CONTACT: Kelly Solid at 321-956-2449 (office) or 321-223-0639 (cell)
Direct Hit Systems, Inc.
1680 W. Hibiscus Blvd., Suite A
Melbourne, FL 32901

MELBOURNE, Florida - March 31, 2009 – Criminal investigators trying to get insight into conspiracies involving gangs, terrorists, or organized crime have some new help available. THREADS™, a criminal investigative analysis software tool developed by Direct Hit Systems, Inc., has powerful new lead-generating features in its just-released version 1.3. The tool is used by investigative agencies at the federal, state, and local levels.

THREADS™ automatically reveals a suspect’s inner circle of associates and provides information about the hierarchy within an organization. In addition, the software highlights possible phone switching, throw-away phone usage, or organizational changes. It also points to a suspect who is buying multiple phones and handing them out to others to use.

THREADS™ also analyzes information extracted from captured cell phones and GPS devices. It correlates this data with other intelligence sources such as surveillance reports and phone records to give detectives focused leads early in the case.

Major John Blackledge, Investigations Division Commander at Palm Bay Police Department, calls THREADS™ an “Analyst in a Can.” Every detective in the Criminal Investigations Section has THREADS™ on his or her work computer.

Investigative leads into organizational structures, pecking orders, and deceptive communication patterns can be found early in a case, saving time and resources.

“In these tight economic times, THREADS™ is a resource that saves labor cost”, says Blackledge. “It is much more efficient than having a human try to analyze all the data in a case, Records that used to take months to review can now be processed by computer and are boiled down to usable information in minutes.”

In the past year Palm Bay Police used THREADS™ on every homicide and complex case, such as the arson investigation of the Mother’s Day Wildfires that hit the Space Coast in 2008.

THREADS™ can be configured in standalone or shared-data configurations, and cases can be copied from one THREADS™ system to another to support multi-agency investigations.

To get more information on how THREADS™ can be used to accelerate criminal investigations, contact Kelly Solid at Direct Hit Systems, Inc. at (321) 956-2449, or click here.