Systems and methods for acquiring, accessing, and analyzing investigative information

• US 7,860,222 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2006
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Original Assignee: Securus Technologies Incorporated (Securus Special Investments LLC)
• Inventors: Polozola, Michelle L., Viola, John J., Sidler, James S.
• Primary Examiner(s): TIEU, BINH KIEN
• Application Number:
  US11/479,990
• Time in Patent Office: 1,642 Days
• Field of Search: 379/7, 379/32.01, 379/32.05, 379/35, 379/182, 379/184, 379/187, 379/188, 379/191, 379/194, 379/200, 379/68, 379/80, 379/85, 379/88.27, 379/266.1
• US Class Current: 379/32.01
• 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. A system comprising:

a communication services module operable to provide communications between individuals; and

an investigative tools module in communication with said communication service module operable to allow a user to monitor said communications between individuals and to place event identifiers in association with said communications between individuals, said event identifiers comprise a plurality of bookmarks representing different events of interest; and

said investigative tools module comprises a word search module to identify particular words within said communications between individuals and place event identifiers in association therewith.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication service module comprises a call processor providing communication services with respect to a controlled environment facility, and said user comprises an investigator.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications between individuals comprise telephone calls.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications between individuals comprise controlled environment facility visitation calls.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications between individuals comprise electronic mail communications.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said communications between individuals comprise video conferencing communications.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said different events of interest comprise an event selected from the group consisting of presence of a threat in said communication, presence of a keyword in said communication, reference to a person of interest in said communication, and placing of a comment with respect to said communication.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said events of interest represented by said plurality of bookmarks are defined by said user.

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

10. The system of claim 1, wherein said investigative tools module further allows said user to control one or more aspects of said communications between individuals.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more aspects comprises termination of a monitored one of said communications between individuals.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more aspects comprises muting at least one party of a monitored one of said communications between individuals.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein said one or more aspects comprises said user barging into a monitored one of said communications between individuals.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said investigative tools module comprises a data interface providing information associated with a monitored one of said communications between individuals to said user.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with said monitored one of said communications between individuals comprises a communication timeline having said one or more said event identifiers placed in association therewith.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with said monitored one of said communications between individuals comprises identification of at least one of said individuals.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with said monitored one of said communications between individuals comprises interactive information presentation allowing said user to obtain additional desired information.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with said monitored one of said communications between individuals comprises prompts to guide said user with respect to said placing event identifiers.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein said information associated with said monitored one of said communications between individuals comprises controls to facilitate said user controlling one or more aspect of said monitoring said a selected one of said communications between individuals.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein said data interface comprises an interactive web page.

21. A method comprising:

providing communications between individuals;

recording said communications between individuals;

monitoring said communications between individuals, said monitoring comprises logic of a call processing system analyzing content of said communications between individuals; and

placing a plurality of event identifiers in association with a recorded one of said communications between individuals based upon events detected by said monitoring.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein said monitoring comprises placing a user in communication with a select one of said communications between individuals.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said monitoring comprises said user monitoring said select one of said communications between individuals in real-time.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein said monitoring comprises said user monitoring a recording of said select one of said communications between individuals.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein said placing a plurality of event identifiers comprises said user signaling a point in said select one of said communications between individuals for an event identifier to be placed.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein said placing a plurality of event identifiers comprises said user signaling a particular event identifier to be placed in association with said select one of said communications between individuals.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein said placing a plurality of event identifiers comprises said user inputting a comment in association with said select one of said communications between individuals.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein said select one of said communications between individuals is automatically selected based upon criteria defined by said user.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein at least one of said individuals comprises an inmate in a prison facility.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said user comprises an investigator.

31. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

presenting information associated with a select one of said communications between individuals to a user.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein said information associated with said select one of said communications between individuals comprises a communication timeline having appropriate ones of said plurality of event identifiers placed in association therewith.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein said information associated with said select one of said communications between individuals comprises identification of at least one of said individuals.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein said information associated with said select one of said communications between individuals comprises interactive information presentation allowing said user to obtain additional desired information.

35. The method of claim 31, wherein said information associated with said select one of said communications between individuals comprises prompts to guide said user with respect to said placing event identifiers.

36. The method of claim 31, wherein said information associated with said select one of said communications between individuals comprises controls to facilitate said user controlling one or more aspect of said monitoring said communications between individuals.