Most recent release information 24.1.0.x

This topic describes the enhancements added to version 24.1.0.x of OSS-ESPA which is the most recent OSS-ESPA release.

  • If the CDR contains RTT or handover data, then any advanced filter that is applied on the CDR data tab is now also applied to the RTT data and HO data tabs.

  • The social media importer now supports Instagram's archived stories. Archived stories displays media the Instagram user posted to their profile story that have since been archived. To view the archived stories you can filter the Communication data view's Type column to only display Archived stories and filter the Content media column to True to only display those which contain media messages.

  • For new users only, the Use data call records on the Advanced options dialog box is now selected by default. This is because T-Mobile timing advance records often classify some of their calls as data and if this was not selected then the CDR data tab would not include these useful calls. However, typically an analysis for most CDR file types is done using only voice and SMS calls and not data calls. This is because data calls may not provide accurate location information.

  • The RTT arc pop-up has been renamed the TA arc pop-up, and you can now select whether or not the time is displayed within it.

  • In addition to styling the font used in the tower reference pop-up, the font settings on the Call information font dialog box are now also applied to the TA arc pop-up.

  • The Call pop-up box now refers to events rather than calls as not all of the data are calls.

  • You can now select to include Speed in the Geo-loc pop-up.

  • You can now select to display the cell and call duration in the Handover pop-ups.

  • All the map pop-ups now display the results in date/time order from oldest to newest.

  • A new Original date/time column has been added to the CDR data tab. This means there are now two date/time columns on the tab, Start date/time and Original date/time. The Start date/time column displays the date/time using the local time of the tower and also includes any manual timezone adjustments you have applied, but if the location information for the call record could not be found in the cell tower data file and you have not applied a manual timezone adjustment then the UTC time is displayed. The Original date/time always displays the time in the imported CDR file.

  • The GAR snapshot analysis can now be run by right-clicking the map, or , and selecting Snapshot analysis. Previously the only option for running it was using .

    For further information refer to Running a GAR snapshot analysis in OSS-ESPA.

  • Analyses to run on refresh settings have been added to the Analysis tab of the Advanced options dialog box. These settings determine which call analyses are automatically run each time you click Refresh on the Input and settings view. These are the analyses that are displayed on the Call analyses tab. To optimize the performance of the ESPA analysis center it is recommended that you only select the analyses that you are planning to use.

  • The Frequent IP and Common IP call analyses now only display the top results as defined by the number you set in your Items to calculate setting on the Advanced options dialog's Analysis tab.

  • The Frequent numbers and Common numbers call analyses have three new settings that allow you to define what associate information is displayed in the analysis:

    • Do not show associate names allows you to hide the associate names which provides privacy to the associate if you need to share the analysis details with others.

    • Exclude phones (number of digits less than) allows you to exclude shorter numbers that are likely not to be of interest to you such as SMS or voice call from the operator, and ATM bank transactions.

    • Exclude phones (whitelist categories) allows you to exclude phones from selected white list categories so that the phones listed are focused on those which may be of most interested to you.

  • The Frequent numbers and Common numbers call analyses now have an ICW (in contact with) column. This allows you to quickly determine if an associate of your target is also an associate of other targets in your OSS-ESPA account. If they are then this column contains a colon-separated list of the other target names or phone numbers.

  • The HO data tab has a new APN (Access Point Name) column, which details how the phone connected to the internet. The column does not show by default so you must first select it to display. This column is useful if you want to filter the records' data sessions according to the APN.

  • The map's sector menu has been updated to include Deselect all arcs from this sector. This allows you to clear the arcs from the map and updates their check-box selection on the RTT data tab.

  • For T-mobile timing advance files, the CDR data tab now displays Signaling in the Call type column. Previously Voice or Data was displayed which came directly from the T-mobile file's Service type column, however as these calls are neither voice or data then using signaling is preferred.

  • You can now select which RTT arcs intersect with a target location by right-clicking the map's target location and choosing Select all arc intersect with target location. If your target location also has a buffer, you can also choose Select all arc intersect with target location and buffer.

  • The Edit Smart Track notifications screen now includes select all options so that you can quickly add all agents or contacts to the Smart Track notifications.

