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Federal Bureau of Investigation

Big data could uncover clue on marathon: Column

Scott Sigmund Gartner
Boston police officers stand at barriers closing off Boylston Street today in the aftermath of two explosions that struck near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
  • Remember explosion at Centennial Park at 1996 Olympics in Atlanta%3F
  • Back then we did not have the technical tools we have today -- video recordings.
  • By crunching all available data%2C we could get a lead on who might have perpetrated this evil act.

Having grown up in Atlanta, I remember the shock and fear sparked by the explosion in Centennial Park at the 1996 Olympics, which was followed by public frustration as the criminal investigation seemed to stumble and flail. Many could not understand how a bombing at one of the most public events in the world could be seemingly untraceable.

Having worked at both the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the FBI, I knew that the agents were professional and well trained. But as a national security analyst, I also knew that having great agents was not enough. The key was intelligence and recognizing that just because something was public did not mean it contained useful and available information.

The explosions in Boston represent a terrible, random and deadly act. I am sure that all Americans, but especially Bostonians, are approaching today with a knot of fear and apprehension. Acting swiftly, the authorities are conducting interviews, sophisticated chemical forensics and other investigative techniques. But one factor today that was in its infancy in 1996 in Atlanta will dramatically assist the investigation: the video revolution.

On Monday, the block by the marathon finish line was photographed by thousands of spectators, news media and fixed security cameras. The result is that these crimes did not just occur in public, but likely were recorded by the public. Someone has probably documented the people who did this -- we just don't know yet who has that recording.In fact, on Tuesday, federal and local law enforcement appealed to the public for any amateur video or photos.

These thousands of recordings bring up a second revolution -- big data. Analyzing trillions of images and data points, big data does more than threaten our privacy, it creates such detailed individual-level profiles that it literally strips us naked, exposing our values and desires to information's highest bidder.

Big data, however, also has a positive side. By feeding thousands of cell phone, media and security camera video into massive computers capable of sorting faces, times and locations, will allow authorities to put together a comprehensive picture of the comings and goings on Boylston Street. Crunching an unimaginable amount of data through social network, facial recognition, geographical information systems and other analytical algorithms, will reveal who seems to be there for the race, for business, or possibly for evil intent.

One of the frequently misunderstood implications of big data is how seemingly unimportant information can be very, very salient. Authorities running the analyses will pursue images far different from the news media, which is naturally focusing on dramatic footage of the explosions and their bloody and often heroic aftermath.

Instead, those running the big data analyses will focus on images from hours earlier and maybe even blocks away as they try to establish social networks, spatial and temporal dynamics, routines and identities. Those who have any footage of Boston on the day of the marathon and explosions, should preserve it.

Standard investigative techniques, such as interviews and forensics, are highly effective and may lead to the capture of those responsible for these shocking explosions. However, unlike Atlanta, should traditional methods fail to generate suspects, the investigation will still proceed rapidly and successfully.

Although unsung and unseen, big data forensics represents a revolutionary investigative tool that can generate new and useful leads for authorities to track down. The lack of privacy in American big cities and at major public events is concerning. But in this case, the same technology that reveals our shopping patterns and likely friends on Facebook may come through and help to expose a killer.

Scott Sigmund Gartner is author of Strategic Assessment in War and is a professor at Penn State's School of International Affairs and Dickinson School of Law.

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