Category Archives: Investigation Software

San Diego (ICAC) Task Force aids development of technology in the fight against child pornography and child sexual assault material

August 1, 2022 (San Diego, CA)  The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) is on the front lines of the fight against online crimes against children. Their ‘CyberTipline’ is the country’s centralized system for reporting the online exploitation of children.

According to NCMEC’s website, “Concerned individuals and organizations make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, and unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child.

A full report of the CyberTipline can be found on the NCMEC website.

Working with Law Enforcement

In this important work, NCMEC works closely with The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Program. That program was created to help law enforcement agencies enhance their ability to investigate offenders who use online communication systems to sexually exploit children.

In the United States, there are over 60 regional ICAC Task Force agencies representing almost 5,500 individual agencies.

San Diego’s ICAC task force simplifies the triage and investigation of CSAM and crimes against children incidents.

Sergeant Garrick Nugent is commander of the San Diego ICAC Task Force. His task force consists of roughly 33 different agencies that endeavor to work together to investigate cybercrimes against children in San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties. According to Nugent, most investigations begin with NCMEC, which contacts San Diego ICAC when it believes there’s a local case. These tips, referred to as CyberTips, number in the thousands each year for San Diego ICAC alone. And that number has risen consistently over the past five years.

“I truthfully believe there are more cases,” said Nugent in a 2020 interview with a CBS affiliate in San Diego. “I wish I could say we are (keeping up with the volume). We have both children and predators that are at home. They have unprecedented access to the internet. They’ve got lots and lots of time on their hands and therefore I think we’re seeing the increase as a result.”

Dealing With Growing Volume

With each CyberTip comes a host of investigation intelligence including perpetrator usernames, unique IP addresses, suspect information, Internet Service Provider details, and much more. CyberTips also include disturbing multimedia evidence of child sexual assault materials (CSAM) that must be verified by the task force. Each CyberTip must be downloaded, opened, reviewed, verified, prioritized, and assigned to investigators who already maintain a full plate of cases to investigate. To say the problem is overwhelming is an understatement.

Case Closed Software™ and San Diego ICAC’s Investigation Software for ICAC Units

Since 2020, however, Nugent’s ICAC task force has worked in partnership with Texas-based Case Closed Software to develop innovative new systems designed to simplify and speed up the entire process of triaging and managing CyberTips.

The new system was implemented last year and now, according to Nugent, “greatly helps his ICAC task force to efficiently triage the NCMEC CyberTips and to control, direct, organize, review, and track our multi-agency investigations into child abuse and exploitation.”

Working Hand in Hand to Solve Problems

A quote from Nugent on Case Closed Software’s website states “This software is a must-have for ICAC units.”

Douglas Wood is the founder and CEO of Case Closed Software. According to Wood, his company has unique functionality to allow near-instant triage of CyberTips.

“As a result of our unique partnership with San Diego ICAC, users can simply save CyberTips to our CJIS-compliant cloud service, and moments later view all pertinent information for quick and effective triage”, says Wood. “They can then be assigned to any task force case agent who can use the ICAC investigation case management system to work more efficiently through investigations and prosecutions.”

The Crimes Against Children Conference

In a joint announcement, Case Closed Software and San Diego ICAC Task Force stated support for the upcoming 34th annual Crimes Against Children Conference (CACC) in Dallas, TX beginning August 8, 2022.

According to Case Closed Software, conference attendees will be able to see the ICAC task force software in action at the Exhibitor’s Hall. CCAC is presented annually by the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center and provides training to agencies in the fields of law enforcement, social work, child protective services, child advocacy, therapy, and medicine who work directly with child victims of crime.

What is Investigation Case Management Software?

Today’s complex criminal and serious investigations cannot be effectively managed with thumb drives, SharePoint, cloud folders, paper forms, and sticky notes. Times have changed and the introduction of investigation management and case investigation software is now an integral part of any specialized investigative agency.

What is Investigation Software?

Investigation case management software such as that from Case Closed Software™ is a purpose-built system that assists investigators triage investigative cases, track the involved entities, record supplemental reports and case actions, and generally help users close cases faster and more efficiently.