  • A Code setting has been added to the Vehicles tab of the Personal information window. This code is applicable to Ford manufactured vehicles that have a code that allows the vehicle to be tracked. This means that if the Ford code triggers a Smart Track alert you will receive a notification.

  • An Address column is now included on the Real time smart track location screen for geo-fence and reverse geo-fence alerts.

  • You can now only set a maximum of ten people to receive Smart Track notifications unless you are an administrator. If you require to send more then contact your administrator.

  • If available, the person aliases are now displayed below the person's name on the Personal information window as shown below.

  • The Personal information window now displays the following alert icons after the target name when applicable:

    • alerts you to the fact that a target phone number in the case also appears in other cases. Click the icon to open a window which lists the people in the case that also appear in other cases.

    • alerts you to the fact that a target phone number in the case was at a global location event. Click the icon to open a window which lists the people in the case that were at a global location event.

  • You can now quickly determine if an associate of your target is also an associate of other targets in your OSS-ESPA account.

    If any associates in your case are also associates of targets in other cases then the People and devices screen now displays the names of the other targets. To display this information click on the associate phone number; any target names the associate has been in contact with are displayed immediately below, prefixed with ICW (in contact with), this information is also displayed along with the other case names in X-Cases alert: history information.

  • If you add a target phone number or a file to a case, and it already exists in another case then a notification is now displayed, and an email is also sent. Both the notification and email provide the names and links to the other cases.

  • Some operators, such as T-Mobile, supply multiple geo-fence files for the same location each covering only a short period of time, such as 15 minutes. Previously OSS-ESPA created separate events for each file. Now OSS-ESPA creates only one event if the time frame is 4 hours or less. For example, if you have four geo-fence files for the same location covering time frames of 10:00-10:15, 10:15-10:30, 10:30-11:00 and 11:00-11:30, the overall time period is 1.5 hours and only one event is created.

  • If a file does not contain a phone number but does contain an IMSI, then the IMSI number is used in OSS-ESPA for the person name and their phone number. Previously a generic 999x identifier was created. This also has the benefit that if you are uploading multiple files where there is no phone number but there is an IMSI, then only one person is now created and all the files are automatically associated with that person, whereas previously multiple 999x people were created.

    The following example shows how the person name, phone number and IMSI all match.

    For further information refer to To assign a name and phone number if the IMSI displays for both.

  • The Phone search discoverable (X-Case data synchronization) setting has been renamed to highlight all the useful features this setting now enables. It is now named Enable deconfliction (X-Case data search). You can set this setting on a per case basis and you can also set your default preference when creating a new case using the User settings screen.

    When selected this allows:

    • the person data in the case to be used when the person appears as an associate in other cases. In these other cases, the person data can be both viewed and edited.

    • your case data to be displayed for all account users if they do an identifier search on the Advanced view cases screen screen and the identifier matches one in your case. Identifiers can be phone numbers, names, license plates, and social media accounts.

    • your case data to be searched during a Batch X-Case deconfliction, and if there is a matching identifier then that information is shared with the account user who performed the search. For further information refer to Performing a batch X-Case deconfliction search.

    • your case data to be searched during a Deconfliction search which allows the searching of identifiers between agencies who have an Info-sharing agreement in place. For further information refer to Performing a deconfliction search.

    • other account users to use your case data in an X-Case.

    NOTE: All the search results are from the case files therefore no results are returned if the identifier appears in another case without a corresponding file.

  • The new Batch X-Case deconfliction screen allows you to perform an X-Case search on multiple identifiers at once. To do this you must upload a file containing all the identifiers you want to search on. Identifiers can be phone numbers, names, license plates, and social media accounts. Once imported, a search is run on your OSS-ESPA account and the results, which details all the cases your identifiers were located in, along with useful details such as the name, email and phone number of the person who created the case, are made available on the screen for you to download. The search is also performed on the Global identifier's white list.

    For further information refer to Performing a batch X-Case deconfliction search.

  • The new Deconfliction search screen allows you to perform a search on other agencies' data that your administrator has configured agreements with.

    Searches can be performed on: license plates, names, phone numbers and social media data. The search results are returned by email, typically within five minutes. An email is received from each agency along with a final summary email that combines all the agency results. Where a match is found, the case owner's email is included so that you can contact them if required.

    Before searches can be performed, administrators must set up agreements with other agencies using the new Info sharing agreement screen, which is opened from the main menu by clicking Settings, Admin settings then Agreements in the Info sharing group.

