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Crime-fighting in the electronic age
FBI setting up lab to track digital data
Office will help agencies statewide
Source: WIBW web site
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By Jessie Halladay jhalladay@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal James Harris, an FBI special agent and laboratory director in Louisville, introduced state police detective Mike Viergutz yesterday. They discussed portable computers that can gather information from computers in the field. (By Michael Hayman, The Courier-Journal) |
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Crime scenes aren't just about fingerprints and blood samples anymore.
Increasingly, criminals are leaving behind digital traces of their activities -- on computers, cell phones, BlackBerries and other electronic devices.
This week, the FBI announced it's setting up a Regional Computer Forensics Lab in Louisville that will examine digital evidence from law enforcement agencies across Kentucky. "Today almost all crimes … have digital evidence," said Tracy Reinhold, special agent in charge of the Louisville FBI office. The lab "will bring cutting-edge technology to crime problems."
The lab, one of 14 nationwide managed by the FBI, will be staffed by one officer each from Louisville Metro Police, the Kentucky State Police, Kentucky Bureau of Investigation and Lexington Police, in addition to two FBI agents.
Run in partnership with the University of Louisville and housed on the university's Shelby Campus, the lab also will offer training to officers across the state -- teaching them what to look for and how to keep crime data intact.
The initial $2.96 million for the facility came from a federal grant, which paid for the renovation of the facility and equipment. Each officer in the lab will be paid by his or her own agency, said David Beyer, an FBI spokesman.
Officials hope future costs will be included in the FBI's budget, as has happened with other labs around the country.
Lt. Col. Terri Winstead-Wilfong, an assistant chief with Louisville Metro Police, said stationing an officer in the lab gives the department access to state-of-the-art technology and training that the department would not be able to afford on its own.
Metro Detective Kevin Lamkin already has received "phenomenal" training to work in the lab, Winstead-Wilfong said. "We're committed to keeping him here." Metro police plan to continue to have one other officer work on digital analysis at the department.
Just as the Kentucky State Police forensic lab does when it accepts blood and DNA evidence from other departments, the new lab will analyze materials and provide a report to police, and then have experts testify about the analysis at trial.
The lab will be available to all Kentucky law-enforcement agencies. Cases will be prioritized based on the seriousness and urgency of the crime.
"It's the old smoking gun, the fiber, the fingerprint of yesterday," Kerry Haynes, executive assistant director of the FBI's science and technology branch, said of the new evidence.
Reporter Jessie Halladay can be reached at (502) 582-4081.
[Original Article on the Courier-Journal web site ]