To have access to Link Analysis analytical screens, the user must have been assigned an Analytical role in LInX.  This functionality is not available for Tactical-only users.

Restrictions on the Use of LInX Data

Person-Centric

When the data from the various agencies has been ”pushed” to the LInX data warehouse, it becomes available for searching purposes.  LInX is person-centric, which means that search results will return information on the individual associated with the search criteria.  For example, a search on a vehicle will return a list of persons that may be associated with an incident involving that vehicle.  Search rules have been built into the system to provide likely matches for the user to review.

Search Process

The search process is designed to produce these results:

Ø          A search on Persons, Phone Numbers, E-mail Addresses, Vehicles, Addresses, and/or Incidents Numbers will bring back a list of matches.

Ø          The default source for the results is all agencies in the current system, unless a specific neighborhood is selected (see Neighborhood Selection section below) ; meaning that the search includes all data in the data warehouse from all sources. 

Ø          By selecting one or more source agencies for the search process rather than all agencies, the results will be filtered to reflect only the data from the selected sources. 

Ø          Some person names may appear more than once in the search results.  This occurs because each event in which a person has been involved will appear in the result list. In some instances, the person may be listed more than once, even in a single event, if that person was listed as having more than one role in the single event.

Analytical LInX users can access Link Analysis either from the Query Tools title page, or from the menu located along the left side of the screen.  Link Analysis opens with the Query tab view, which is used to enter the criteria to begin the analysis.

The Link Analysis query screen allows users to search both structured and free-text data in the LInX database for people, phone numbers, vehicles, addresses, incidents and phrases.  Phrase-based queries will search the LInX document warehouse.  This page also provides the capability to Save and Load search queries.

The Link Analysis process begins with a query screen to search for data that will be included in the analysis.  Person, Phone, E-mail, Vehicle, Address, and Incident search criteria can be entered into the structured fields shown on the screen. There is also a free-form text field to search for words or text phrases.

After entering the criteria to be used in the analysis, the agency database(s) to be used in the search can be specified using the (Change Neighborhood...) link or Neighborhood button.  The Neighborhood Selection menu is set to default to all available agencies.

Note: See Neighborhood Selection below.

Link Analysis Search Tips

Note:  The ID field is not to be considered when searching for NCIS data.

The search criteria related to a person can be entered into the text fields shown under Person Characteristics. The Person Characteristics fields are:

Ø          Name Search Type [Exact/Thesaurus/Assisted]

Ø          Last Name

Ø          First Name

Ø          Middle Name

Ø          Full Name/Alias

Ø          DOB/Year of Birth or DOB/Year of Birth Range

Ø          ID Search (FBI/UCN, SID, SSN,  DL)

Ø          Current Age or Current Age Range

Ø          Age at Time of Event or Age Range at Time of Event

Ø          Occupation

Ø          Gender [drop-down selector]

Ø          Race [drop-down selector]

Ø          Eye Color [multi-select pop-up list]

Ø          Height or Height Range

Ø          Weight or Weight Range

Ø          Hair Color [multi-select pop-up list]

Ø          Social Security Number

Ø          Driver’s License Number

Ø          Driver’s License State [drop-down selector]

Ø          Scar, Mark, Tattoo (SMT) Description [fields expands to allow searching of 1, 2, or 3 SMTs in one query]

Ø          SMT Type [drop-down selector]

Ø          SMT Body Part [drop-down selector]

Ø          SMT Body Subpart [drop-down selector based on Body Part selection]

Occupation Note: The Occupation field is configurable (on/off) by LInX site.   The default setting for this field is 'ON'; i.e., the field is available for searching on the All Search Person Characteristics query page, and for display in both the Person Characteristics tab of the search results and the Event Report view.

SMT Note: The SMT field can be expanded by clicking the plus sign [+] in front of the Scar, Mark, or Tattoo Text field, allowing the user to specific up to three (3) SMT descriptions.  The search criteria will be treated as an "AND", whereby a match must be found on all sets of the criteria specified.