    For further information refer to Performing a deconfliction search and How to set up an info sharing agreement.

  • Now when you import a locations file that also contains event times it automatically creates an event timeline.

  • The templates menu items have been moved from the main menu's Other links menu item to the new Templates menu item.

  • A new Advanced drop down option has been added to the Add key screen.

    This allows you to create a type of key where the user can then select an item from a drop-down menu and this then automatically populates other keys in the template. For example, you may wish to create an advanced drop down for an assistant attorney such that when the user selects the assistant attorney's name then their additional details such as their telephone number, email, and address are automatically completed. For example:

    For further information refer to How to create a pick list.

  • An edit feature has been added to the Case template management screen that allows you to edit the template's keys.

    For further information refer to How to edit a case template.

  • You can now include people in your IQ packet reports who you have added to your case but that do not have CDRs uploaded.

  • A Location with common-location time IQ packet is now available. This analysis was introduced on the ESPA analysis center at the last release. This IQ packet is designed to help you identify phone users who were close to a target location during similar times. The analysis is performed using the same method used in the common-location time analysis to determine if the target phones were using sectors within a specified distance of each other within a specified time interval; it then additionally analyzes whether or not the sector is located within the target location's buffer.

    For further information refer to Location with Common Location-Time.

  • A new Target Development (Through Geofence/Tower Dump) IQ packet has been added which uses geofence and tower dump data to help you:

    • identify the most common devices around the target locations.
    • identify all the devices that were at each location during a specific period of time.

    The IQ packet allows you to include either the default target development analysis or any of the analyses that you generated using Save to case analysis on your filtered selection on the Target development preview tab of the Manage files screen.

    For further information refer to Target Development (Through Geofence/Tower dump).

  • The Live target summary IQ packet now allows you to select whether or not to include the: synopsis, transcript, translation, notes, tags and warrant dates in the report.

  • The Common numbers and Frequent numbers IQ packets have two new settings that allow you to define what associate information is included:

    • Do not show associate names allows you to hide the associate names which provides privacy to the associate if you need to share the analysis details with others.

    • Exclude phones (number of digits less than) allows you to exclude shorter numbers that are likely not to be of interest to you such as SMS or voice call from the operator, and ATM bank transactions.

    The Frequent numbers IQ packet also has a new Show ICW info on excel output setting. If you select this then:

    • ICW Count and ICW columns are included on the Frequent numbers tab of the Excel output, displaying the number of other targets the frequent number was in contact with and the target names respectively.

    • an ICW Detail Info column is included on the Associate_Info tab of the Excel output, which details the case names and the target names.

  • The Global identifiers screen has had a few updates:

    • A new Clear filters button now allows you to remove all the applied filters at once.

    • When filtering on the number of cases you can now filter on a range or on a specific number.

    • When the screen opens, for speed performance, the results displayed are only for targets. If you also want to display the results for the associates then you must remove the Identifier type filter.

  • The Personal information window now displays after the target name when applicable. alerts you to the fact that a target phone number in the case was at a global location event. Click the icon to open a window which lists the people in the case that were at a global location event.

  • A new Use Reverse Phone Lookup datasource setting has been added to CLEAR's Public records settings screen. Select if you also want to use CLEAR's Real-Time Reverse Phone Gateway data source in your search. This data source is an external live gateway that contains data related wireless phones as well as landline phones for individuals and businesses. Most major phone carriers including those for wireless service are included.

  • The data from tower dump files and geofence files is now combined into one analysis called the Target development analysis. Previously there were two separate analyses: Tower dump and Geofence. The purpose of uploading both types of file is to look for common devices in multiple locations so it is useful to have the analysis combined. The main difference between the files is that the geofence files additionally provide RTT data.

    To support this change the Manage files screen has been updated:

    • when you upload your tower dump and geofence files you must now select Target development, rather than Tower dump or Geofence.

    • there are now Target development management and Target development preview tabs, rather than individual tower dump and geofence tabs.

    • the new Target development preview tab provides the filtering feature that was only previously available for geofence files, including the following enhancements:

      • a summary at the top of the tab details the number of files, locations events and devices for the tower dump files and the geofence files.

      • a new Data type filter allows you to show only tower dump or geofence files.

