DHS Plans $300 Million Law Enforcement Data Analytics Platform

April 20, 2021 12:44 PM

By Chris Cornillie

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an arm of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), seeks up to three industry partners to help it build the agency’s next-generation investigations support platform.

ICE officials plan to compete three task orders in support of the proposed system, known as the Repository for Analytics in a Virtualized Environment (RAVEn), according to an April slide presentation. One will develop RAVEn’s data analytics platform, another will support design of its user interface, and a third will establish a software development pipeline to speed regular updates to RAVEn users. ICE will compete each task order on the Multiple Award Schedule for IT, formerly Schedule IT-70. Officials value each task order at between $50 million and $100 million.

DHS officials envision RAVEn as the primary analytics platform supporting the department’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) unit in operations to disrupt human trafficking, drug smuggling, cyber crimes, and other criminal activities in the U.S. and abroad. The tool will enable HSI users to gather intelligence, compare it against information in open-source and government-owned databases, create reports, and share information with team members andHSIleadership.

CE relies on three incumbent contractors for the current iteration of RAVEn, which have generated a combined $42.7 million, in obligations since September 2018:

Directviz Solutions LLC providing the data analytics platform ($9.3 million);

KCI-Acuity LLC, providing the user interface and user experience (UI/UX) support services ($7.9 million);

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., providing RAVEn’s secure software development (DevSecOps) platform ($25.5 million)

Officials plan to release the recompete solicitation for the data analytics task order May 13, UI/UX June 1, and DevSecOps June 15. ICE will employ a two-step acquisition method consisting of a written proposal followed by technical demonstrations. Awards are planned roughly 45 days from release of the solicitation.

ICE has spent about $153 million on data analytics and business intelligence tools and service since fiscal 2017, according to Bloomberg Government’s market definition. The top recipient of ICE data analytics spending is Denver-based Palantir Technologies Inc., earning $91 million over that span.

https://about.bgov.com/news/dhs-plans-300-million-law-enforcement-data-analytics-platform/

>>16249589

DHS Falcon

Geospatial data collection

HSI - Homeland Security Investigations

https://epic.org/wp-content/uploads/foia/dhs/ice/palantir-databases/EPIC-17-08-14-ICE-FOIA-20180703-4thInterim-Production-pt2.pdf

>>16249589

Geospatial data

Understanding "Pattern of Life"

Activity-Based Intelligence: Understanding Patterns-of-Life

By Patrick Biltgen, Ph.D.; Todd S. Bacastow, Ph.D.; Thom Kaye; and Jeffrey M. Young

This article was originally published in USGIF’s State & Future of GEOINT Report 2017. Download the full report here.

http://usgif.org/system/uploads/4897/original/2017_SoG.pdf

A pattern-of-life is “the specific set of behaviors and movements associated with a particular entity over a given period of time.”[1] The focus on the individual is the fundamental uniqueness of the ABI method and drives the need for a new set of techniques and approaches to intelligence analysis. Technological advancements of the past two decades — a revolution in information technology and the dawn of “big data” — enhance our ability to collect and process large volumes of data. Tradecraft advancements including both mind-set shifts and new analysis methods allow analysts to make sense of this flood of data to understand individual behaviors and activities in the context of the environment. By resolving entities and understanding patterns-of-life, analysts can build models of potential outcomes and anticipate what may happen.https://medium.com/the-state-and-future-of-geoint-2017-report/activity-based-intelligence-understanding-patterns-of-life-481c78b7d5ae

The first axiom may be called “Clapper’s Law.” In 2004, then-director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) James R. Clapper said, “Everything and everybody has to be somewhere.” This simple and powerful principle is the basis of the ABI pillar of “Georeference to Discover.” Spatially indexing all data allows discovery of activities. Everything happens somewhere. Nothing can be in two places at once. Nothing can be nowhere. Because of these existential constraints, analysts can implement the powerful techniques of hypothesis testing and deductive reasoning: By eliminating all the places where the entity is not, the one remaining place is where the entity must be. Repeated application of this process across time produces a bona fide pattern-of-life unique to a single entity.