Software requirement specifications for a social-media threat assessment tool

Police officers are often the targets of threats, both verbal and written. Twitter and Facebook allow the communications of these threats quickly, anonymously and in high volume. Law enforcement agencies become overwhelmed trying to determine which are the most serious, since they have limited investigators. Identifying threats that have a high likelihood of violence is also very subjective. How can risk assessment of these threats be improved? As an answer to this question, a software-requirement specification document details a new software that starts the threat assessment process earlier. This software incorporates a social media and language sentiment analyzer, criminal history information and threshold, and confidence scoring to alert law enforcement of threats likely to end in violence. Twitter and Facebook posts that reach a predetermined score alert investigators of a high probability threat on which investigators can focus their efforts. During the development of the software proposal, this thesis finds that implementing this software could improve law enforcement intervention to threats communicated over social media.http://archive.org/details/softwarerequirem1094556858Lieutenant, Raleigh (North Carolina) Police DepartmentApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited