Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Summary

The mission of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is to promote public safety and strengthen domestic security. Headquartered in Tallahassee, FDLE conducts independent investigations and coordinates multi-jurisdictional and special criminal investigations with local, state and federal authorities in four key investigative focus areas: major drugs, violent crime, public integrity and fraud/economic crime.

Challenge

• FDLE officials were informed of a child abduction from the maternity ward of a local hospital.
• Police response was immediate, but the suspect had already left the hospital.
• Officials had limited information to work with—a vehicle description and partial tag number that could normally take days or weeks to track down manually.
• Speed was crucial in identifying the suspect and recovering the abducted child.

Solution

• Leverage a specialized investigative solution known as dFACTS, a tool developed with the LexisNexis® Advanced Investigative Solution platform.
• Enter the three known license plate characters into dFACTS to run a wild card search—a powerful feature which produces license plate and vehicle matches based on incomplete information.
• Use instant results to narrow down suspect vehicles based on location and other relevant factors and alert local authorities within minutes.

Results

• Matched the description with the suspect in less than 10 minutes.
• Recovered the infant unharmed in a neighboring city within an hour and 15 minutes of receiving initial report.
• Solve cases faster, save more lives and better protect the public with fast access to critical data.
• Preserve department resources that would normally be spent manually following up on leads.