Investigation software (aka case management software) is specifically designed to help users collaborate and work efficiently with team members – whether they are across the aisle, or across the globe.

Investigation management software is more than fancy graphs and big data analytics. It’s also more than simple incident tracking. Many vendors will try to convince you otherwise because they lack true case management functionality.

True investigation case management software allows agencies of any type to triage new tips and leads, assign them to appropriate agents, track all related case entities such as people, places, and things (vehicles, evidence, organizations, IP Addresses, etc) in an easy-to-use and intuitive fashion.

Importantly, investigation software and incident management software allows agencies including law enforcement, anti-human trafficking groups, drug task forces, national police agencies, federal agencies, internet crimes against children (ICAC) task forces and more can quickly log and analyze all investigative case materials with built-in flexible workflow for approvals.

Top 20 Things to Look For When Procuring a Case Management System

When considering investigation case management software, agencies should look for the following must-haves:

  1. A proven and delighted install base.
  2. Tips and Leads management with the ability to promote them to a full investigation.
  3. Master databases (fully searchable) of all case entities
  4. Organizations and gang databases for organized crime
  5. Multi-Jurisdictional capabilities
  6. Real time multi-language functionality
  7. 28 CFR Part 23 compliant Criminal Intelligence
  8. Evidence management including full chain of custody
  9. Customizable workflow
  10. Case Visualization and Link Analysis
  11. Confidential Informants and whistleblower management
  12. Criminal charges and statutes functionality
  13. Operations planning
  14. Task and Assignments management
  15. Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Compliance
  16. Photo lineup functionality
  17. Remote Case Review (For sharing with prosecutors or LE)
  18. Multimedia attachments
  19. Customizable case reports
  20. World-class support and system maintenance

In short, investigation management software helps you conduct more efficient and, effective investigations. Case Closed Software is the leader in the investigation case management industry.

U.S. based Case Closed Software™ is a recognized leader in the development of investigation case management software and is a true investigation software company.

Texas HIDTA Drug Task Force Deploys Case Closed Software™

A large, multi-jurisdictional drug task force in Texas has turned to Case Closed Software™ in its fight against drug trafficking, in partnership with the U.S. High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Program.

The drug task force consists of several county and local law enforcement agencies in conjunction with the District Attorney’s Office.

The HIDTA program, created by Congress with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, provides assistance to Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug-trafficking regions of the United States.

The HIDTA’s mission is to reduce drug availability by creating intelligence-driven drug task forces aimed at eliminating or reducing domestic drug trafficking and its harmful consequences through enhancing and helping to coordinate drug trafficking control efforts among federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

By deploying Case Closed Software, agents across the county can track cases, suspects, reports, evidence and an array of other information to increase prosecution and conviction rates.

 

Best Practices for NGO Investigations Into Human Trafficking

Introduction

The investigation of human trafficking – and the rescue of victims – is a complex undertaking with many moving parts.

Investigations of human traffickers, and the subsequent rescue of victims, is a very complex undertaking. Unlike more traditional criminal investigations, there is rarely ‘one suspect’, ‘one victim’, or ‘one location’.

Instead, the crime of human trafficking takes place in a shady world that consists of multiple entities. Multiple perpetrators who work for multiple criminal organizations. Multiple victims who are trafficked by multiple pimps in multiple locations. These variables can make human trafficking a hidden crime that is difficult to investigate. The cost of not investigating, however, is the loss of lives, the loss of freedom, and the loss of innocence.

One particularly complicating feature of human trafficking investigations is the relationships between victims and traffickers. Traffickers initially use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims and force them into labor or commercial sexual exploitation. They seek out victims who may be susceptible to their lies for a variety of reasons including economic hardship, psychological or emotional instability, or other socio-economic disadvantages.

Victims of human trafficking are often helpless to call out for help, making the crime even more difficult to investigate.

Once lured by the traffickers, victims rarely have an opportunity to speak out or call for help. Language barriers, fear of their attackers, lack of a social safety net, and a general feeling of helplessness overwhelm the victims. Thus, the crime becomes difficult to investigate.

But investigate we must. The cost of turning our backs on this global problem is simply too high.

