How OPPS Works
OPPS, FAST Report, ALERT and MISSING CHILD ALERT are web-based and draw from a common database of continuously stored public domain chat room activity. Data is historical and updated on a “next day” basis and is live for a full year with the balanced archived. As such, the method of access is web based meaning there is no need to download specialized software and the training time is absolutely minimized so that officers can do their jobs and not have to learn a whole new “program.”
The database has been developed based on guidance from law enforcement that is active in this area. It tracks 24/7 and compiles the name of the room, the date/time of each line of chat, the identity of the user by user name, and lastly the actual textual content. Access to the data has been simplified to both reduce the amount of time needed to learn how to use the system and to maximize the pertinence of the results.
For OPPS there are four ways to access the data:
1)by User Name
2)by a keyword or phrase
3)by a “suspicious activity report” which permits three free-form inputs
4) by the name of a specific chat room
For both the keyword/phrase and suspicious activity, officers are freely able to use names, phrases, geographical references, abbreviations, or any other approach they may usually take when preparing cases for online predation. Flexibility, navigation, and a philosophy of using the least amount of time necessary to master OPPS have been built into the system. Furthermore, the number of chat rooms and technical enhancements are continually being incremented.
For the FAST Report there is only a single point of access supported by two options. In this case all an officer has to do is input the name of the missing child (or known pedophiles) and then click on either the “Past 5 Chats” or “Past 20 Chats” to retrieve data. In both cases the results deliver the name of the chat room, date/time stamp, and actual lines of chat (either 5 or 20). By clicking on the user’s name, the officer is then transported into the full stream within the room at the time the chat took place. At that point the officer can see exactly who the missing person was communicating with, whether they set up a liaison, planned to meet, or happened to be chatting with a known pedophile.
ALERT allows the investigators to set alerts for activity by certain users or keywords / phrases. The investigator is emailed when one of these events occurs.
MISSING CHILD ALERT allows investigators to create an alert when a missing child comes online. This information can then be used to help locate the missing child.
