Domestic Development of Criminal Data Processing: The Way to IT Support for the 1979 Police Murder Investigation

Abstract

The purpose of a criminal investigation is to reconstruct a past event and to obtain the relevant data and evidence. The information needed for this is most often obtained
by investigators on the spot, from witnesses, or various databases, but the help of covert operations and confidential informants are not negligible sources of data either. Above a certain amount, however, it is already a question of processing capacity, how well the data can be utilised. In the 1970s, this particular processing capacity meant practically the performance of the human brain, which could only be increased by employing more people in a case. Recognising the opportunities provided by science,
the Ministry of the Interior started to take advantage of IT opportunities quite early, but in the first period, it focused on supporting intelligence tasks.
In the summer of 1979, Lajos Soós and his accomplices brutally murdered Police Chief Staff Sergeant Károly Gyulai, who was serving at the Steinmetz statue in the suburban of the capital, to obtain his weapon. During the detection of the crime that shook and moved the whole country, such a large amount of data was generated, the processing and handling of which exceeded the previous practice.
The possibilities of technological development, the computer developments already started at the intelligence service, and the expectations placed on the detection of
crime also opened the way to support criminal analysis with IT tools, which also formed the basis for later developments and regulations.
In addition to a brief description of the domestic history of criminal records and analysis, the study presents these circumstances, applications and results in light of the investigation into the said murder.