This overview will focus on some best practices for managing investigations into human trafficking, the capture of perpetrators, and the rescue of victims. A haphazard approach to these sensitive and complex investigations is likely to cause more harm than good, and these best practices are designed to help your organization maximize your productivity and safely rescue more victims.

Best Practice #1 – Stay Organized

The first best practice we need to discuss is ‘Staying Organized’. What might start off as a Tip that a young girl is being sold for sex in a local hotel may quickly grow in scope to include multiple victims, multiple locations, multiple pimps, and multiple abusers. These criminal enterprises thrive in the dark and, like cockroaches, simply scatter and disappear once light is shone. The practice of staying organized helps ensure that no intelligence or evidence falls through the cracks, giving the traffickers time to scatter and hide.

Using investigation case management software, such as that provided by Case Closed Software™, helps human trafficking investigators plan and stay organized.

Use investigation case management software. There are simply too many ‘moving parts’ within a human trafficking enterprise to attempt to stay organized without a purpose-built database. Spreadsheets, notes, cloud folders… these are all yesterday’s tools that cannot adequately manage today’s investigations.

With your case management software, track every tip that you receive. Some tips may be stronger than others. Some may lead to full-blown investigations, and some may not. In any case, track and store each tip that you receive as you never, ever know when information from those tips may become relevant to your ongoing investigations.

Triage every tip you can. Spend a moment to search your case management system to determine if anything about a tip relates to any current or past investigation. You can’t do this with paper files or spreadsheets. Perform some online research on the subject(s) of the tips to gauge how reliable the information might be. If the tip initially lacks the actionable or credible information to assign resources, keep the data in the case management system for future use. If the tip does contain actionable and credible information, use the case management system to prepare an actual Investigative Case and assign resources immediately.

A key to a successful investigation and rescue is tracking all of the actions being taken and sharing that information with the appropriate team members.

Importantly, in terms of Staying Organized, use your case management process to track each action being taken on the investigation. Did someone perform some Open Source Intelligence on the suspected location? Log that information electronically so that it does not fall through the cracks.

Has an agent visited the suspected location to determine if there are likely victims there? Log that into the system. Store any videos or photographs that the investigator made and attach them right to that case.

Log and maintain notes and related files on every action taken on your human trafficking cases. Make them safe, secure, and easy to access by other team members.

Organization is the KEY to any criminal investigation, and even more so for investigations into human trafficking.

Best Practice #2 – Securely Share Information in Real-Time

Investigations into human trafficking and victim rescues are complex and cannot occur in a vacuum. Much like the criminal enterprises themselves have multiple roles such as kidnappers, transporters, handlers, and pimps for example, so must your investigation team have specialized roles. Your undercover ‘john’ cannot be the same as your public-facing advocate, for example.

Sharing information across jurisdictions, cultures, and languages can be difficult. Use case management software from Case Closed Software™ to facilitate understanding.

The key to ensuring that everyone involved in the investigation is successful is sharing information. In an environment where traffickers are always on the lookout for potential risks to their operation, it’s of utmost importance that your operational team all be on the same page so that no missteps occur.

This type of alerting and information sharing cannot be done by text messages or word-of-mouth. It must occur within a fool-proof system of secure information sharing where there is no room for ambiguity. Lives depend upon it.

All of the actions and intelligence that is gathered during an investigation should be securely stored in your case management system. The moment a member of the investigation team submits new information, all other permitted team members should have secure, online access to the new information whether they are notes, videos, photographs or other file types. The removal of ambiguity or misinterpretation is key to ensuring that all team members are aware of the case status at all times.

Human trafficking is a global problem. Language barriers should not stand in the way of investigations and rescues.

As an aside, for multi-jurisdictional investigations, teams should ensure that individual members can view the information in the language of their choice in real-time. If the information was entered by an investigator in Brazil using Portuguese, that information should immediately be readable to a team member in Colombia who understands only Spanish. Always focus on ensuring your team members have access to accurate information in real-time. When time is lost, the cockroaches scatter.

Ensuring that sensitive data is available only to those with proper permissions is vital to keeping human trafficking investigations on track.

