In the modern digital age, law enforcement investigations are no longer limited to physical surveillance or witness interviews. Instead, vast databases like Thomson Reuters CLEAR have become central tools for government agencies and private investigators alike. But what exactly is CLEAR, and why should it concern anyone facing criminal charges, or anyone worried about how their digital footprint could be used against them?
What Is CLEAR?
CLEAR—short for Consolidated Lead Evaluation and Reporting—is a powerful investigative platform developed by Thomson Reuters. It compiles public and proprietary data from thousands of sources into one searchable system. The tool was originally created for use by journalists, but over the past decade, it has become widely adopted by law enforcement agencies, immigration authorities, private investigators, and even financial institutions.
CLEAR goes far beyond what you might find in a Google search or basic background check.
The CLEAR Platform gives people with a subscription the ability to conduct:
- Person Search: Locate individuals using partial information like name, address history, or phone number.
- Phone and Address Tracking: Maps a person’s movement over time based on historical data.
- Social Media Scraping: Monitors a subject’s public online presence, including social platforms and blogs.
- Business Connections: Identifies links to corporate registrations, licenses, and partnerships.
- Criminal and Civil Court Records: Compiles data from arrest reports, legal filings, and court outcomes.
- Real-Time Jail and Booking Information: Tracks incarceration data as it happens in many jurisdictions.
- Link Analysis: Visually connects people, places, assets, and activities to reveal potential networks.
CLEAR provides users with a granular view of a person’s life, often including information not available through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests or public records alone.
Who Uses CLEAR?
- Law Enforcement: To track suspects, identify patterns, or locate persons of interest.
- ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement): To monitor undocumented individuals or locate immigrants upon their release from jail.
- Attorneys: For witness location, due diligence, or asset discovery in complex cases.
- Private Investigators and Corporate Security: For background checks, fraud detection, and internal investigations.
Since at least 2010, Thomson Reuters’ subsidiary West Publishing Corporation has been providing ICE with access to CLEAR under the Law Enforcement Investigative Database Subscription (LEIDS). This agreement gives ICE analysts access to a vast reservoir of sensitive data, including:
- Cell phone and address records
- Real-time incarceration and jail release data
- Vehicle ownership and license plate reader information
- Professional and healthcare licenses
- Credit data and consumer bureau reports
- Social media content
- Real estate and property ownership records
CLEAR is even used to set up continuous monitoring alerts, notifying ICE in real time when a person of interest is booked into or released from jail.
This data can be used to track down individuals suspected of immigration violations, even in cases where no criminal charges have been filed. As a result, many immigrants—particularly those who are undocumented or in mixed-status families—may be targeted using this software.
The Privacy and Civil Rights Implications of CLEAR
CLEAR compiles data that may be legally obtained but not easily accessible by the average person. Because it operates in the private sector, it avoids many of the restrictions that bind government-run systems.
This creates serious implications for criminal defendants and immigrant communities:
- Individuals may be targeted or located based on outdated or incorrect information.
- Defense attorneys may not be informed that CLEAR data was used in the investigation.
A good defense attorney must be able to engage with CLEAR and its role in investigations to build a robust defense. If you are accused of a crime and your movements were tracked or if ICE obtained an alert at the moment of jail release, that information could influence how the case is prosecuted or how aggressive the immigration consequences may become.
Hiring an experienced criminal defense attorney can mean the difference between evidence that is used to convict you, and evidence that is scrutinized, and challenged, during the process of defending your rights in court.
An experienced criminal defense attorney can:
- Challenge the reliability of data used from CLEAR.
- File motions to reveal how evidence was obtained.
- Raise concerns about due process, particularly if clients are flagged without judicial oversight.
- Raise any Fourth Amendment concerns about unreasonable searches.
Data aggregation tools used by law enforcement are here to stay. As CLEAR becomes more deeply embedded in modern policing and immigration enforcement, the best criminal defense attorneys stay informed about how these tools are being used—often behind the scenes—to build cases. If you or someone you know is under investigation for a serious crime, please contact our experienced, award-winning criminal defense attorneys at 617-880-6155 to find out how we can protect your rights.