Exact, Assisted, and thesaurus Search Options

There are two or three different levels of complexity available for users to conduct Name searches, depending on the field(s) being searched.  The options available are:

Exact Search: limits the search results to those records that are an exact match to the search criteria. Results will only be returned if they meet all the structured criteria entered in the various search characteristics categories.  Results will be returned for exact spelling or numerical matches.

Exact Searches may be conducted for Name, Address, or Text queries.

To conduct exact Name searches, select the Exact Search radio button located on the Person Characteristics section heading, and then enter your search criteria.

Assisted Search: uses soundex and metaphone phonetic algorithms to expand the search results to include structured records that contain similar matching terms to the search criteria, in addition to those records that contain exact matching terms to the search criteria.  Results will be returned for exact spelling and similar spelling matches, or names that sound similar to the search criteria.

Note: This option is only available for Name Searches, using the following Person Characteristics fields:

Ø          Last Name (legal name or alias)

Ø          First Name

Ø          Middle Name

Ø          Full Name / Alias

To conduct assisted searches, select the Assisted Search radio button located on the Person Characteristics section heading, and then enter your search criteria.

Thesaurus Search:  uses a static LInX thesaurus index to expand the search results to include structured records that contain terms that are grouped together according to similarity of meaning to the search term(s), in addition to those records that contain exact matching terms to the search criteria. Results will be returned for exact spelling or numerical matches, and related terms.

Thesaurus Searches may be conducted for Name, Address, or Text queries.

Examples of Thesaurus entries using the Person Full Name index include:

William - Will, Willie, Bill, Billy

Steven - Stephen, Steve, Steph

Kenneth - Ken, Kenny

Examples of Thesaurus entries using the Full Street Address index include:

Street - St, Str, Strt

Road - Rd

Avenue - Av, Ave

1st - First

Examples of Thesaurus entries using the Narrative index include:

Murder - Homicide, Manslaughter

Cocaine - candycaine, coke

To conduct thesaurus searches, select the Thesaurus Search radio button located on the Person Characteristics section heading.

The Exact, Assisted, and Thesaurus search options may be selected from the Link Analysis query screens, or desired default search types can also be set by the user on the Set Preferences screen, under My LInX.

The following chart compares Exact Search, Assisted Search, and Thesaurus Search.

Use of Wildcards

 Exact Search can also be used with wildcards to expand or speed up the search while still limiting it to the search criteria entered by the user:

Ø          A wildcard (%) can be used in an exact search to bring up additional records that reflect the criteria including the wildcard, such as ”Doe, J%” for all individuals with the last name of "Doe" and a first name beginning with the letter "J".

Ø          If the search involves alphanumerical values, such as a partial license plate, the location of the wildcard within the number sequence will determine the results that are returned (see following table).

Ø          Wildcards can be used to speed up a search by inserting a wildcard after the search criteria, which has the effect of limiting the search results that begin with the criteria instead of containing the criteria anywhere within the record.  Using the wildcard in this way may speed up the search if time is a concern and the possible number of candidate returns is large, such as Street or City names.

Ø          Wildcards can also be used in Driver’s License Numbers, Street Names, City Names, Street Numbers, and Social Security Numbers.

The following chart provides examples of the results returned when using wildcards in Exact Search queries:

Query on a phone number by entering search criteria in the phone number fields and then selecting the Search button:

Ø          Main Phone Number (Area Code, Prefix/Suffix)

Ø          Phone Extension

There are two fields that are associated with the phone number field (as shown below).

The single field for the main phone number allows for cut/paste operations from another document into LInX.  Note that extensions are rarely captured in an RMS.

Phone Numbers may be entered in a variety of formats, and the number will be parsed into component fields automatically.  The following formats are supported:

(123)123-1234

123-123-1234

123.123.1234

1231231234

Entry Rules & Error Messages

There are several rules associated with the entry of phone number search criteria:

7 Digits Required:

If a prefix/suffix is entered without using a wildcard (%), as shown in the following example, then the complete 7 digit phone number MUST be provided.

