by Jared Barnhart, Head of Global Engagement & Community at Cellebrite
Digital evidence is now central to nearly every criminal case, with smartphones appearing in 97% of investigations. For investigators, that shifts the way cases are managed, adding vast volumes of data and higher workloads if current investigative methods don’t evolve.
While expanding digital evidence can accelerate investigations, it’s creating an overload for investigators and digital forensics teams, who are spending more than 20 hours per case reviewing digital evidence, with many of these investigators juggling 6-10 cases simultaneously on average.
High caseloads risk burning out investigators, and the impact stretches far wider, jeopardizing justice outcomes and public trust due to tired decisions and missed connections between cases. Burnout isn’t only a wellness issue, it’s an operational and justice delivery problem.
The rising volume of digital evidence is only an issue if technology infrastructure and organizational structure allow it to impact investigators. Technology and culture sit at the heart of managing growing caseloads and adapting to modern digital forensics, helping to not only improve wellbeing but also improve overall justice outcomes.
Digital overload as a hidden workforce crisis
Digital evidence once played a supporting role, but is now the backbone of investigations, becoming just as important as DNA to solving cases.
Smartphones contain vital clues within messages, social media, location data, apps and multimedia, and cases involve multiple devices per suspect, victim and witness. Locked and encrypted devices add a further level of complication, adding delays and technical strain to access critical evidence.
The rise requires investigators and forensics teams to spend more time manually collecting data from multiple devices and repeating reviews because information isn’t centralized, rather than analyzing digital evidence. A major challenge is that many investigators continue to rely on outdated methods and technology, like manual spreadsheets and USB drives, when handling evidence.
Public safety findings show that 95% believe digital evidence increases case solvability, while 94% of law enforcement practitioners say it’s straining caseloads.
The exposure to vast datasets across multiple devices and different cases can overwhelm, putting increased mental strain and workloads on investigators who are juggling multiple cases and under pressure to solve them quickly. This can ultimately lead to decision fatigue and a risk of missed evidence.
For the justice system, investigator burnout contributes to higher staff turnover, slower case turnaround times and mounting backlogs, all of which contribute to waning public trust that impacts future justice.
The overload facing investigators is systemic. More devices mean more data extraction and file handling, which slows reviews and increases cognitive overload.
Digital forensics in the modern age
As digital evidence becomes even more crucial to cases, investigative tools must reduce, not add to, workload pressure, while accelerating justice.
The starting point is modernizing old evidence collection and management processes. Replace the USB sticks with centralized evidence management in the cloud, for example. That way, data can be accessed securely across forensics and investigation teams, and each piece of critical evidence can be tracked and stored to ensure chain of custody.
AI, in particular, can streamline manual processes to save hours a day for investigators. Tasks such as data matching, deduplication and analysis can be done with AI, reducing repetitive review steps and surfacing high-value evidence faster.
With the stakes of investigations, it’s important that AI is used to augment human judgment. It must not replace it.
Investigators can ease their workloads using AI, but need to remain the ultimate decision-makers as evidence must be accountable and stand up to court scrutiny. Getting the balance right will improve the day-to-day of investigators while also enhancing investigation outcomes.
Culture as a force multiplier
For law enforcement leaders, modern age digital forensics provides new tools to manage investigator burnout while improving case closure efficiency. Leadership and culture determine whether digital growth overwhelms teams or strengthens them.
The rise in digital evidence creates larger workloads through higher data volumes but by redesigning workflows, that evidence can be harnessed for good. Investment in modern infrastructure then acts as a workforce retention strategy.
Leaders should introduce structured digital evidence pipelines from collection to management and promote shared case ownership to reduce isolated workloads across multiple cases. When caseload visibility improves and technology is utilized in the right way, leaders can redistribute work before pressure becomes burnout.
Alongside this, law enforcement leaders should prioritize wellness policies such as rotations away from high-exposure content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), mental health resources tailored to digital investigators and training to manage information overload from increased data volumes. Investigators and forensics teams are tasked with heavy workloads and exposure to distressing situations, so it’s important that leadership outlines realistic expectations to help manage wellness.
The age of infinite digital evidence isn’t slowing down. The old investigative system needs to adapt, and by balancing investment in tech infrastructure with cultural policies that prioritize investigator wellbeing, agencies will be better placed to solve modern cases faster and more effectively.
About the author
Working more than a decade as a police officer in Maryland, Jared served as the Detective Sergeant of the Digital Investigations and Forensics unit, educating his colleagues on how to understand and leverage digital forensics in all kinds of cases. First working as a trainer for Cellebrite, Jared is now the Head of Global Engagement & Community at Cellebrite.