Officials said they hoped the technology would enhance counterterrorism efforts and boost conventional crime-fighting efforts.

WSJ: New Tracking Tool for NYPD

Pattern analysis -- the heart of data mining -- is conventional crime-solving, whether the suspicious patterns are spotted on a crime pin map, on a city street, or in an electronic database.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Balancing security and privacy during wartime

For instance: conventional wisdom says that the crime rate should rise during a recession.

ECONOMIST: America's falling crime rate

The truth is Gov. Bush took the conventional conservative position that hate crime legislation was a dangerous increase of authority for prosecutors.

NPR: Bush's Black Legacy