Case study
UK Metropolitan Police use social media to engage citizensHP Autonomy enables UK’s leading police force to better engage the community and respond to local events
IndustryGovernment
ObjectiveCreate a platform to better utilize social media channels to achieve enhanced business and operational outcomes
ApproachEngaged with a long-term infrastructure supplier for the UK Police to create a three-month trial in two London boroughs
IT matters•Identifiesrelatedconceptsandtopicsbeforethey
become noticeable trends
•Provesfunctionalityofsocialmediaanalysistoolsin a real-time, high-pressure live environment
- HP solution components
- HP IDOL
- HP Explore
- HP Social Awareness Dashboard
- HP 2760p Tablet; HP DL380 dual-CPU servers; HP 5800A7-48g networking
-HPInformationManagementandAnalyticsConsulting Services
Business matters•Automaticallyanalyzeslargevolumesofdata,
highlights ‘known unknowns,’ and helps resolve andaddressthe‘needleinahaystack’problems
•Demonstrates usefulness to live operations, identifyingwitnessesandquicklyspreadingnewsupdates on incidents
•Speedstheanalysisofsocialmediatrends,improving allocation of appropriate resources, savingtimeandmoney
“To be able to now monitor sentiment, respond to messages, and reply on a London-wide or national scale is of tremendous benefit. Just in terms of resources saved scanning papers, Internet, and other social media feeds, the HP solution will assist greatly in campaign planning.” —AndrewWatson,DeputyCIOforMetropolitanPoliceService
HP IDOL solution enables leading police force to better respond to local events Aware of gaps in its monitoring and usage of social media, the UK’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) began a trial with HP duringthesummeroftheLondonOlympicstodeployindustryleadingsocialmediaanalyticstools.Theresultismoreeffectivecommunityengagement,earlierinsightintorelevantissues,andmoreaccurateanalysisofsocialmediasentiment.Theseinsightshavebenefittedpoliceoperations,includingintelligenceandcrimeinvestigation.
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Casestudy|MetropolitanPoliceService
The challenge
On August 6, 2011, rioting broke out in LondonandthedisturbancesquicklyspreadtocitiesacrossEngland,lastingfourdaysandcosting£200minclean-upandpolicing.AMetropolitan Police Service (MPS) report into thedisturbances,“4DaysinAugust,”foundgaps in police intelligence prior to and during thedisturbances.Italsohighlightedconcernswiththelevelofcommunityengagement.At the same time, social media was found to be a contributing factor in the spread of information (and disinformation) between rioters.
MPS recognized it needed to do more to engage local communities and social media channels.Moreeffectiveengagementcouldhelp to prevent future disturbances, while better monitoring would assist in resource planning and proactive engagement, and enable more joined-up intelligence and informationacrosstheMPS.Asanotherreportintothedisturbancesputit,“Communityengagementisalwaysthefirstkeysteptopreventingdisorder.”Toenablecommunityengagement,thePoliceneedtoidentifyandengagewithnew,communityinfluencersandhavemoreofaproactiveapproachtofiltersocialmediachannels.
Olympic-sized opportunity In the summer of 2012, the MPS oversaw the LondonOlympicsandParalympicsGames,theRoyalJubilee,andtheannualNottingHillCarnival.Thisrequiredanunprecedentedlevelofpolicing.AwareoftheMPS’2012commitments, and its long-term social media ambitions, HP proposed a trial to help better understandandutilizesocialmediaanalysis(SMA)forcommunityengagement.HPisa
keysuppliertotheUKPolice,providingkeyelementsofitsITinfrastructure.TheSMAtrialranfromJulytoSeptemberwithintwoLondonboroughs,HaringeyandHammersmith&Fulham, with lessons shared across the entirecity.ThetrialhelpedMPSformulatealong-termstrategyforsocialmediaandprovided insight as to how it could be used to advancecommunityengagement,intelligencegathering,andcrimeinvestigation.
The solution
The HP solution leverages the power of HP IDOL(IntelligentDataOperatingLayer)fromHPAutonomytoautomaticallyunderstandtheconcepts expressed in tweets, news articles, andblogs.Itisabletoidentifytrends,themes,andsubjectadjacencies,automaticallysiftingthroughthemassofdata.Usersareableto gain a real-time understanding of what iscapturingthepublicattention.FortheMPS, the solution produced reports during the solution trial on themes, trends, and buzzwords, viewed from a single dashboard; andthedashboardcouldbecustomizedbyeachuser.
MPS wanted to ensure the trial could evolve, asrequired,addingnewfunctionalityinresponsetouserdemand.OfparticularimportancewastheabilitytotrackamessageortopicsprovidedbytheMPSDirectorateofMedia and Communications and to review its impact,penetration,andidentifyresponders.Users were drawn from operational policing rolesandtheDirectorateofInformation.
Partoftheearlyfocuswasondeterminingwhat to monitor (the solution covers a vast range of social media, including YouTube, Flickr,LinkedIn,andFacebook).Atlaunch,
About the Metropolitan PoliceThe Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is the UK’s largestandmostinfluentialpoliceforce,with31,000officersandmorethan10,000supportstaff.Itcoversapopulationof7.2millionandsomeoftheUK’smosthighprofile,publicevents.
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the trial ingested feeds from 22 social media channelsselectedbyMPS(witheightmoreaddedinthefirstfewweeksofthetrial),withan emphasis on international, national, and localnewsfeeds,alongwithlocalblogs.Itwould also monitor the London-based Twitter datafeed,andassessauser’sinfluencerviaaKloutscore.AllcontentwasOpenSourceandwithinthepublicdomain.
