Simon Fraser supercomputer will plot the complex networks of crime

BILL Metcalfe, Special to The Sun 

Simon Fraser supercomputer will plot the complex networks of crime

Existing high-performance computing system at Simon Frser University. The new system to be installed will look similar but will be built in a more secured environment given the sensistivity of the law enforcement data it will process.

Courtesy SFU


A new supercomputer lab in the criminology department at Simon Fraser University will analyze crime data in ways never seen before in Canada.

The new lab will use high performance computing — clusters of interconnected computers with power massively larger than an individual computer — and the computer system will be locked away inside a metal cage in an underground building. Anyone entering will have to have an RCMP security clearance, and the system won’t be connected to the Internet or any outside computers.

Why this level of security? Because it will use crime data provided by the RCMP and other police forces. The only thing police are not providing to the new lab is the names of offenders — those are replaced by numbers.

This combination of high performance computing and use of police data is “absolutely unique at a research institution in Canada and very unusual in other parts of the world,” says computer scientist Uwe Glässer, who is setting up the lab.

Glässer will work with SFU criminologists Patricia Brantingham and Martin Andresen. Brantingham is the director of the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies at SFU.

The new lab will focus on two main areas: urban crime and maritime security.

Brantingham says high performance computing is typically used in the study of complex networks like those found in cosmology and genomics, or in such things as the prediction of tsunamis and hurricanes, “where you have massive amounts of data in which to find patterns.”

But she says there are complex, predictable networks in criminology too, namely the geographical pathways along which people (criminals and non-criminals) move, gather, work, play and live their lives.

According to the new sciences of computational criminology and environmental criminology, both of which Brantingham helped to invent, understanding those societal networks can predict and prevent criminal activity. It has led to new ways of looking at urban planning, for example, where planners and architects avoid creating specific kinds of environments where crime tends to occur.

Now, police data and a bigger computer will give Brantingham a new universe to explore. She says the new lab will be able to take the large amount of data available across the whole province and allow a deeper look at how, where and why crimes occur.

“This province is growing and changing rapidly,” she says, “with the development in the northern areas. That changes where people are and how they move, and it changes where attractive targets are for crime. These things are shaped by our daily dynamic life. This research will help us to understand those patterns.”

This is theoretical work. It does not involve surveillance of individuals nor does it try to tell police forces how to do their job, she says. It involves building models and simulations, understanding social structures, and doing predictive analysis.

The RCMP’s Tonia Enger, who is coordinating the exchange of information between the RCMP and SFU, says the RCMP does its own computerized crime analysis but the new SFU capability will give them more big-picture information and provide independent analysis when they need it.

It will also help the RCMP with policy and communications, she says, in a time when policing is getting increasingly complex. For example, it’s well known that police are increasingly asked to deal with mental health issues, but how effective are their interventions, and how much time does it really take, and how much does it take away from other work?

“A lot of people say crime is going down,” says Enger, “so why are police costs going up?”

She suggests it’s because of an array of new technologies and knowledge — DNA testing is an example — that makes policing more complex. She says better analysis will help the RCMP decide where it should put its resources.

Enger says bigger data will also help police keep on top of the ever-changing world of social media.

Large, complex, predictable patterns also emerge when using high performance computing to look at maritime crime such as smuggling, human trafficking, piracy and terrorism.

Glässer says things are changing fast on the coastlines of Canada because of climate change, the development of a major port at Prince Rupert, and the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative.

The Gateway Initiative is a set of investment and policy measures designed to increase trade between Asia and Canada. Glässer says it will lead to “more containers and more maritime traffic in general coming into Canada, with all the good things and all the not so good things like weapons and drugs.”

Marine traffic will also increase with the opening of the Northwest Passage.

“When all the ice is gone, all hell will break loose up there,” says Glässer. “It will shorten the sea passage from London to Tokyo by about 7,000 kilometres, and in the container business, time is money.”

The SFU lab will focus on identifying and analyzing vessel behaviour that appears to be anomalous. What kinds of unusual maritime activity could signal suspicious or illegal behaviour?

Glässer and his colleagues will use data from marine radar, satellites, and the automatic identification system, an electronic position tracking system used by vessel traffic services for identifying and locating vessels, all of which produce massive amounts of geospatial data.

From that they will study “the patterns and the trajectory of vessels, and from that one can try to identify whether this is normal and or whether this requires some closer inspection, for instance by the coast guard.”

“To give a concrete example,” he continues, “if you have a larger vessel surrounded by a couple of smaller boats, this could mean it is being towed, or it could mean some kind of smuggling event, or it could be some piracy scenario.”

The Canadian Innovation Foundation and the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund will fund the $500,000 lab, with in-kind infrastructure provided by SFU.

The lab will be in an underground bunker that already exists as part of the SFU water tower building.

