RCFL: Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory

FBI lab to open in O.C. to nab cyber criminals
Location of where it will be in central county not yet revealed.

Source: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009
By: DENISSE SALAZAR

Click the image to view a slideshow of the event on the Orange County Register's web site

SANTA ANA – Orange County law-enforcement agencies will deploy a new, $5 million FBI digital forensics lab in the central part of the county when it opens in February.

It will be the 16th such lab in the country. Its location has not been unveiled.

Representatives of the participating agencies of the FBI-sponsored Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory signed a Memorandum of Understanding Wednesday to formalize their commitment to pony up forensic examiners and other resources.

These agencies have committed to staff the crime lab with 26 full-time forensic examiners who will work on federal and state cases: the FBI, Orange County District Attorney's Office, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and the Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Westminster, Newport Beach and Fullerton police departments.

"What we learned was that by combining man power in the community, we are more effective in how we combat cyber crime," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason G. Weiss, who will oversee the facility.

"It's not that the number of cases (over the years) has increased dramatically, but the cases are getting larger," Weiss said. "One household can have six computers."

California is the state with the largest number of cyber-crime victims, with 14 percent of the nation's victims, according to the 2007 FBI's Internet Crime Report.

On display during a Wednesday press conference at the Santa Ana Police Department were examples of tools used in crimes: USB drives disguised as LEGO blocks or common erasers. Also on display was a watch used as a recording device.

Orange County forensic examiners will help law enforcement agencies extract information from digital devices using the latest technology

"We have a lot of criminal cases that involve technology," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said. "A lot of the evidence needs examination, and we do not have the most cutting-edge technology or the training for our examiners to successfully extract evidence. It makes sense financially to pool resources."

Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said the laboratory will get cases to trial quicker.

"This is a model for the world," Walters said. "That's the plan and expectation."

Eric Demopoulos, a Santa Ana corporal assigned as a forensic examiner to the lab, said he was recently able to link a suspected pedophile to a crime after recovering a deleted video.

"That was the only physical evidence," he said.

Contact the writer: 714-704-3709 or desalazar@ocregister.com

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