Joe Hoy, Chief Product Officer, and co-founder of Forensic Analytics has won the TechUK Presidents Award for his contribution to society.
“Joe’s technology has been a game changer for policing. A lifetime’s work and dedication are having an undoubted impact now and for the future, to keep our society safe.”
Sheila Flavell, TechUK President
At TechUK’s Annual Dinner in London on Wednesday, 5th July 2023, Forensic Analytics CSAS software developed by Joe Hoy and the team at Forensic Analytics was celebrated alongside the very best of the UK tech sector including Chloe Smith, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This recognition of Forensic Analytics software comes at a crucial time for law enforcement. With almost all police investigations having a digital component, police forces are under pressure to keep pace with an overwhelming volume of digital media in investigations and to make effective and efficient use of digital forensics.
Joe, who started Forensic Analytics in 2013 with Martin Griffiths and Andrew Hausler, realised that a single phone generates huge amounts of data and understood the value of this data to law enforcement. A single police analyst can take weeks to manually cleanse and analyse data from a single phone number involved in a crime. So, he and his co-founders developed CSAS, a tool which can parse and analyse vast quantities of data to an evidential standard in minutes and is an essential tool for police facing a growing wave of digital evidence.
In recent years CSAS’s ability to analyse vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently has been pivotal in securing high conviction rates which have severely degraded key organised drug dealing operations in England. In under two years, one police force using CSAS closed a total of 533 County Lines drug lines, arrested over 1,000 individuals and have a 99% conviction rate against line holders and proven results in missing persons and violence against women and girls’ cases.
It has impacted how crime is tackled with proven results not only in county lines drug dealing but also missing persons cases and violence against women and girls. The solution is constantly evolving to include tools developed in conjunction with police partners and to address emerging threats.
Joe was modest in accepting the award: “Winning, in the company of such worthy fellow nominees, was a slightly surreal and humbling experience. I was there as the representative of the whole Forensic Analytics team, who put their combined efforts into creating the tools and services that we offer to our customer and it’s them, the users of our software tools, who really do the work that benefits society – we’re very proud to play a small part in helping them do societal good.”
Steve Rick, Forensic Analytics CEO, said: “We are all immensely proud of Joe Hoy justifiably being recognised by this prestigious award from Tech UK. The judging panel made up of leaders from the UK’s tech industry were impressed by the powerful societal impact our CSAS software has in providing police forces up and down the UK and internationally, with the tools and support to conduct investigations, secure convictions, make our societies safer and importantly help protect the vulnerable.”
