How can digital tools help identify harmful behaviours early and support prevention before they escalate into crime?
Sam Burton
Strategic Development Manager, Forensic Analytics
Digital tools can play a pivotal role in identifying harmful behaviours early and preventing escalation into more serious crime by enabling faster, more precise, and evidence-led investigations. Operation Atlas offers a compelling model of how technology can enhance policing outcomes, reduce the burden on victims, and intervene before harm escalates.
At the heart of Operation Atlas is Forensic Analytics software CSAS (Cell Site Analysis Suite) and its streamlined methodology for processing and analysing large volumes of digital evidence at pace. This process involves four key steps: triage, retrieve, evaluate, and evidence, to systematically identify digital opportunities in both new and existing cases.
Investigators use CSAS to process data from call records, GPS data, social media activity, vehicle telemetry, and more. By taking a suspect focussed approach and analysing the suspects digital data investigators can accurately map a suspect’s movements, communications, and interactions over time. This creates a clear and objective evidential picture that can corroborate a victim’s account of events.
The Operation Atlas model not only leads to higher charge and conviction rates but also disrupts harmful behaviour before it progresses to more serious offending. In the UK, 90% of women killed by men experience stalking behaviour prior to their death.[1] Therefore, early intervention in cases such as stalking is key.
Digital tools enable law enforcement to spot these patterns quickly. Leveraging tools such as CSAS, allows teams to analyse and map data, building key evidence that can prove patterned stalking behaviour. This has been proven to make a key difference.
Operation Atlas demonstrates significant outcomes when compared to the national average. National statistics show an average of only 7.1% of stalking cases that result in CPS charge, and a staggeringly low 1.7% of cases that result in conviction[2]. When we compare this to the outcomes of Operation Atlas, where 96% of cases resulted in convictions, and 92% of those charged pled guilty, we see astounding improvements where technologies are being optimised.[3]
These outcomes are partly due to the strength of digital evidence, which is difficult to dispute. The process also significantly reduces investigation times and increases charge rates, meaning cases are resolved faster. This has a direct positive impact on victims, who are less likely to be required to testify in court and experience less emotional strain during the investigative process.
By reducing the onus on victim and focusing on robust, objective digital evidence, tools like CSAS lessen the burden on those affected by crime and enable police to identify offenders early, therefore enhancing public safety through stopping repeat offending and deterring future harm. Additionally, with increased trust victims are more likely to report crimes again in the future. This is particularly important in crimes such as stalking, harassment, and domestic abuse, where victims may feel unsafe, traumatised, or reluctant to participate in lengthy proceedings.
“This software allows my officers to cleanse, manage big data from electronic devices and self-analyse it within seconds of inputting the information…the use of this software in Public Protection cases such as stalking & harassment has significantly reduced the time to investigate and present cases to the CPS for charging decisions”.
— Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, Metropolitan Police
[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/ifeellikeiamlivingsomeoneelseslifeoneinsevenpeopleavictimofstalking/2024-09-26
[2] https://hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/publication-html/police-response-to-stalking/
[3] Operation-Atlas-evaluation-report-2023.pdf1Cell Site Analysis Suite (CSAS) MPS Operation Atlas Project Report - https://pds.police.uk/knowledge-hub/
[4] Operation-Atlas-evaluation-report-2023.pdf1Cell Site Analysis Suite (CSAS) MPS Operation Atlas Project Report - https://pds.police.uk/knowledge-hub/