The following message will appear if you do not meet entry criteria.

Wildcards Allowed:

LInX DOES allow the use of the wildcard (%) character,which is one of the most effective approaches for querying phone numbers.  The wildcard (%) may be prepended, appended, or placed on both sides of a partial number, as shown in the example below.

Note that when one or more wildcards are used, dashes are automatically inserted to parse the Phone Number into component fields.

Queries for a person can be performed using a known e-mail address [to include personal e-mail, Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, etc.], if available.

The following information applies to e-mail searches:

Ø          Wildcards (%) can be used in the e-mail search field to search for all or part of an e-mail address. The wildcard may be prepended, appended, or placed on both sides of an e-mail address

Ø          If a free-text search is run in the back-ground, the e-mail address will also be included in the free-text query

Ø          E-mail addresses include personal e-mail accounts, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Note:  E-mail addresses have not been populated for agencies with data already in LInX/D-DEx prior to LInX Release 5.0.  As new agencies join LInX/D-DEx, or existing agencies are reworked (e.g., RMS upgrade or change), person e-mail addresses will be ingested into the new structured fields if they are available in the source data.

The search criteria related to a vehicle can be entered into the text fields shown under Vehicle Characteristics.  A query can be executed using one field; adding additional criteria will narrow the search results. 

Queries on vehicles can be performed by entering search criteria in one or more of the following fields and then selecting the Search button:

Ø          License Plate Number

Ø          License Plate State

Ø          Vehicle Model Year, in format xxxx (e.g.,  2004)

Ø          Vehicle Make - limited to 4 characters (e.g., CHEV)

Ø          NCIC vehicle Make Code lookup table [activated by clicking link next to Make Code label]

Ø          Vehicle Model

Ø          Vehicle Color [multi-select pop-up list]

Ø          VIN

If the full license plate is not known, a search on a partial plate can be performed under Vehicle Characteristics by using a wildcard (%).  This will return results with similar sequences depending where the wildcard is placed. A search can also be done on vehicle descriptions without plate information.  While it is worth trying, data fields are frequently not fully populated in the participating agencies’ records.

The search criteria related to an address can be entered into the text fields shown under Address Characteristics.  A query can be executed using one field; adding additional criteria will narrow the search results.  The address search will return results for matches to both Person Addresses and Event Addresses.

The address characteristics fields are:

Ø          Address Search Type [Exact Search or Thesaurus]

Ø          Street Address (to include Street Number, Pre-Direction, Street Name, Street Type, Post-Direction, Building/Apartment)

Ø          Common Name (alternative name used locally to identify a street, business, school or government building, or building name)

Ø          City

Ø          State [drop-down list]

Ø          Zip Code

Exact Address Search

The Exact Address Search works in the same manner as described above for Exact Name Search.

To conduct exact Address searches, select the Exact Search radio button located on the Address Characteristics section heading.

Thesaurus Address Search

The Thesaurus Address Search works in the same manner as described above for Thesaurus Name Search.

To conduct thesaurus Address searches, select the Thesaurus Search radio button located on the Address Characteristics section heading.

Queries on incidents can be performed by entering search criteria in one or more of the following fields and then selecting the Search button:

Ø          Incident Number

Ø         Incident Date Range (Start/End)

Ø         Offense Description

Ø         Incident Type [multi-select pop-up list]

Ø         Map Selection [(Change Map Region...) link]

Ø         MO (modus operandi); search by MO is not an effective search as this field is generally not populated

LInX event Types:

Ø          Arrest

Ø         Booking

Ø         CAD

Ø         Citation (refers to both traffic and criminal citations in some Records Management Systems)

Ø         Field Interview

Ø          Incident

Ø         Pawn

Ø         Registry (Sexual Offender; Criminal Registries)

Ø         Traffic (primarily refers to accidents but in some Records Management Systems it includes traffic citations)

Ø         Warrant

Multiple Incident Types can be selected by clicking the down-arrow at the end of the Incident Type field to open the pop-up menu. After checking all desired Incident Types to search, click OK to save the selections and close the pop-up menu.  Clicking Clear in the pop-up menu will deselect any previous selections. When the pop-up menu closes, the Incident Type field will be populated with a list of selected Incident Types to be searched.

