Thai law enforcement optimizes investigations with Microsoft big data solution
If you’ve been watching Be the Next Microsoft Employee along with us, you probably know about the real-world filter on the competition’s challenges – a metric that ensures that competitors are solving the same issues that companies face. And, just like we love seeing how participants approach the competition’s challenges, we also love to share stories about how our customers are using our technology to tackle their real-life challenges.
One of those customers is the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), a law enforcement agency for Thailand’s Ministry of Justice, which maintains a large amount of data to support their criminal investigations. The agency’s previous technology setup made it difficult for them to get useful information from their data, which, on top of containing images, videos and documents from crime scenes, also came from multiple sources within the agency. In fact, working with their data was so complicated that the agency was often forced to send employees back to crime scenes to re-gather information, slowing down important criminal investigations and costing DSI money. Additionally, the agency’s existing system couldn’t run automatic searches for obvious suspicious activity like large money transfers or mass movement by known criminals, limiting their ability to be proactive.
Since their previous system was holding them back, DSI implemented a big data solution based on SQL Server 2012 and Apache Hadoop software. The result? A remarkable change in how they used their existing data to analyze cases. In a test case, identifying suspects took only 15 days, compared to the two years it took using a traditional investigative approach.
Now investigators can receive and share actionable information more quickly, increasing the efficiency of their investigations. And, automatic, real-time notifications of suspicious activity mean the agency can take steps to prevent crimes from happening in the first place. According to DSI’s Police Colonel Yannaphon Youngyuen, their big data solution optimizes the speed and accuracy of the agency’s investigation processes, while solving issues that normally go hand-in-hand with managing large volumes of complex data. That’s the kind of success story we’re proud to be a part of!
For more information about DSI’s solution, check out the case study.
