TACKLING CRIMES WITH TRACKING DEVICES
Mobile
technology such as tracking devices, which has become a powerful crime-fighting
tool, has shown significant impact in recent years on most countries across the
globe. A tracker is specially programmed equipment meant to trace the actual
location of a person or thing. However, it’s worth noting that devices like
cell phones, computers, cameras, and what have you, can equally function as a
tracker if adequately utilized.
Cell phones, particularly Smartphone,
contain inbuilt mechanism including Global Positioning System (GPS) among other
location information that the various law enforcement agencies find valuable.
Information like voice call history, text/multimedia messages, phonebook
contacts, web browser history, and email, can tremendously help investigators
to gather people’s aims and the occasions they have attended, thereby providing
the required direction.
Tracking people via their mobile devices
has been adopted by several agencies in most nations, and has become very much
a part of most investigations because virtually every adult now possesses a
cell phone. Cell phone records can identify calls made and received. The
cellular towers that were used in the conversation, data communication, as well
as the Short Message Service (SMS), can as well be obtained. The cell phone records hold latitude and
longitude information that can be used as a historical reference to identify
where the mobile device was at a particular period.
Similarly, citizens are advised to regularly
send digital photos and videos of crimes in their custody to apt quarters. New
technology allows sent images to be directly linked to the record of a related
call, and be forwarded to emergency respondents on their way to crime scene. A
good example of such technology is CrimePush, a multiplatform Smartphone app
that allows users to report crimes effectively and at ease. It equally gives
users the ability to forward multiple GPS-tagged distress messages to
designated emergency contacts/quarters.
High-profile
criminal incidents all over the world have proven beyond doubts how valuable
mobile phone images can be during crime investigations. The bombings in the
United Kingdom (UK), precisely London, in July 2005 marked a turning point in
news coverage and the role of camera phone images. Witnesses to the attacks
used their cell phone cameras to record their experiences in the aftermath. Not
only did it signal a new era of citizen journalism, but police in London were
able to use the sent photos as clues towards tracking the terrorists that
masterminded the bombings.
SMS
is more discreet and safer in some circumstances to include burglaries and
kidnapping. Several police departments in various countries have text-a-tip
programs that allow people to send anonymous messages from their cell phones.
With a view to providing people with a confidential means of communication,
SMSs are sent to a separate third-party server where identifying information is
removed and assigned an encrypted alias to ensure callers’ anonymity.
The
various security agencies in Nigeria, especially the police, are required to
fully employ the use of various tracking devices in issues regarding crimes.
Technology is being developed and deployed by several criminals to perpetrate
crimes, with the aim of leaving no, or little, digital footprint. This ranges
from selling illicit goods on the internet to mass identity theft and credit
card fraud. Vehicle crime also poses a dynamic challenge to these agencies;
vehicle crime investigators are invariably faced with ever-changing technology
as well as regular introduction of new vehicle models. Modern vehicles are more
like mobile computers constantly threatened by hackers. The police must take
note of this fact and advance on it.
Digital forensics is a branch of science
encompassing the recovery and investigations of materials found in digital
devices including computers, cell phones, and cameras. The police will continue
to be challenged to acquire the needed tools and training to perform competent
digital forensic investigations, and keep pace with criminal activity. Digital
forensic department ought to be designed in all police quarters, and such unit
should be sustained by continually providing the required equipment, manpower,
and environment.
Legislation
can also be of help. Hence, lawmakers should provide a law, mandating all
vehicles coming to Nigeria to bear micro-dotting technology. This would ensure
that each vehicle contain approximately 1000 hidden markers that hold the
identity of that vehicle, so that, in the event of the vehicle being stolen, it
can be easily identified. Importantly, the locations of the 0.5mm dots are not
visible to thieves, thus cannot be altered by them. The police personnel should
also be trained on how to indentify data-dot technology.
The recently signed Cybercrime Act
should equally be duly implemented by setting up a special unit under the
Police Force that would be in charge of crimes involving the internet. Such
unit must possess all the needed devices and experts. The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) is, on its part, expected to play a major role in crimes
pertaining to the use of cell phones, thus the police must endeavour to
collaborate with them.
For Nigeria to properly tackle all kinds
of crimes, the relevant authorities must boast of various well-equipped
sensitive units on digital investigations, cyber security, and electronic
discovery. Think about it!
Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor
(TheMediaAmbassador)
-ICT/Engineering
Consultant, Researcher, Blogger, Analyst & Activist-
Founder/CEO, Docfred
(Nig.) Ent. - Owerri
____________________________________
http://frednwaozor.blogspot.com
Twitter:
@mediambassador
No comments:
Post a Comment