The default setting for this field is set in My LInX/Set Preferences (see the Default Incident Type Selection section below).  If no default Incident Type selection has been made, then all Incident Types will be searched.

Search only last 2 years of data

An initial query may be limited to search data for the most recent 2 years, by clicking on the Last 2 years hyperlink next to the Incident Date Range on the Query screen.  Selecting this option will automatically pre-populate the Date Range fields, extending back 2 years from the current system date.

When the Date Range fields are pre-populated to search the last 2 years of data, clicking on the Clear hyperlink will remove the limitation, and allow searching of older data.

Note: if the Date Range is manually entered, the Last 2 years link will remain and the Clear link will not be displayed.

If phrases are used as search criteria, this information should be entered into the Enter Text Phrase field near the bottom of the query screen.  Boolean search operators (such as AND, OR, NOT) can be used in the phrase field.  A search on phrases brings back results from unstructured data contained in documents.

Note: Search by Phrase will search all Incident Types regardless of what is selected on the query screen.

Exact Text Search

The Exact Text Search works in the same manner as described above for Exact Name Search. To conduct exact Text searches, select the Exact Search radio button located on the Search By Phrase section heading.

Thesaurus Address Search

The Thesaurus Text Search works in the same manner as described above for Thesaurus Name Search. To conduct thesaurus Text searches, select the Thesaurus Search radio button located on the Search By Phrase section heading.

Using Boolean Operators

The order in which search criteria are entered does not affect the search results.  However, criteria can be refined by using the logical search operators of ”AND”, ”OR”, and ”AND NOT” as well as parentheses (Boolean search):

Free Text Search Tips

Ø          Tip:  Terms can be grouped using parentheses for more control. For example, to search for narratives that contain either MURDER AND GUN or MURDER AND KNIFE use: MURDER AND (GUN OR KNIFE).

Ø          Tip:  Many words will automatically match plural and other forms of words; e.g., SCHOOLED will match SCHOOL, SCHOOLS, and SCHOOLED.

Ø          Tip:  When certain search terms are entered, a concept match is done automatically; e.g., MURDER will match MURDER, HOMICIDE, and KILL.

Ø          Tip:  The wild card " %" can be used to match zero or more characters and the wildcard " _" can be used to match exactly one character; e.g., GU% will match GUN, GUM, GUS, GUSTERSON, etc., while GU_ will only match GUN, GUM, GUS, etc.

Ø          Tip: Note that commonly used words such as "AN", "A", "THE" are ignored in all searches.

Ø          Tip:  For agency selection, click ”(Change Neighborhood...)” to select the agencies/sites/Partner system(s) to be searched. All, some, or any one agency’s data can be searched.  Only agencies that provide narrative data will be available for selection (see Neighborhood Selection section, below).

The default Link Analysis Search setting is to search all local contributing agencies; meaning that the search includes all data in the data warehouse from all local sources. The Manage Neighborhoods button allows a user to access the Neighborhood Selection menu and select one or more agencies, sites, and/or Partner systems against which to conduct a search.  The results will be filtered to reflect only the data from the selected source(s) when the user limits the search to one or more source agencies, rather than all agencies.

Selecting a Neighborhood:

When the Manage Neighborhoods button  is selected, the Neighborhood Selection menu and a description of the screen functionality are displayed.  Additional help for Neighborhood Selection can be found within the Neighborhood Selection functionality by clicking on the Online Help button [] located in the upper right-hand corner of the Neighborhood Selection screen.

Selection Status:

The text appearing on the Query Tools - Link Analysis banner provides the user with the selection status.  If there are no neighborhoods listed, or no neighborhood has been identified as the ”default” neighborhood, the local agencies of the current LInX system, plus whichever remote system(s) that may be included as a default by the Regional Administrator, will be the default agency source criteria for all searches.