In those unique situations where individual team members do NOT require access to the information, perhaps because an investigation is particularly sensitive or involves public officials, your case management system should have capabilities to disallow them from viewing the update. This keeps information in the correct hands, while still furthering the integrity of the data-sharing requirement.

Only when information is shared in real-time can managers and team leaders best determine the next steps for the investigation and rescue of victims.

Best Practice #3 – Maintain Investigation Privacy and Integrity

As mentioned above, human trafficking organizations are like cockroaches. The moment they sense something is going to shine a light on them, they disappear into the woodwork. This most tragic of outcomes is painful for both the investigators and victims alike.

Keeping the investigation lights off, therefore, must be a strategic goal of human trafficking investigations. Assigning roles to your team, and ensuring that all members are adhering to those roles, is one way to keep your actions covert and secure. If a team member’s role is to pose as an interested buyer of sex, that team member should probably not also be involved in general reconnaissance of crime scenes where he or she may be recognized.

Policies and procedures exist for a reason. Ensure that they are followed. Even seemingly small mistakes can cause an investigation to derail.

Another way to ensure privacy and integrity is to utilize cutting-edge access policies to ensure that information is not accessed by outsiders or, worse yet, an insider to your team. Ensure, therefore, that EVERY SINGLE KEYSTROKE into your case management system is logged and reviewable. If your suspect organization packed up and left mere days before your major rescue and arrest operation, its important to know how that happened. Who accessed the information in your case management system, and why?

Make sure that the information your team is electronically storing is secure. Very secure. Use globally recognized and proven data security standards to protect all data and access to it. Ensure that all team members are trained and well-versed on any systems you are using for investigations.

There can never be too much integrity in a human trafficking investigation, and there can never be too much privacy. Loose lips sink ships. The same goes for loose investigation procedures. The line between a rescued victim and a lost opportunity is thin. Use investigation privacy and integrity to walk that line more effectively.

Best Practice #4 – Share Information with Senior Law Enforcement or Trusted Partners

As a team of human trafficking investigators, you recognize the seriousness and horror of human beings – like you, like me, like our daughters, sons, and grandchildren – being bought and sold for pleasure. You understand the misery of the victims and feel compelled to help. Good. That makes you a good person.

Law Enforcement agencies, however, do not typically act as emotional human beings. They have full caseloads involving homicides, drugs, corruption, and a host of other traditional crimes. Too often, they view human trafficking as merely ‘prostitution’. If a person wants to sell his or her body in exchange for money, there are no victims and, therefore, these cases can often receive a very low priority. Many times, they are dismissed out of hand.

The job of the human trafficking investigation team, therefore, is to get the attention of senior local law enforcement partners in a direct and meaningful manner… one that compels the officers to work with your team in rescues and arrests.

When meeting with Law Enforcement partners, be prepared.

Our history and background suggest that engaging senior law enforcement ‘too early’ adds risk to the investigation. Remember, loose lips sink ships, and these cases are often viewed as unimportant.

Sadly, our experience also shows that involving senior partners ‘too late’ is problematic as police departments are often reluctant to become involved in situations that they have not directly controlled and cannot easily verify the integrity of the work done prior to their involvement.

So, the answer of when to involve your senior partners is unique to each case and each situation. That decision can’t be covered in detail here. Instead, the method used to involve local senior law enforcement – whenever that transpires – is a factor that you can and should control to maximize the potential for a successful operation.

Sharing a full case file with Law Enforcement is vital to achieving their assistance. Wherever possible, use specific statutes and violation codes to help your partners understand the work you’ve put in.

Going in to meet with your prospective law enforcement partner should be a pleasant experience. Your team has built a good case and you’re ready to involve the authorities to help finalize the operation. Going in unprepared, however, will result in disappointment or disaster. As advocates for the prosecution of these types of crimes, you’re full of passion. Best practices, however, show that it is equally important to be full of actionable facts, evidence, and proof.

Therefore, best practices suggest that you build a ‘case file’ as you prepare to meet with law enforcement or senior management. On television, they sometimes call the visual representation of this case file a ‘murder board’. Make sure you have one. Make sure your case file lists ALL of the entities involved in your case. Make sure it includes all of the specific actions you’ve taken. Make sure it includes all of the audio, video, photos, and other evidence you’ve gathered.

