Police in Canada have revealed they have conducted an investigation using the blockchain surveillance software Chainalysis Reactor to combat crypto crime.

Police discussed the situation with Sergeant Kevin Talbot of the Lethbridge Police Service’s Economic Crimes Unit (LPS). Talbot has been trained in blockchain analysis, which is considered a significant advance for a smaller power like LPS.

The report notes technology has allowed LPS to track transactions, identify suspects and determine where funds have been deposited, although prosecuting fraudsters remains a challenge.

Talbot says it allows the police force to write production orders to gather information about account holders.

“We will get to a point where we have transaction data but we can’t track it because it requires special programming to do these things and training. In Canada, we are making progress,” said Talbot, quoted from Bitcoin.com, Monday (21 /8/2023).

Talbot added, will use the Chain Reactor program to perform traces to the exchange. The information is then shared with investigators who will then write a production order to get information about the account holder, whether there are funds in the account and where the funds have been transferred.

“When we conducted this investigation, we focused on two things. We want to prosecute someone but often even though the individuals involved are out of the country which makes it a little more difficult to prosecute, there isn’t always an opportunity where they are local or at least in North America.”