Analytic Investigations (Advanced Training)

Welcome to analytic investigations advanced training 1. If you’re ready to take what you already know to the next level, this is the course for you.

I’m your instructor Dr. Matthews and by the end of this course you will know what Link Analysis Charts are, and how to generate them from an Association Matrix.

You’ll also get training on how to use the Analytic Investigative software, RFFlow professional flow charting, to create presentation ready Link analysis charts.

To maximize your learning, you will want to download your own copy of the RFFlow application, if you don’t already have it.

From your favorite web browser simply search for RFF.com or RFFlow; then download and install the application.

Running RFFlow in the background as you go through the training is a great way to learn as you go.

Once you’re ready – select continue or next and we’ll get started.

As a review – the Association Matrix begins by first identifying the Entities of Interest to the investigation. Once they’ve been identified, we then place them on the association matrix

Similar to the association matrix there are a few generally recognized and commonly used symbols applied in the link diagram. While you may consider enhancing your symbols later – it’s helpful to have the basics down before you do.

People are represented as circles. Closed circles with solid lines indicate known individuals, while a dotted or dashed circle would indicate a suspected or unconfirmed individual or alias.

Non-people, businesses, organizations, property, etc., are represented by Squares (or rectangles). Similarly, solid lines indicate known entities and dotted or dashed lines indicate suspected, or unconfirmed.

A solid line represents a known or confirmed association or connection, while a dotted or dashed line indicates a weak, suspected or unconfirmed association between entities of interest.

I’ll provide some enhancements to these basic symbols, but to begin with – these four are sufficient to graphically represent the information enrolled in an Association Matrix.

As a reminder this is a DRAFT link analysis chart, generated from the information available from the Association Matrix. It is not your final product. That said – your results should look similar to what you see here. Here are some things worth noting:

White is inside the warehouse as an indicator that he is a significant person in that regard.

The registered vehicles have a strong connection to the warehouse and a weak connection to the Distributors.

The weapons have a strong connection to the warehouse as well as to the distributors and White – but there is no connection to the registered vehicles.

The Information block contains some basic information regarding the Agency, Case Number, Case Analyst, and date /time the chart was prepared.

Remember that this information is a way to memorialize your analytic efforts and support actions that were or were not taken based on the information available at a given time/date. At some point there is a strong likelihood that someone will audit or review the investigative actions, and recording every time a new chart was generated is one way of keeping the record straight.

Caution: It’s important that the only information that is portrayed in your link chart is the information you have. No assumptions, no inferences or speculations, just the facts. In this way you keep your analysis clear of bias and distractions.

From this draft chart it is fairly easy to identify where the “center of gravity” or central entities of interests are – as well as where the weak or unsubstantiated areas are.

From this point you may identify areas where you may want to revise and update your investigative plan. The final step in this process is to minimize the crossed links and clean up your chart.