What we analyze
- GPS records from devices and apps
- Google and platform location history returns
- Rideshare, fitness, and mapping app data
- Social media check-ins and geotags
- Vehicle infotainment system data
- Telematics speed, braking, and event data
- Connected-vehicle and fleet location records (comparable to CDRs, but for vehicles)
- Vehicle tracking and geolocation order returns
Precise-looking data still needs context
A GPS point on a map looks definitive. In reality, platform location records may be derived from GPS, Wi-Fi, or cell sources, each reported with an accuracy radius that's easy to leave off a chart. Vehicle systems record events on their own clocks and in their own formats. Understanding how each record was generated is the foundation for any reliable reconstruction.
Vehicle telematics in crash and criminal cases
Infotainment and telematics systems can record speed, braking, location, phone connections, and other events around a collision or alleged offense. Combined with phone records, this data can show where a vehicle was, how it was being driven, and whether a connected phone was in use. In civil cases this is often the most objective account of what happened before a crash.
Questions this analysis can answer
- Where was the device or vehicle, and how confident can we be in that location?
- What route was traveled, and at what speed?
- Was the driver braking, accelerating, or using a connected phone before the collision?
- Does the location data corroborate or contradict witness accounts?
- Has the opposing analysis accounted for accuracy radius and data source?
Background in this work
Andrew McDermott used geolocation orders, precision location data, and vehicle tracking in federal task force investigations, and developed advanced training curricula on vehicle telematics and geolocation evidence for LeadsOnline and Nighthawk.