In addition to the banner, the Neighborhood display field, located at the top of the query screen just below the Purpose Code field, displays the name of the selected neighborhood. If there are no neighborhoods listed, or no neighborhood has been identified as the ”default” neighborhood, the local agencies of the current LInX system, plus whichever remote system(s) that may be included as a default by the Regional Administrator, will be the default agency source criteria for all searches.

The Neighborhood display field also provides a drop-down list of existing neighborhoods from which to choose, allowing the user to select a different neighborhood to search without having to leave the search screen.

When a different neighborhood selection is made, the name of the newly-selected neighborhood will be displayed in the Neighborhood display field.

The Map Selection functionality provides the user with the ability to search a specified geographic area.  When the (Change Map Region …) link is selected, the Map Selection screen opens in a separate window.

Selection Status:

The text appearing above the (Change Map Region ...) link on the query screen provides the user with the selection status, which corresponds to what is selected in the Neighborhood Selection.  If no neighborhood is selected under the Neighborhood Selection menu, then the system default will be used, and no map regions will be specified.

When a Map Region is selected, the Neighborhood selection status will change to CUSTOM. The neighborhood will automatically be modified to include the selected regions/agencies.  The neighborhood can then be modified further through the Neighborhood Selection screen.

Mousing over the Map Regions label (directly above the Change Map Region link) will display a pop-up message containing the name(s) of the map region(s) selected.

Additional help for Map Selection can be found within the  Neighborhood Selection functionality by clicking on the Online Help button [] located in the upper right-hand corner of the Neighborhood Selection screen.

The default Incident Type selection(s) for Link Analysis searches provide a LInX user with the ability to set up a filter and have it apply to all initial Link Analysis queries without having to re-specify the incident type criteria each time.  The user can specify and save a default Incident Type selection of one, multiple, or all Incident Types to search in Link Analysis under My LInX/Set Preferences.

The following information applies to the Link Analysis default Incident Type selection:

1. • The user can set the default by selecting one, multiple, or all Incident types to search, and save the filter as a preference under My LInX/Set Preferences

   • The process for selecting Incident Types is the same as the Incident Type Multi-select feature

   • If no default is selected, and no incident types have been specified, all incident types will be searched

   • The default filter is used when initiating a Link Analysis search.  Any subsequent walks of the results may bring back information from any Incident Type

   • The default Incident Type selection can be modified and overridden in the Query tab for any Link Analysis search

   • Saved queries will retain the incident type filter with which they were saved

   • The Query screen Clear button will reset the Incident Type selection to the default setting (from My LInX/Set Preferences).

Note: Incident Type is not considered when a Text Phrase search is run in Link Analysis; therefore, results will be returned from any Incident Type containing the term(s) searched.

A document can be retrieved from the returned results by right clicking on the folder icon and selecting View Report to bring up a separate Event Report window, which contains the document under the Narrative section towards the bottom of the Event Report.  The search terms will appear in blue type. Like-terms (e.g., plurals, thesaurus matches, etc.) will appear in red type.

To begin a new phrase search at any time, the search criteria can be entered into the text field on the Link Analysis Query screen and the Search button selected to initiate another search process. 

If the user is reading the document for a specified time (set by the System Administrator), the system will assume there is no system activity and the user will automatically be logged off.

The N-DEx portal search requires users to enter a search purpose, (e.g., Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Employment, or Administrative File Maintenance) in order to perform a query.  Depending on the purpose of the query, certain data may be omitted from the results returned to the user.  This enhancement allows LInX to maintain its CSP compliance.

The Purpose Code in LInX will be defaulted to Criminal Justice (C) for all search types, but may be changed, as needed.

The Purpose Code is required in LInX and will be defaulted to Criminal Justice (C) for all search types, but may be changed, as needed.

This function allows Tactical and Analytical LInX users the ability to enter the reason a search is being conducted.  This field is located at the top of each query screen.  The field is automatically highlighted in yellow, contains a hint identifying the type of information that should be included when entering a justification, and is required if one or more agencies in the selected neighborhood require a justification in order to search their data.