Asamulti-lingualcity,Londondemandedmulti-lingualoperationalcapabilities.Toaddress this need, the Proof-of-Concept (PoC) offeredautomatedtranslation.Thisallowedanalyststointerrogateforeignlanguagetextin English, with results in English, but while retainingtheoriginalforeignlanguagetext.
To meet the tight deadlines and ensure a robust infrastructure, HP worked with a long-standing partner, OCSL, to provide HP DL380 Dual CPU Servers and HP 5800A7-48g networkingswitchestopowerthetrial.Inaddition, HP also supplied Slate tablet devices to give users mobile access to the SMA (social mediaanalytics)information.Thiswaslaterextended to users with iPads and Android devices.Ahalf-daytrainingsessionwasheldforallusers.
Benefits
Helping address the ‘needle in a haystack’ problem ThetrialwasquicklydeemedasuccessandextendedintoNovember.Themostobviousimpact was that, even using selective data ingestion(Londonarea-onlytweetsandfeeds), the HP solution was able to cope with the large volumes of unstructured data
generated.Onaveragetherewere2,306,796tweetsadaycomingfromLondon(July12throughAugust13),withapeakof3,291,998onthedayoftheOlympicsopeningceremony.
Theautomatedanalysis,anduniquecontextual ‘understanding’ that the HP solution enables, highlighted ‘known unknowns’—relatedconceptsthatanalystsarenotnecessarilysearchingfor.Thesolutionhelpedtoresolveandaddressthe‘findtheneedleinthehaystack’problem.
While the information volumes are small bysocialmediastandards,andwellwithinthe limits of the HP solution, it would be a daunting task to have users sift through the informationmanually.Practicallyspeaking,manual reviews could never be completed quicklyenoughtohaveanimpact.
From this deluge of information, MPS was abletodeterminenewcommunityinfluencersandgatherearlyinsightintorelevantissues.ItmadeitpossibletogenerateCommunityImpact Assessments much faster and withmorecredibility.ThetrialalsomadeasignificantcontributiontoongoingoperationsbyenablingMPSto:
• Identifyaconnectionbetweentwointelligence targets that had not been known previously
• Identifypotentialincidentsandlinksmuchmorequicklyandaccuratelythanviatraditional means
• Ensure proportionate and appropriate operationalresponsetohighlysensitivecommunityevents
• Identifyseveralunknownpotentialwitnesses to a fatal stabbing
Casestudy|MetropolitanPoliceService
Casestudy|MetropolitanPoliceService
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• Forwardlocaltweetsconcerningcommunityincidents and respond to erroneous tweets
• Helpbuildaglossaryoftermstobeusedtocross-search data
In general, the solution provided accurate analysisonanearreal-timebasisversus24hoursinarrears,whichincreased:
• Speed of understanding and operational awareness
• Accuracyofassessmentleadingtobetterinformed operational decisions
• Ease of access to and assessment of public mood and opinion
• Theabilitytoreachmoreefficientanalysis,automaticallyprovidingmoresuccinctinformationandallowinganalysttimetobemore focused on priorities
• Theabilitytoreachmoreinformeddecisionsat all levels of operation and command
Tracking community news updates Of particular importance to MPS was the abilitytotrackamessageortopicprovidedbytheDirectorateofMediaandCommunications.MPS wanted to review its impact, penetration, andidentifythoserespondingtothemessage.Given the vast number of social media feeds perday,thiscannotbedoneeasilyatpresent,yetishighlyimportanttoaidthereductioninfear of crime, and in correcting or adjusting messagesinthepublicdomain.Itwouldalsobepossibletoidentifytrendingtopicsinneedofatimelyandproportionateresponse.
As an example, during the trial a tweet was detected from someone in the Hammersmith &Fulhamcommunitystatingthatinformationhad been received that females were being attacked in a local park and that police were warningpeopletostayawayfromthearea.Thetweetquicklytrendedlocally,butwasinfacttotallyerroneous;nosuchstatement
hadbeenissuedfromthePolice.MPSwasabletoresponddirectlytotheinitialtweetsetting the record straight that there was no such warning, but also issuing reassurance and contact information as well as advice toanyonefeelingconcerned.Allofthiswasachievedduringtheworkingday.
Real-time visibilityLooking ahead, the current plan involves refiningsocialmediaanalysistobeviewedbyusersattheBoroughCommandersandAssociationofChiefPoliceOfficers(ACPO)viauser-definabledashboards.Inaddition,MPS is building a series of ‘real-time tension indicators’ to help Commanders take stock ofasituation.Itisconsideringlinkingthedashboard via video link to Special Operations RoomsandcanteenssostaffcanseeemerginglocalandLondon-widetrends.
About HP Autonomy
HPAutonomyisagloballeaderinsoftwarethat processes unstructured human information, including social media, email, video,audio,text,webpages,andmore.UsingHPAutonomy’sinformationmanagementandanalyticstechnologies,organizationscan extract meaning in real time from data invirtuallyanyformatorlanguage,includingstructureddata.Arangeofpurpose-builtmarketofferingshelporganizationsdrivegreatervaluethroughinformationanalytics,unifiedinformationaccess,archiving,eDiscovery,enterprisecontentmanagement,dataprotection,andmarketingoptimization.
Please visit autonomy.comtolearnmore.
Learn more at
http://www.autonomy.com/products/idol
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