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The bomb hunters
How B.C. technology will help save soldiers in Afghanistan
Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
An idea born in Vancouver as a way for police to track serial killers and rapists is expected soon to help Canadian soldiers combat Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Two B.C.-based companies are working to modify a technique called geographic profiling, developed by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo, in hopes it will help the Canadian military find improvised explosive devices -- IEDs -- in Afghanistan.
The two companies "are developing a product for us that will allow us to defeat the improvised explosive device supply chain, so defeat the IED before it becomes a problem," said Maj. Dave Waller, a project director with the military's research arm, Defence Research and Development Canada.
"It's obviously very important," he added, noting that combatting IEDs has become a "top priority" for the Canadian military.
Of the 66 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002, 27 have died in IED explosions. In the last three months, 19 soldiers have died in IED incidents, meaning IEDs have become the Taliban's most deadly weapon.
To help fight this growing threat, Richmond-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has partnered with Vancouver's Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) to take on what Waller says is a contract worth close to $1.8 million to adapt the popular policing technique of geographic profiling so it can be used in Afghanistan.
Geographic profiling is a crime-fighting technique developed by Rossmo that analyses a connected series of events to determine the most probable area a criminal may live or work. For example, investigators can connect where a murder took place with known elements like where a car was dumped or where a weapon was found to determine the most likely place the killer will live.
Rossmo says the technique has been used in investigations such as that of dangerous offender Terry Driver who attacked two teenage girls near Abbotsford Hospital in 1995, where it was used to analyse the locations of telephone booths, and in England, where it was used to analyse the locations of purchases made with a stolen credit card.
MDA vice-president David Hargreaves says his company is working with ECRI -- a company Rossmo helped start -- to develop the process into something that can be used on the battlefield.
He explained his company will help the military find ways to collect specific information from ground- and air-based surveillance systems and then combine it using ECRI's geographic profiling process. He said military experts should then be able to pin down information such as where IED factories and Taliban meeting points are most likely to be located.
"The IED is a tremendously difficult problem because the perpetrators change their tactics and techniques as fast as the Canadian military and other militaries change their responses," he said.
"One of the reasons why everybody is very interested in this particular project is that it tries to get at the root supply chain of the problem rather than dealing with the symptoms," Hargreaves added.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=0d6ed936-5ce1-427f-8caf-b2b19b52ff64&k=71516
The bomb hunters
How B.C. technology will help save soldiers in Afghanistan
Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2007
An idea born in Vancouver as a way for police to track serial killers and rapists is expected soon to help Canadian soldiers combat Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Two B.C.-based companies are working to modify a technique called geographic profiling, developed by former Vancouver police officer Kim Rossmo, in hopes it will help the Canadian military find improvised explosive devices -- IEDs -- in Afghanistan.
The two companies "are developing a product for us that will allow us to defeat the improvised explosive device supply chain, so defeat the IED before it becomes a problem," said Maj. Dave Waller, a project director with the military's research arm, Defence Research and Development Canada.
"It's obviously very important," he added, noting that combatting IEDs has become a "top priority" for the Canadian military.
Of the 66 Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2002, 27 have died in IED explosions. In the last three months, 19 soldiers have died in IED incidents, meaning IEDs have become the Taliban's most deadly weapon.
To help fight this growing threat, Richmond-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. has partnered with Vancouver's Environmental Criminology Research Inc. (ECRI) to take on what Waller says is a contract worth close to $1.8 million to adapt the popular policing technique of geographic profiling so it can be used in Afghanistan.
Geographic profiling is a crime-fighting technique developed by Rossmo that analyses a connected series of events to determine the most probable area a criminal may live or work. For example, investigators can connect where a murder took place with known elements like where a car was dumped or where a weapon was found to determine the most likely place the killer will live.
Rossmo says the technique has been used in investigations such as that of dangerous offender Terry Driver who attacked two teenage girls near Abbotsford Hospital in 1995, where it was used to analyse the locations of telephone booths, and in England, where it was used to analyse the locations of purchases made with a stolen credit card.
MDA vice-president David Hargreaves says his company is working with ECRI -- a company Rossmo helped start -- to develop the process into something that can be used on the battlefield.
He explained his company will help the military find ways to collect specific information from ground- and air-based surveillance systems and then combine it using ECRI's geographic profiling process. He said military experts should then be able to pin down information such as where IED factories and Taliban meeting points are most likely to be located.
"The IED is a tremendously difficult problem because the perpetrators change their tactics and techniques as fast as the Canadian military and other militaries change their responses," he said.
"One of the reasons why everybody is very interested in this particular project is that it tries to get at the root supply chain of the problem rather than dealing with the symptoms," Hargreaves added.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=0d6ed936-5ce1-427f-8caf-b2b19b52ff64&k=71516
