Small Wars Journal–El Centro Senior Fellow Designs Software with Computer Science Student to Fight Terrorism and Crime Networks
Small Wars Journal–El Centro Senior Fellow co-authored a software plugin with Sam Houston State University computer science student Braell Dotson that will help law enforcement fight criminal networks. The software is a program for the well-known social network analysis (SNA) software Gephi. Gephi is a free open-source software that law enforcement analysts are trained on to better target criminal and terrorist networks.
The software is user friendly but has long lacked a suite of centralization metrics. El Centro Senior Fellow and Professor, Dr. Jones identified the gap and worked with Sam Houston State University computer science student Braell Dotson who took the lead on coding the long-needed plugin. The Plug-in provides 8 different centralization metrics and is named after the school mascot the mythical Bearkat.
Knowing whether a network is centralized can help determine whether targeting central actors would be an effective strategy or a total waste of resources. Having these metrics easily at hand, in the top open-source program used by law enforcement and government for social network analysis, thus saves time and speeds the fight against criminal and terror networks.
Source: Ariana Garcia and Will Gregory, “SHSU Student Develops Software Tool for Law Enforcement Analysts to Combat Dark Networks.” Sam Houston State University. 23 July 2026, https://www.shsu.edu/news/2026-news-stories/student-develops-tool-to-help-combat-dark-networks?utm_source=slash-criminal-justice&utm_medium=slash-criminal-justice&utm_campaign=slash-criminal-justice.
