A corpse in the woods with a bullet in their side will certainly tell law enforcement officers how the victim died. The bullet could also reveal the caliber of gun officers will be looking for, and can even be matched through a national database to a specific gun. So while a victim’s body may be a treasure trove of evidence (or not), investigators are increasingly honing in on digital artifacts left at the crime scene.
“Detectives have told me they will step over a dead body to get to the computer, the mobile phone, the Fitbit, the Alexa,” Louis Quijas, former Assistant Director of the FBI, told Forensic. “These technology-first things are real and they are not going away.”
That may be an understatement. According to Cellebrite, the digital solutions company best known for their ability to help law enforcement crack iPhone passwords, each case has two to four mobile devices that need to be examined, translating to 300+ examinations annually per agency. Given that a 32 GB phone holds 100,000 pages of binary code, the data deluge for agencies and forensic lab techs is real.
Cellebrite’s just-released 2020 Annual Digital Intelligence Industry Benchmark Report indicates the data deluge can be partially negated by empowering frontline officers with technology that allows them to gather basic digital evidence in the field, specifically at a crime scene. For example, witnesses at crime scenes are not likely to turn over their phones to law enforcement for two to three weeks, which is typically how long data extraction in the laboratory takes. These witnesses also have privacy concerns regarding the contents of their phones.
“One of the things we heard loudly and clearly was ‘Get me technology that is easy to use but does selected extraction’ to the extent that [officers] can get what they need at the scene of the crime and give the device right back to the witnesses,” explained Mark Gambill, executive vice president at Cellebrite. “Getting officers mobility technology was a big theme in the 2020 report.”
The report revealed a road map for the future of policing by highlighting the technologies that will decrease the data deluge as well as expedite time-to-evidence. The trends are:
- Lab examiners are drowning in data and device overload
- Agencies recognize the growing role of digital data but are slow to adapt
- Lack of comfort highlights need for faster extraction in the field
- Agency managers are looking at modernization initiatives to help attract a new generation of digital-savvy officers
- Storing and sharing digital evidence is a key concern of agency managers
- Budget and overtime constraints limit digital investigation efficiency
- High demand for digital data analytics for investigations
Technology, though, is a double-edged sword. Yes, it makes the job of law enforcement harder, but it can also make it easier. More than 70 percent of survey respondents said artificial intelligence (AI) will be “very important” to investigations going forward. AI-enabled solutions can sort through mountains of data to automatically find and filter specific objects in images, find keywords in messaging conversations, create relationship analysis and much more.
“Investigators are not necessarily tech-savvy,” Gambill told Forensic. “They may not understand what they need to have to leverage digital intelligence and expediate the discovery process and secure the right types of evidence that is defensible in court. One of our missions is to continually offer training and education for this purpose.”
Technology-forward
Sixty-four percent of survey respondents indicated digital intelligence will play a critical role in investigations going forward, but 43 percent said they have a poor digital strategy. Quijas, who is a senior public safety consultant at Cellebrite, believes instead of trying to change the current culture of a police department, you should try to create a new culture instead—one that views digital intelligence as a major piece of the investigative toolbox.
“We help them create this strategy, which is so important, so when they get into this and start utilizing the technology, they start seeing results immediately,” he said. “What I know from my own personal experience as a former street cop is if I don’t start seeing a benefit immediately, I go back to what feels most comfortable to me—a piece of paper and pencil. I would say no to the technology stuff if it didn’t work, but you can’t do that in today’s environment.”
Furthermore, advanced technology doesn’t discriminate, meaning the “bad guys/girls” are using it to their advantage, as well.
“You have to fight the preverbal fire with fire,” Gambill said. “We need to give our law enforcement the ability to get the technology they need to do their jobs and keep everyone in their community safe.”
Photo credit: Cellebrite