      • the tab now displays the data based on both your filter and the total available data.

    • geofence and tower dump files can also be uploaded to an existing location on the Target development files tab of the Locations of interest screen.

    The ESPA analysis center has also been updated:

    • on the Case analysis tab the default analysis is now named Target development analysis default.

    • the Geo Fence tab, which displays the analysis, is now named Target development.

    For further information refer to Creating and analyzing geofence and tower dump cases.

  • For geofence files, the device identifier now displays the phone number if it is available rather than the IMSI. Currently ATT, Verizon and US Cellular provide the phone number but T-Mobile and Google only provide the IMSI. This device identifier is displayed on both the Target development preview tab on the Manage files screen, and the ESPA analysis center.

  • A new Event timeline setting has been added to the Manage files screen when the Data type is "Target development". This setting allows you to create only one event. This setting is particularly useful for Verizon geofence files. Verizon geofence files do not contain the location within the file, but instead detail the longitude and latitude as part of the file name. It is recommended that with Verizon geofence files that you first create the location then import the geofence files to the location using this new Event timeline setting when you want the files to be associated with the one event timeline.

    The following example shows two files that were uploaded with and without this setting selected.

  • The main menu has been reorganized and menu items have been moved from Other links to the new Search and Templates menus.

  • Download files has been added to the View global cell tower data screen so that you can now download all the files at once to a zip file.

  • Approve, Deny and Delete buttons have been added to the External domains screen which is used to manage which domains can access the External Locations screen and the OSS-SRN Express Portal. These new buttons allow you to either approve, deny or delete multiple domains at a time. The action is performed on the domains which have their check-box selected in the table below.

  • Administrators are now informed by email if a search is performed for an identifier that exists in a case which has Enable deconfliction (X-Case data search) unselected.

  • A new Draft report only setting has been added to the Admin IQ Packet settings screen for administrators. Select if you only want users to have draft reports available to download. You may want this selected if your department has a policy that map images of CDRs must be peer reviewed unless they are labeled with a “draft” disclaimer.

  • You can now open the User preferences screen by clicking your name at the top-right of the screen, then selecting User preference. The user preferences screen allows you to configure how you want various items on your OSS analysis center and Sentinel screen to be displayed.

    For further information refer to Configuring your user preferences.

  • Enable G-Scout access and Disable G-Scout access buttons have been added to both the External domains screen and Registered viewers screen. These allow you to manage which non-OSS-ESPA users have access to your missions on the G-Scout App.

  • The interactive html report, generated from the Evidence Management and Reporting screen, has had a number of enhancements:

    • The Call Statistics section of pertinent monitoring evidence data now includes new categories as shown.

    • The Report Information section's Case tab now includes the Sentinel user time zone. This time zone is set on the Sentinel user preferences screen.

    • The Report Information section's phone number tabs now includes additional person and associate details.

  • The Evidence Management and Reporting screen and the Live target summary IQ packet now allow you to select whether or not to include the: synopsis, transcript, translation, notes, tags and warrant dates in the report. The Evidence Management and Reporting screen also now allows you to select which target numbers to include in the report.

  • To prevent monitoring issues you are now unable to save changes to a monitoring queue when there is currently a communication on the queue being monitored. You must wait till the communication has ended.

  • The Live monitoring screen's Work list now only displays the last three days of communications, and a maximum of 1000 communications. For example, if there were only 100 communications in the last three days then only 100 would show, however if there were 1200 communications in the last three days then only the most recent 1000 communications show.

  • New settings on the Live monitoring screen's Work list now provide you with more control on when you prefer your worklist to be refreshed. Now when you select Auto refresh you can choose the time period used between each refresh (30 seconds to 180 seconds) or you can select to only refresh when there is new data, that is any received PRTT/T3 data, or any updates made by another monitor to a communication's classification, notes, tags, summary, transcription, or translation, or the completion of an automated translation. If you have a time period of 30 seconds or more selected a flag is displayed which appears in red to notify you if new data has arrived; you can then choose to manually refresh the screen by clicking . You can also select to Pause refresh while post monitoring which prevents the background flickering caused by a refresh while you are updating a communication's classification, notes, tags, summary, transcription, or translation.

  • The Live monitoring screen's Observers tab now lists any observers that have listened into the call by clicking the at the top-right of the subject icon.

