Cell phone data analysis dials in crime networks

New program mines mobile provider records for incriminating patterns

Sometimes not picking up the phone can be as incriminating as spilling the beans on a wiretapped call. After a recent string of robberies in Italy, a new forensic tool that makes it easy to explore reams of cell phone data revealed an incriminating pattern: Leading up to and after each robbery, there were flurries of calls between members of a gang suspected in a series of gun thefts, car thefts and supermarket stickups.