The only lead FDLE special agent Russo had in the roofing scam was a bogus address and other basic information on a woman named Vickie Tom, 25, who had been cashing checks in connection with the scam.

FDLE analyst Lattig typed the address into the FACTS screen and came up with another address. MATRIX linked that address to several names and connected those names to more addresses.

Within a day, Lattig had information pointing to people in Florida's Hillsboro County, Polk County and Tampa. She also uncovered information indicating the wandering group had operated in Texas, California and Michigan.

Russo staked out one of the Tampa addresses the MATRIX search had uncovered and saw Nelson and his partner leave the house and load a ladder onto a truck. When the two men drove off, Russo followed.

He tracked Nelson to the elderly woman's home, where he said Nelson talked his way onto the woman's roof, then tried to scam her into paying for the sealant she hadn't asked for.

Russo said he learned after the arrest that the elderly victim was a cancer patient who had just returned from a chemotherapy session. Nelson and three other suspects, including Tom, were charged in connection with several scams.

"Without FACTS, the investigation would have dragged on for months," he said.

Threat to privacy?

Civil libertarians say the same efficiency that makes MATRIX so effective in catching suspects like Nelson also could be used improperly.

"MATRIX can be used cut off from any particular suspicion," said Dempsey with the Center for Democracy and Technology.

He said MATRIX recalls the defunct Total Information Awareness network at the Pentagon. Congress cut off funding for the program after it was harshly criticized as a potential threat to privacy rights.

Indeed some states declined to participate in the MATRIX pilot program based on similar concerns.

But the system's creator says those objections are baseless.

"MATRIX has been characterized as 'big brother,' " Seisint vice president Shrewsbury said. "This stuff we have is nothing more than what law enforcement has had access to for decades."