  • Associated exceptions are now also applied to SMS and MMS communications. Associated exceptions allow you to add and define how certain associate phones numbers are handled by Live monitoring. Previously this feature was only applicable to voice.

  • The GF Wiretap player has been updated.

    • A button now displays when there are multiple calls with the target. Multiple calls can happen in these situations:

      • when the operator is supplying two legs for the same call. It may be the case that one leg is better quality than the other so you can switch between them to listen to the one with better quality.

      • when another associate calls the target and the target attempts to do a 3-way call.

      • when there is a call on hold while the target speaks to another associate.

    • The Minimize button is now more prominent.

    • A new button groups together the actions for terminating monitoring, sending a call back to the queue, switching to another queue and transferring the call.

    • You can now terminate monitoring and transfer the call to another monitor. To display the option under the button, the new Show Terminate Monitoring button setting has been added to both the Monitor management settings screen so that you can set whether or not the button displays for all queues by default, and the Create new monitoring queue and Editing queue screen screens so that you can also set this button to display on a per queue basis.

      For further information refer to How to log in and monitor communications and How to show and hide the GF Wiretap player's Terminate monitoring button .

  • Select the new Designated minimization on the Monitor management settings screen, if you want to specify a time range when you typically do not monitor calls, perhaps over night, and would prefer that the calls were automatically minimized. The benefit of doing this is that it informs the judge and the court, that during a certain period, calls are not monitored so they do not then query the reason for unattended calls. Once selected you must enter a start and end time. Note, if there is a monitor logged into the queue during this time then the call is still currently automatically minimized.

  • With the AI option, you can now select which method you want to use to generate the automated transcription.

    To support this, new Transcript settings are now available on the Create new monitoring queue and Editing queue screen screens.

    • None (Disabled): no calls on the monitoring queue can be auto transcribed. This is the default setting.

    • Per user request: this provides an auto transcript button on the Transcript dialog box which allows the monitor to decide which calls are auto transcribed. This is the most commonly used setting. Note, if the monitor enters a transcription manually then it is no longer possible to request an auto transcription and the auto transcript button does not display.

    • Pertinent only: when the call category is set to pertinent then a transcription is automatically created.

    • All: transcriptions of all calls, including unattended calls, are automatically created. This setting is not commonly used due to the large number of calls, most of which do not contain pertinent information.

    An example of an automated transcription is shown below.

  • New controls have been added to the Transcript, Notes, Synopsis and Transcription dialog boxes making it possible to select, copy, delete, and paste text. This can be useful for example, if you want to select and copy all the transcription text and paste it into another tool such as Microsoft Word.

  • You can now add a translation of the communication using the new icon to open the Translation dialog box.

  • Improvements have been made to the presentation of the time, along with the UTC time offset being displayed when applicable. The time zone is displayed only when you have Show my time zone selected on the Sentinel user preferences screen. The time is then displayed as your local time, which is calculated based on the time zone adjustment you have selected. If you are in a different time zone to that in which the event occurred then this time is useful in allowing you to know how current the data is based on your time zone.

  • The Chat timeline view and the Worklist's Content preview column now displays and respectively, for communications that are either Not monitored, Uncategorized, and when you do not have permission to view Privileged or Blocked communications. Note, users with monitor permissions of Administrator do have permission to view the Privileged and Blocked communications.

  • You are now prevented from creating an intercept if there is already an existing intercept for the LIID or if there is one that has expired in the last 10 days. If you try to create a duplicate then the following message is displayed, informing you of the case creator and the case details.

  • The Edit archiving location screen now displays a table of the cases that are currently using the archiving location. You can click the case name to open the case's Manage case screen.

  • You can now export the PRTT and GPS intercept monitoring data using the new Sentinel i-cases export data screen, or if you want to regularly export the data you may want to configure a recurrent IQ packet report containing the new Sentinel CSV export IQ packet.

    The new Sentinel i-cases export data screen can be opened from both the Manage case screen and the Sentinel i-cases screen using the new Export data and respectively.

    For further information refer to Exporting intercept monitoring data.

  • When OSS-ESPA receives the first PRTT data from the operator it now also sends an email to the administrator in addition to the case creator and case assignees. The email is titled "First Data <person name> - First Data ALERT".