Identity resolution is central to fighting against crime and terrorist activities in various ways. Current information systems and technologies deployed in law enforcement agencies are neither adequate nor effective for identity resolution. In this research we conducted a case study in a local police department on problems that produce difficulties in retrieving identity information. We found that more than half (55.5%) of the suspects had either a deceptive or an erroneous counterpart existing in the police system. About 30% of the suspects had used a false identity (i.e., intentional deception), while 42% had records alike due to various types of unintentional errors. We built a taxonomy of identity problems based on our findings.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Management Information Systems, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721

   Alan G. Wang, Homa Atabakhsh & Hsinchun Chen

2. Tucson Police Department, Tucson, AZ, 85701

   Tim Petersen

Editors and Affiliations

1. Department of Library and Information Science, Rutgers University,  

   Paul Kantor

2. School of Communication, Information and Library Studies, Rutgers University, 4 Huntington Street, 08901-1071, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

   Gheorghe Muresan

3. Artificial Solutions, Altonaer Poststraße 13b, 22767, Hamburg, Germany

   Fred Roberts

4. MIS Department, University of Arizona, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA

   Daniel D. Zeng

5. Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

   Fei-Yue Wang

6. Department of Management Information Systems, Eller College of Management, The University of Arizona, 85721, AZ, USA

   Hsinchun Chen

7. College of Computing, Georgia Tech Information Security Center, Georgia Institute of Technology, 801 Atlantic Drive, 30332-0280, Atlanta, GA, USA

   Ralph C. Merkle

Reprints and permissions

© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Policies and ethics