If the justification entered is too generic, a pop-up message will be received advising the user to enter a more descriptive value.

Justification will remain persistent throughout the current session, for any LInX search, unless changed during the session.

Link Analysis LInX users have the ability to save queries, watch saved queries for new information, and load saved queries.

Saved Queries

Queries may be saved directly from the Query screen by clicking on the Save/Watch button, which will display a Save and Watch Query screen.

The top portion of the Save and Watch Query screen contains the search parameters and criteria that will be saved.

Enter a name in the Query Name field, and click the Save button.  The user is returned to the previous screen and a pop-up message is displayed stating that the query has been saved.  Click OK to close the message box.  Saved queries may be viewed and managed from My LInX/Manage Watch List.

Clicking the Cancel button will return the user to the previous screen without saving the query.

Watched Queries

Users may also set watches on selected saved queries to monitor for new information, get notifications when new information is available, and view the new information. Watched queries that search other LInX and Partner systems can be created.

To watch an entity, a query must contain at least one of the following sets of criteria:

• First Name + Last Name (with/without Thesaurus)

• SSN

• Misc ID

• Full Name

• Occupation

• Tag Number

• VIN

• Street Address + City + State

• Phone Number Prefix + Suffix

• Property Serial Number

Queries can be configured to be watched directly from the Query screen by clicking on the Save/Watch button, which will display a Save and Watch Query screen.

After entering a name in the Query Name field, click the Watch For New Information check-box in the Save and Watch Query window to select it.  The Watch Expires On field is automatically populated with a date 90 days from the current date.

NOTE:  Link Analysis queries can only be saved/watched from the Link Analysis Query screen, and the Notification Threshold will remain blank when the watch is configured.  It is recommended that watches be configured from a Structured Results or Query History screen, so the Notification Threshold can be set.  Results from a Structured Results screen can be moved to Link Analysis using the (Move to) Link Analysis button.

Next, click the down arrow at the end of the Run Background Query field to select the frequency of the background search (Daily, Every Other Day, or Weekly). The default setting is Daily.

After all the desired settings are configured, click the Save button. The user is returned to the previous screen and a pop-up message is displayed stating that the query has been saved.  Click OK to close the message box.  Watched queries may be viewed and managed from My LInX/Manage Watch List.

NOTE: Link Analysis Saved and Watched queries are saved as structured query types in the Manage Watch List and any results are shown in the structured search results format.  To display results in a Link Analysis format, select the results in the structured search screen and click the Link Analysis button.

Clicking the Cancel button instead of Save will return the user to the previous screen without saving/watching the query.

Any attempt to watch a query that does not meet the minimum requirements will result in a pop-up message stating ”Query has been saved but does not meet the minimum requirement for a watch query.”  The saved query can be viewed under My LInX/Manage Watch List below any watched queries.

When all the information to be used in the query has been entered, and the source of information selected, clicking on the Search button will begin the search process.

The Clear button, located at the top and bottom of the search screen,  will clear all the fields in the query screen, with the exception of the Justification field, without having to leave the query screen.  In addition, the Incident Type selection(s) will be reset to the default settings, if they have been modified.

Load Saved Queries

Users may load any of their saved queries directly from the Query screen by clicking the Load button, which will open a Query Selection menu in a separate window.

To view the search criteria for a saved query mouse-over the selected query name for a moment.  The LInX system will retrieve the search criteria and display the query details to the user in a pop-up description box.

To load a query, ensure that the radio button for the desired query is selected, and then click the Load button.  A pop-up message stating ”Requested query loaded” is displayed.  Click the OK button to close the pop-up message.

The query screen is re-displayed and populated with the search criteria from the selected saved query.  Click the Search button to run the query.

Clicking the Cancel button from the Query Selection window will close the window and return the user to the Query screen without loading any data.

Tactical and Analytical users should contact their System Administrator or Agency Administrator when they are having problems accessing or using LInX.  Only System Administrators are authorized to contact the LInX Help Desk.