Patrick Thomas
Federal Strategy Lead at PGLS
Last month, I had the chance to represent PGLS at Techno Security East alongside our VP of Technology, Gil Segura. When we showed up, I expected the usual: booths, badges, and maybe a few new contacts. What I didn’t expect was to leave with a crystal-clear confirmation of something we’ve been sensing for months: that forensic and law enforcement agencies are hitting a wall when it comes to multilingual data.
And no one’s really helping them fix it.
Over three days, we met with dozens of local, state, and federal law enforcement professionals. What we heard was consistent: language is becoming a bigger and bigger barrier in digital investigations. Whether it is evidence extracted from phones, audio from body cams, or interviews conducted in the field, the multilingual footprint is growing. And most agencies don’t have a plan to handle it.
That’s where our work comes in.
A Clear Gap in the Market
Despite the enormous role language plays in modern investigations, most vendors haven’t caught up. The usual suspects (I won’t name them here, but you know who they are) tend to focus on volume-based interpreting or general translation. Their government offerings are often copy-pasted from healthcare or corporate templates, not built for the complexities of forensic workflows.
What we’re doing at PGLS is different.
We’re not adapting existing products for government. We’re building new solutions, designed in partnership with the very people using them: law enforcement officers, investigators, forensic analysts. That co-design approach shows up in everything from our deployment models (on-prem, on-device, no cloud required) to the way we deliver training and support.
Examples of Forensic Linguistics in Action:
- Investigative Linguistics
Analyzing threatening text messages or social media posts in foreign languages to identify the author and prevent future harm. Every word counts in an investigation, and linguistic accuracy is at the heart of an investigation.
- Author Identification
Analyzing the writing style of a ransom note in a foreign language to identify the author and their background. Language identification is vital, but the ability to identify age, gender, and other key characteristics is a true game changer.
- Analyzing Witness Testimony
Analyzing the language used by witnesses who speak different languages to ensure accurate and fair representation of their statements. This evidence can come in a variety of formats: (Video, Audio, Digital Content, Documents, etc.)
What We Heard at Techno East
Several clear patterns emerged from our conversations:
- Cloud Fatigue
Almost everyone we spoke to said the same thing: they don’t trust the cloud. Whether it’s about data sensitivity, chain of custody, or just institutional policy, cloud-based tools often get blocked before they even get piloted. Our ability to deploy secure, localized solutions was a major differentiator. - Demo-First Decision-Making
This audience doesn’t want a pitch, they want to see the tool work. On-the-spot demos of our platform generated more interest in five minutes than a PDF ever could. The ability to surface multilingual evidence instantly hit home. - An Underserved Niche
Everyone was dealing with language issues. No one had a vendor they trusted to solve them. The most common question we heard? “Why hasn’t anyone built something for this?” - The Forensics-Language Loop
One particularly compelling insight came from a few cybercrime teams: they want to use anonymized language data to help train models for early detection, but privacy regulations make that nearly impossible. That opens the door to future R&D partnerships focused on encrypted language data training.
The PGLS Advantage: Built With, Not For
At PGLS, we don’t just support law enforcement — we partner with them. Some of our most exciting product features were shaped through feedback from officers, analysts, and forensic technologists. That’s not something you can bolt on after the fact.
Here’s how we’re different from the competition:
| Feature | PGLS | Typical Vendor |
|---|---|---|
Designed with LEO input | ✅ | ❌ |
On-premise + on-device options | ✅ | ⚠️ (Cloud-first) |
Focus on forensic workflows | ✅ | ❌ (Generic Government content) |
< 5-minute real-time demos | ✅ | ⚠️ (Delayed or off-platform) |
Cross-agency collaboration | ✅ | ❌ |
This isn’t about buzzwords. It’s about building language access tools that actually work for people in the field.
Where This Goes Next
We’re already setting up follow-up meetings from Techno East. Some leads are hot, some are exploratory, but all are tied together by a clear sense of urgency. No one wants to wait 5–10 business days for a translation when there’s a case on the line. And no one wants to guess at what a suspect said in a language they don’t speak.
That’s where we come in.
We’re helping teams:
- Reduce evidence processing time
- Improve accuracy in multilingual investigations
- Stay compliant with chain-of-custody and data security requirements
- Increase community trust through clearer communication
We’re already looking forward to next year’s Techno East in Myrtle Beach. We will be attending with deeper demos, more insights, and a strengthened commitment to solving real problems for law enforcement, not just checking a box.
Final Thought
This field is changing. Investigators aren’t just solving local crimes anymore; they’re navigating global data. And that data speaks every language.
PGLS is here to help make sense of it.
Connect with me to learn more about our tailored solutions to navigate your global data.