An electronic trail for every crime

Published 19 April 2011

Police across the country are increasingly turning to electronic devices like cell phones and computer files to identify, prosecute, or exonerate criminals; the ubiquity of this technology has often provided investigators with an electronic trail that gives prosecutors concrete analytical evidence for nearly every crime; officials in Dubuque County, Iowa have established a digital forensic lab to analyze data on computers, cell phones, and video recorders to discover any encrypted files or other valuable information; in February law enforcement officials in Dubuque used text messages and surveillance camera footage to convict Teodoro Borrego of first degree murder

Police across the country are increasingly turning to electronic devices like cell phones and computer files to identify, prosecute, or exonerate criminals.

The ubiquity of this technology has often provided investigators with an electronic trail that gives prosecutors concrete analytical evidence for nearly every crime.

Corporal Dwaine Prine, of the Dubuque County, Iowa police department, says, “With advancement of technology, electronic devices leave a clear footprint that we’re able to follow.”

Prine, who works in Dubuque’s digital evidence forensic laboratory, explains the evidence left by these devices “are a lot more reliable than, say, an eyewitness account because they are subjective. It is what it is.”

According to Prine the digital forensic lab was first established in 2006 as part of the department’s high-tech crime initiative and it has steadily grown to keep pace with the rapid advancements in technology.

Prine uses sophisticated software tools to analyze data on computers, cell phones, and video recorders to discover any encrypted files or other valuable information.

Our task is to prioritize those investigations,” he said. “It’s just not economically feasible with the advancement of technology to analyze every piece of evidence that comes in, so we have to balance our investigations and take into account the level of offense, the probability of it going through the judicial system and the amount of work involved.”

In particular Prine uses software like Encase to find encrypted files and software developed by Susteen and Paraben to unearth evidence on cell phones.

For our department, we’ve used this advancement in technology not only to prosecute on the city, state and federal level, but also to exonerate individuals,” he said.

Prine avoided discussing any specifics so as not to alert criminals on how to avoid the efforts of local police.

Officials in Dubuque have also turned to Facebook and other social media sites to aid in investigations as information gathering tools.

Ralph Potter, an attorney with Dubuque County, said that electronic evidence is admissible in court as long as it has been proven reliable.

There are a lot of things we are using now that we weren’t using twenty years ago,” Potter said.

In February law enforcement officials in Dubuque used text messages and surveillance camera footage to convict Teodoro Borrego of first degree murder.

During the trial, prosecutors showed that Borrego had used the victim’s cell phone to send text messages and video surveillance cameras later helped track him down.