Local police in Ohio create joint computer forensics squad

As technological devices become increasingly integrated with our lives, more local police departments have begun establishing computer forensics units.

Last week in Ohio, officials from the Defiance County and Allen County sheriffs’ department along with the Lima police department announced the creation of a joint multijurisdictional technology crimes task force.

The new squad will be responsible for a range of crimes including digital identity theft, child pornography, as well as traditional crimes.

With the increasing ubiquity of smartphones and laptops, criminals now leave a trail of digital evidence and investigators must be able to properly process this evidence without corrupting the data.

“Technology really touches everything,” said Lima Police Lieutenant James Baker, the program coordinator for computer forensics. “Back in the day when you had a homicide, you never thought of technology. Now, with cell phones and Facebook and MySpace, it’s almost standard that an investigator is looking for those types of things.”

Defiance County Sheriff Dave Westrick said that his department opened a digital crimes lab in 2002 and creating a task force was a logical move likening it to “the drug units that you see around.”

“This gives you a lot more resources to work together and a lot greater propensity to come to a viable solution to crimes — a good ending to crimes — when you have other people’s knowledge or input to add to your own,” Sheriff Westrick said.

Lieutenant Baker echoed these thoughts and added that working together also helps ease the burden of purchasing equipment, which can be quite expensive.

“We all know that with budget constraints, we’ve got to cooperate. We’ve got to not duplicate services,” he said. “Having a task force makes it easier to get grants, which is one of the things we’re looking for.”

Officials hope that the new joint task force will allow the departments to share expertise, conduct training, and win state and federal grants.

In addition, the new joint task force will be able to assist other departments across the state in their investigations.

Defiance County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Mueller, who staffs the county’s computer division full time, has already worked with at least fifty law enforcement organizations as well as federal agencies across northwestern Ohio

“We can examine cell phones, computers, really any magnetic or flash media using specialized software,” Deputy Mueller said. “There’s also specialized hardware to prevent corrupting or modifying evidentiary data. That’s one of the biggest aspects.”

Joint task force members will also conduct public presentation on Internet safety, online predators, and other topics.