications.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more aspects comprises the investigator barging into the monitored selected one of the communications.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the dashboard includes information associated with the monitored selected one of the communications, wherein the information comprises interactive information presentation allowing the investigator to obtain additional desired information.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the dashboard includes information associated with the monitored selected one of the communications, wherein the information comprises prompts to guide the investigator with respect to the placing event identifiers.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the dashboard includes information associated with the monitored selected one of the communications, wherein the information comprises controls to facilitate the investigator controlling one or more aspects of the monitoring the a selected one of the communications.

23. A method for acquiring, accessing, and analyzing investigative information comprising:

providing communications between residents of a controlled-environment facility and non-residents;

recording the communications;

monitoring the communications, the monitoring comprising logic of a call processing system analyzing content of the communications;

placing a plurality of event identifiers in association with a recorded one of the communications based upon events detected by the monitoring;

selecting one of the communications for monitoring by an investigator based upon events detected by the logic of a call processing system, the investigator being an investigator distinct from the communicating individuals; and

providing an interface to the investigator, presenting information associated with the selected communication and enabling access to a recording of the selected communication, the interface displaying interactive controls enabling the investigator, upon selection, to provide inputs for placing event identifiers in association with the recording of the selected communication, the event identifiers comprising a plurality of bookmarks representing different events of interest, each event of interest associated with a select input, the interface including a timeline of the selected communication, the timeline including the event identifiers associated with the selected communication and being configured to scroll as the communication playback progresses and including graphically represented buttons enabling the investigator to control presentation of the recording of the selected communication while monitoring the selected communication.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the select one of the communications is automatically selected based upon criteria defined by the investigator.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the information associated with the selected communication comprises interactive information presentation allowing the investigator to obtain additional desired information.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the information associated with the selected communication comprises prompts to guide the investigator with respect to the placing event identifiers.

27. The method of claim 23, wherein the information associated with the selected communication comprises controls to facilitate the investigator controlling one or more aspects of the monitoring the communications.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein providing the interface further comprises displaying a dashboard including the interactive controls, the dashboard further including the timeline of the selected communication and including the graphically represented buttons enabling the investigator to control presentation of the recording of the selected communication.

29. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a controlled-environment facility investigative information acquisition, access, and analysis system, cause the investigative information acquisition, access, and analysis system to:

provide communications between residents of a controlled environment facility and non-residents; and

enable an investigator, distinct from communicating residents and non-residents, to monitor a selected one of the communications that is ongoing and to place event identifiers in association with a recording of the selected one of the communications in response to signal inputs from the investigator while connected to a communication stream of the selected communication, filtered from the communication stream of the selected communication, each event of interest associated with a select signal input, the event identifiers comprising a plurality of bookmarks representing different events of interest

30. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a controlled-environment facility investigative information acquisition, access, and analysis system, cause the investigative information acquisition, access, and analysis system to:

provide communications between residents of a controlled-environment facility and non-residents;

record the communications;

monitor the communications, the monitoring comprising logic of a call processing system analyzing content of the communications;

place a plurality of event identifiers in association with a recorded one of the communications based upon events detected by the monitoring;

select one of the communications for monitoring by an investigator based upon events detected by the logic of a call processing system, the investigator being an investigator distinct from the communicating individuals; and

provide an interface to the investigator, presenting information associated with the selected communication and enabling access to a recording of the selected communication, the interface displaying interactive controls enabling the investigator, upon selection, to provide inputs for placing event identifiers in association with the recording of the selected communication, the event identifiers comprising a plurality of bookmarks representing different events of interest, and each event of interest associated with a select input, the interface including a timeline of the selected communication, the timeline including the event identifiers associated with the selected communication and being configured to scroll as the communication playback progresses and including graphically represented buttons enabling the investigator to control presentation of the recording of the selected communication while monitoring the selected communication.