NZ software fighting crime

Local company's high-tech products helping police around the world.

A New Zealand company is at the cutting edge of intelligence-led crime fighting around the globe.

Software called Intelligence, created by the Wynyard Group, a subsidiary of Jade based in Christchurch, is used by more than 60 of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world.

Ever-increasing technology means police investigations gather huge volumes of evidence such as emails, text messages, banking transactions and phone logs which traditionally must be analysed by hand.

It is a painstaking process which can take months to complete.

But the Wynyard software is able to analyse millions of pieces of evidence to find common threads - names, dates, places, common words - and draw links between them.

Theft, fraud, money laundering, murder, corruption, counter-terrorism, cyber-crime and drug trafficking - the application can be turned to any major crime.

The technology is currently being used in an "extremely high-profile investigation" in Europe.

Wynyard chief operating officer Paul Stokes said that 300 million emails would be analysed in "two to three nights".

Wynyard's Risk program is a global risk and compliance software used by 2000 clients in 90 countries.

And the Investigator software, developed for the Australian Federal Police, proved so popular that more than 70 countries in the Asia-Pacific region now use the case management system to cut administration in covert operations.

"At the moment, you have the officer in charge of the file doing that," said Mr Stokes. "[Investigator] takes away the paperwork so the guys who want to be in the field can do what they want to do - chase bad guys."

The New Zealand police are currently trialling the case management program in a high-profile case.

Wynyard has already struck a deal to supply the New Zealand police's groundbreaking EVE technology, which allows officers to view digital evidence without risk of corrupting the original copies, to other agencies around the world.

The next step is "predictive policing", said Mr Stokes.

The police already analyse data to identify "hotspots" in order to deploy resources to the right place at the right time in a bid to prevent crime.

"But I don't think we'll be getting into the Minority Report realm," said Mr Stokes, referring to the science fiction movie where people are arrested before they commit crimes.

What they are

Risk Assesses threats, operational risks and compliance with laws and regulations for companies and Governments. Used by 2000 clients in 90 countries.

Intelligence Can analyse millions of pieces of evidence to find common threads - names, dates, places, common words - and draw links between them for further investigation.

Investigator A case management system to cut paperwork in investigations to make it much easier to handle hundreds, if not thousands, of pieces of evidence. Developed for the Australian Federal Police and now used by more than 70 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.