Information Builders > Case Studies > Michigan State Police Unifies Data and Amplifies View Into Criminal Activity

Michigan State Police Unifies Data and Amplifies View Into Criminal Activity

Company Size

1,000+

Region

America

Country

United States

Product

WebFOCUS
Magnify
Omni-Gen
iWay Big Data Integrator

Tech Stack

Oracle
Hadoop

Implementation Scale

Enterprise-wide Deployment

Impact Metrics

Customer Satisfaction
Innovation Output
Productivity Improvements

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Database Management & Storage

Applicable Industries

Security & Public Safety

Applicable Functions

Business Operation
Logistics & Transportation

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance
Public Warning & Emergency Response
Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services
System Integration

About The Customer

Michigan State Police (MSP) is a law enforcement agency founded in 1917. It has more than 2,900 employees and 1,500 officers. Its mission is to provide the highest-quality law enforcement and public safety-services throughout Michigan. MSP’s data management platform extends information to 142 local law enforcement agencies, facilitating collaboration across the state of Michigan. According to Captain David Kelly, commander of the Intelligence Operations Division at the Michigan State Police, it’s the first state agency in the nation to have a unified platform that combines data integration, data quality, and master data management (MDM). MSP consists of approximately 1,500 law enforcement professionals, all of whom depend on current information to protect citizens across the state. The police force uses Information Builders technology to provide knowledgeable and responsive services to Michigan citizens, while supporting law enforcement and promoting safety across the state.

The Challenge

Michigan State Police (MSP) faced the challenge of accessing vital criminal, incident, and activity data from a variety of disparate sources and disseminating it to patrol officers, detectives, investigators, commanders, and other headquarters staff. The data management platform of MSP extends information to 142 local law enforcement agencies, facilitating collaboration across the state of Michigan. However, with a diversity of data coming from multiple real-time sources and databases, the analysts and detectives couldn’t directly access all the data. This was due to the lack of a consistent and accurate way to match people across systems, as well as to cleanse and enhance the data. The results were sometimes missing key data points, which meant that important information, such as concealed weapons permits and domestic violence reports, were not available when patrol officers needed them.

The Solution

MSP implemented Information Builders’ WebFOCUS business intelligence (BI) and analytics platform to improve critical law enforcement processes and ensure the accuracy and reliability of its data. WebFOCUS serves as the analytical foundation for dashboards that give the colonel, executive council, commanders, and other headquarters staff instant snapshots of the areas they oversee. Users monitor what’s going on with their troopers, review crime rates by type, determine where traffic accidents are happening, and much more. Hundreds of people use the system each day to review crime data, trends, and statistics, as well as to track key metrics. A new master data hub will make integrated, cleansed data available from multiple agencies, providing the department not only with historic insight, but also with predictive analytics capabilities that help deter crimes and traffic accidents. MSP used Information Builders’ Magnify technology to create the MI-Intel Search tool, enabling troopers and detectives to query all the major MSP data sources by person, address, and many other variables. Officers sort through result categories and drill into pertinent information when responding to service calls, or during an investigation. Omni-Gen enables developers to quickly configure data quality templates rather than build a data model from scratch, accelerating the process of creating consistent or “golden” records.

Operational Impact

Better tools to track crime statistics, monitor trends, and manage progress towards key metrics.
The department can work smarter and faster and reap the maximum reward from its BI and analytics investments.
Having centralized analytics has improved visibility into department performance and given officers the functionality they need to respond knowledgeably to incidents and make informed decisions.
By tracking trooper activity, MSP’s leadership team balances the time that troopers spend on patrol against the time they spend handling routine reporting.
The dashboard also tracks investigations and logs crime and safety statistics.