Cass County investigators trained on digital investigation

As technology has advanced over the years, people have developed more and more of a digital footprint. This digital footprint also extends to the criminal element. Offenders of all kinds have social media accounts, email accounts, computers which contain incriminating evidence and smartphones that tie all three together. Our county has always struggled with this type of evidence. We have to rely on the state crime lab or other agencies labs to process the data on the devices we collect. As of right now, it takes right around a year, sometimes longer, to get a computer processed through the crime lab and returned. It takes roughly six months to do a cell phone. These time estimates are being generous and are by no means the longest possible. The labs tend to give priority service to higher offenses. This can continuously push back your projected return date. Larger entities and areas have their own digital crime labs that process their own evidence. In fact, we have relied heavily on the Longview Police Department Cyber Crime Unit. The training and money required to have the equipment and the knowhow to process electronic devices is out of reach for smaller agencies, both at the municipal and the county level. Until recently that is.

Earlier this year the Cass County District Attorney’s Office has sent their investigators to two different training courses offered by the United States Secret Service for just such topics. The training center is known as the National Computer Forensics Institute and is located in Hoover Alabama. The NCFI trains hundreds of law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges across the country each year. The training is all inclusive once accepted. The NCFI pays for the transportation to the Institute and back, and all of the training at no cost to the entities. We couldn’t have done this without the help of our local Secret Service Office in Tyler. Agent Todd Hiles was instrumental to our acceptance. Once we heard about the program, we reached out to Agent Hiles to start the process. Agent Hiles nominated Investigator Sherry Morris and Investigator Cody Sartor to attend training at NCFI and was eventually accepted into the program.

In February, Investigator Sherry Morris attended the course titled OSN, Online Social Networking. This training was focused on methodologies and techniques used during investigations involving digital evidence of social media, email, basic networking, legal issues and search and seizure.

In March, Investigator Cody Sartor attended the course titled BICEP, Basic Investigation of Computer and Electronic Crimes Program. This course focused the broad topic of electronic crime investigations and encompassed both mobile/cellular devices as well as computers. In this course, the NCFI provided us with hands on training on the disassembly of devices, and numerous programs that allow us to create a forensically sound copy of the device and other tools to explore the device to find evidence such as internet search history, recently downloaded items, illicit images, and several forms of electronic communications.

The NCFI teaching model was very unique. Other training provided on this level is held in a large classroom environment and an instructor clicks though slide after slide and tells you what is possible. The NCFI limits their training to only 25 students from across the country in each class. The instructor does lead the course but each instructor has assistants in the room who help as well. The best thing about the course is after you learn about a topic; you perform that function on your own using a device that they provide. This way, not only are you instructed in how to do a function, you actually perform the function. This provides each student with invaluable experience and confidence to perform these tasks in the field.

The Cass County District Attorney’s Office intends on sending their investigators to other training at the NCFI. The other courses of study get more in depth into computer and mobile device (cell/smartphone) forensics. The NCFI also recognizes that to perform these types of investigations, investigators need specialized and, all too often, expensive equipment and software. The NCFI provides computers and software for free to their students in those classes. Those computers and software and brought back to their agencies and law enforcement communities to be used for electronic investigations. The equipment and software that the NCFI provides to agencies, free of charge, is around $45,000.00 and that does not include the training or the housing and travel expenses. When all facets are totaled, the NCFI is investing at least $60,000.00 per student who attends all of their training. The idea behind this is being a force multiplier for the Secret Service. Each student is required to sign a three year contract with the Secret Service to provide the services to local agencies through them. We also must agree that Secret Service related crimes will hold a higher priority and are to be processed as quickly as possible. The cost of the receiving the equipment and the training pales in comparison to the assets it brings to our local law enforcement agencies which are in turn extended to the citizens of the county.