A West Midland-based firm’s unique cutting edge artificial intelligence technology is bringing more child abusers and serious organised crime offenders to justice, as well as rescuing more victims - by enabling police to solve cases at a phenomenal rate.
State-of-the-art Semantics 21 (S21®) is celebrating its fifth anniversary with its bespoke AI assisting police across the globe to solve a staggering number of child exploitation cases faster than ever before.
As well as helping rescue more victims, its AI is also helping to safeguard the mental health of many investigators who would normally have to examine horrific images to catch perpetrators and stop criminal gangs.
Headquartered in Stafford - with Staffordshire Police first to see its potential and become its first client - S21 now has a global foothold with international clients, including Canadian, USA and other forces across the world, who’ve nothing but praise for its one-of-a-kind technology.
Its tech is so innovative – with unique AI specifically created purely for use in digital forensics – that it’s even been singled out as pioneering by the Queen herself – who honoured S21 with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise, in the Innovation category.
S21’s AI, which is part of its “LASERi®” suite of technology, is also securing dramatic results in police units specialising in counter terrorism, human trafficking and other serious organised crime.
While specific details of cases or forces can’t be revealed, for legal reasons, just two of the many examples of the high praise the tech has received includes: It’s helped one force solve more cases and find more victims in 12 months than the previous three years combined; and for another it reduced a case backlog of almost a year down to zero.
Despite unrivalled success, the duo heading up the firm, Dr Liam Owens and Prof Claude Chibelushi, both of Stafford, have revealed that it’s poised to further enhance its cutting edge this month.
It was while studying for a Ph.D. in digital forensics at Staffordshire University, under Claude, that Liam spent time working with investigators, where he quickly realised how a specifically designed digital forensics AI system could be a major boost to the police’s crime-fighting armoury.
The married 32-year-old, who spent years developing the tech ahead of its launch, which has also won a Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce’s Business Award for Science, Technology and Innovation, said: “We wanted to bring forces into the 21st century by bridging the semantic gap between humans and computer, hence the name Semantics 21.
“Our long term goal is for people to see us as global leader in digital forensics and AI across the world, we are pioneering the research and putting it out when tried, tested and proven ready to go.”
Father-of-three, Claude revealed the firm had seen “continual massive growth in the business” including sustaining 30% annual growth for the last three years.
The 57-year-old said:
“Our products offer leading-edge modern investigation tools designed to help investigators find reliable evidence quickly, catch perpetrators promptly and bring them to timely justice, identify and locate victims swiftly. They also minimise the mental health toll on officers examining disturbing imagery for days and months.”
S21’s bespoke AI works like a digital investigator sifting through millions of images in minutes. Visit www.semantics21.com for more.