Make sure the case file clearly shows the human trafficking operation. Who is in charge? Who are victims? What locations are involved? Who are the supporting witnesses?

Without an easy-to-digest case file, your chance of getting senior law enforcement’s attention diminishes quickly. So, utilize your case management system to very clearly outline the case in a compelling and thorough manner.

Best Practice #5 – Plan, Plan, and Plan Again

The final best practice is Operational Planning. Not to overstate it, but as I’ve said earlier human traffickers are cockroaches. At the first sign of light, you’ll lose them. Every time.

The final best practice for investigating human trafficking is perhaps the most important. Plan.

The biggest key to a successful human trafficking investigation boils down to three elements: Plan, Plan, and Plan Again!

Plan, then plan again, and then plan once more. Plan your response to every initial tip. Plan your initial investigation work into every case. Plan the tasks and mission of every operative involved in your case. Plan how to get case information into the hands of those who need it in real-time. Plan to keep the investigation quiet so as not to risk the cockroaches running.

Plan every covert operation as if lives depended upon it. They might. Plan in advance what the ‘panic’ word is. Plan in advance what hand signals your operative might use if audio fails. Plan in advance to know where the nearest trauma center is. Plan in advance to know what other risks are present. Dogs? Security? Children?

Plan and make that plan available to everyone who needs to see it. Share that plan in your case management system and know when every user has read it.

Finally, plan to present your case in a compelling manner to senior law enforcement officials. And then work with them on a plan to successfully pull victims out of harm’s way and arrest the bad guys.

Summary of Best Practices

Software from Case Closed Software™ helps NGO’s and other parties manage successful investigations into human trafficking.

We have covered some of the key ingredients to a successful human trafficking investigation and rescue. Of course, no operation ever goes exactly as you expect, but by ensuring that you are following these best practices – staying organized, sharing internal information, maintaining investigation integrity, effectively engaging with senior law enforcement officials, and conducting meticulous planning – you greatly increase the likelihood that your efforts will result in the wonderful rescue of victims and the prosecution and incarceration of the perpetrators.

By Douglas Wood, entrepreneur and investigation management professional.

Copyright 2021 Case Closed Software™

Managing Multi-Jurisdictional Investigations

Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Forces, Cold Case task forces, Anti-Human Trafficking task forces, Internet Crimes against Children Task Forces, Wildlife Protection task forces, and the like… they all share a common problem.

Collecting, storing, and disseminating investigative information is difficult enough in any complex investigation unit. Imagine the compounded problems of investigating cases in multiple jurisdictions, across different countries, in multiple languages, with multiple sets of rules and case workflows!

 

Case Closed Software™ produces software to assist people with this process, making it easier to generate, store, and retrieve information over the course of investigating a case, whether that case is across the city or halfway around the world.

When international users investigate cases, they need to be able to collect and store data in a useful and meaningful way so that they can access it later AND to make information available to other people who might have an interest in the case.

Historically, investigative case management required people to start paper files to store witness statements, track evidence, collect and record the outcome of various lines of inquiry, and so forth. Today, Case Closed Software replaces the paper files, allowing people to quickly record and access data.

Investigative case management facilitates the recovery of data at every step of the investigation, along with supporting references, digital images, and other electronic material that can be stored in a computer case file. It is often also necessary to store physical evidence and provide information to help people find it through evidence handling and chain-of-custody records.

The ability to know where EVERY case is, where EVERY piece of evidence is, and what EVERY agent is working on is vital to multi-jurisdictional investigation units.

Active information sharing – across remote jurisdictions and disparate languages – also allows people to do things like connect related cases, identify persons of interest, track organized crime, work with informants, and increase productivity.

CJIS-Compliant and globally-recognized systems from Case Closed Software streamlines the process and simplify data entry so that users can enter materials to quickly and easily, rather than days or weeks later when the information may be less useful.

Case Closed Software solutions for multi-jurisdictional investigations are currently used by customers across the globe to investigate drugs and narcotics, animal cruelty, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and a host of more traditional criminal investigations.

For more information please visit us at www.caseclosedsoftware.com

Contributed by Douglas Wood, CEO at Case Closed Software™

Case Closed Software™️ in the News: 9 Dogs Rescued from NC Dogfighting Ring

GASTON COUNTY, N.C.  – 9 pitbull terriers from a home in Gaston County, NC are safe today after being rescued from a dogfighting ring earlier this week.

Janette Reever of the Humane Society International’s global anti-dogfighting team says that the animals are on their way now to an undisclosed shelter run by specialists in rehabilitating abused animals.

Janette Reever heads up the anti-dog fighting team at the Humane Society International

The Humane Society International uses specialized investigation management software from Texas-based Case Closed Software™ to track and investigate dogfighting and other forms of animal abuse around the globe. ™

“It’s not just medical treatment, it’s complete mind and body therapy,” Reever explained. “Removing them off their collars, you can see their relief. They know they’re being taken away.”

She says the animals have already been treated with antibiotics and pain killers for their injuries.

“What’s so unique about American Pitbull Terriers, or pitbulls in general, is that they are so loyal,” Reever said. “That’s why they are terribly exploited. You can do horrific things to them and they will still love you and still want to fight to the death for you.”

Reever says seven dogs were rescued from dogfighting on Wednesday. Two weeks prior, two dogs were rescued from animal cruelty.

One man faces eighteen felony charges related to dogfighting, cruelty to animals, and possession of drugs.

GA Sheriff’s Office Deploys Case Closed Software™ for Investigation Case Management

(April 6, 2021)  Austin, TX – Case Closed Software™, a leading provider of investigation case management software to specialized investigation unit, today announced that a large Georgia Sheriff’s Office has signed a multi-year contract for their secure, cloud-based systems.

The Peach State county, serving tens of thousands of residents, selected Case Closed Software after speaking with existing users and testing the functionality with their own data.  Case Closed Software will help the county’s Sheriff’s Office and associated Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Task Force work investigations more efficiently with a goal to close criminal cases more quickly.

According to Douglas Wood, President of Case Closed Software, the county selected his company’s offering due to the flexibility and overall feature set it offers.

Case Closed Software is powerful and feature-rich software for specialized investigation units.

 

“We’re thrilled to add this new law enforcement client to our delighted customer base”, said Mr. Wood. “We very proudly focus on specialized investigation units which include state bureaus of investigation, fugitive recovery agents, anti-human trafficking investigators, drug task forces, internet crimes against children units, and local law enforcement.”

Case Closed Software has begun implementation of the software and expects the County to be fully installed and trained by April 30, 2021.

Veterans 4 Child Rescue Deploys Leading-Edge Technology to Battle Age-Old Human Trafficking Problem

Tucson, AZ – (April 1, 2021) Vets 4 Child Rescue (V4CR), a non-profit organization formed in 2017 and dedicated to fighting child rape trafficking, announced today that they have adopted the industry leading investigation case management system from Austin, TX based Case Closed Software™.

According to a V4CR spokesperson, their non-profit’s mission is 3-fold:

Nationwide alert: Provide nationwide attention to the prevalence of child rape trafficking that is rampant in all 50 states. This is done through traditional media, social media and our Nationwide Volunteer program.
Arrest child predators: An investigative team uses their military and law enforcement experience to run operations in conjunction with local/federal law enforcement and district attorneys to arrest predators that prey on children and to ensure that they will see the cases through to conviction.
Protect our children: The V4CR Nationwide Volunteer program provides educational outreach programs to arm citizens with the necessary tools to protect their children and maintain safe communities.

“V4CR is fully committed to the rescue of children, and we’re investing in the best technologies possible to assist us. Case Closed Software is a huge part of that strategy”, says V4CR Founder and Veteran Navy SEAL Craig “Sawman” Sawyer. “With these leading-edge tools, we can ensure the evidence will be processed optimally and the predators brought to legal account behind bars where they can harm no more.”

Craig grew up near Houston, TX, got his tactical start in the U.S. Marine Corps, and quickly transitioned to the U.S. Navy to pursue high-level Special Operations as a U.S. Navy SEAL. As an Operator on the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU), Craig gained critical combat experience that is now being utilized to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Because of his experience as a federal criminal investigator, Craig is uniquely qualified to run joint sting operations with law enforcement agencies and allied Non-Governmental Organizations.

