COMMUNICATIONS TECH
By Christa Miller
Friendlier, more
efficient PSAP
Voice analytic technology helps 911 PSAPs examine calls
for crime analysis and investigations
C an 911 call analysis be
used to analyze and investi-
gate crimes, and to make the call
process friendlier?
Verint Systems thinks so.
Its Impact 360 Speech Analytics
Essentials for Audiolog software is
more than a recording solution; it’s a
way for detectives to parse leads, for
crime analysts to add context to their
data, and for supervisors to train and
monitor calltakers.
Research backs up the importance
of 911 calls to criminal investiga-
tions. Last year, Tracy Harpster of the
Moraine (Ohio) Police Department,
together with Susan Adams and
John Jarvis of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, published a study:
“Analyzing 911 Calls for Indicators
of Guilt or Innocence.” (Homicide
Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1, 69-93, 2009)
It analyzed 911 calls from 100 adjudi-
cated homicide cases. The researchers
found that certain keywords, com-
bined with voice inflections, informa-
tion given, and other factors could
predict when callers were guilty or
innocent of murder.
48 Law Enforcement Technology ■ May 2010 ■ www.officer.com
COMMUNICATIONS TECH