Case Closed Software, founded in 2016 by Austin TX entrepreneur Douglas Wood, provides V4CR with robust software designed to assist in their fight against human trafficking and child rape. The software helps V4CR track the entire case lifecycle from tips to post-prosecution, and has revolutionized their ability to work more cases, arrest more perpetrators, and most importantly rescue more children.

“With all of our law enforcement connections and investigators, we needed a platform that will allow us to better our operations and use our resources to their full capacity” added Pete McCarthy, the director of investigations at V4CR. “Case Closed Software gives us end-to-end case management with a configurable workflow, tips and leads management, evidence tracking, operations planning, multi-language support, and a host of other powerful features including entity deconfliction and visualization.”

The Exodus Road scores Human Victory with Case Closed Software

(March 21, 2021)  Because of The Exodus Road, using skilled operatives and anti-human trafficking case management software from Case Closed Software, a young woman is free today in India!

The Exodus Road uses trained, professional ‘search and rescue’ teams across the globe that to work alongside national law enforcement partners to bring rescue to victims of human trafficking and arrests of their perpetrators.

In this particular case, The Exodus Road team in India coordinated with local police to bring freedom to Kaija (not her real name). She is out of danger now, safe at home where her ongoing needs will be assessed.

Her three traffickers have all been charged and await legal action.

The Exodus Road team has been working closely with the Case Closed anti-human trafficking investigation software for several months, and credits the software for making search and rescue missions easier to manage across their global jurisdictions.

 

About The Exodus Road

The Exodus Road is a 501c3 nonprofit, registered with the U.S. government. We believe that one of the unique functions we serve in this field is to gather as many people as possible “around the table” for the sake of bringing justice to the enslaved. Our staff and teams around the world represent a variety of religions and cultures, as do the survivors we serve.

Old West crime meets New Age technology

Billy the Kid carved his name into history through his exploits during and after the Lincoln County War.  In a career filled with almost impossible escapes and daring acts in battle, the “Kid” nevertheless found himself on the losing side of the war and, in its aftermath, was branded the West’s most notorious and wanted desperado.

Cold West Investigations uses advanced software to breathe new life into old west cases such as Billy The Kid (pictured)

Reportedly killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in 1881, rumors persisted that the Kid survived, and new evidence developed by Cold West Detective Agency may prove that the Kid lived well into the Atomic Age.

Cold West Detective Agency takes a different and unique approach to history. While historians like to ‘study’ it, Cold West detectives actually ‘investigate’ it as a cold case.  Working with law enforcement, Cold West detectives bring distinctive and rare expertise to the investigation of historical cold cases.

Blending old-west footwork with leading-edge investigation case management technologies from Texas-based Case Closed Software, Cold West detectives perform robust investigations at these century-old crime scenes.

Cold West picks up where history left off, and that can make some historians uncomfortable.  It’s been said that “dead men tell no tales”, but when Cold West’s group of hardened investigators combine their expertise and curiosity with Case Closed Software, these investigations come back alive, and history begins to speak its secrets.

Cold West uses the “posse method”, utilizing experts from any and every field required to move the case forward.  They work hand-in-hand with local Sheriffs, police, tech experts, federal agents, historians, and other experts, using cutting edge modern crime scene investigative methods (CSI) to develop never before seen and court-accepted evidence that changes history.

“Case Closed Software has been a game-changer for us”, said Steve Sederwall the co-founder of Cold West and former federal criminal investigator. “Our ability to blend all of our new investigation findings with all of those historical records helps us identify and develop new tips on our historical cases.”

Read a cool BuzzFeed feature on Steve Sederwall and Cold West HERE.

Recently, Cold West – in the midst of investigating another famous old west crime – used Case Closed to develop previously unknown information that could completely change history’s view of the case.  That investigation continues today.

“I like to think about how Jesse James or Billy The Kid would react to seeing how the accepted narrative of their demise is being changed through the work of Cold West detectives using modern and leading-edge technology”, added Case Closed Software’s president Douglas Wood.