In the heart of the Midwest, the Omaha, Nebraska Police Department has become a leader in the field of digital investigations, thanks to the agency’s innovative use of a combination of digital forensics and an intelligence analysis squad that is producing some impressive case clearance rates.

omaha police outside walking“Digital evidence has just changed the landscape of how we investigate things,” said Captain Jeremy Christensen who oversees the criminal investigation section, which includes the lab and intelligence analysis squad. “It’s really a treasure trove because people put everything on social media. Everything’s in their phones, so it’s really been helpful for us.”  

Creating and Growing the Digital Forensics Lab

The journey into digital investigations began in the early 2010s when the Omaha Police Department recognized the need for a dedicated digital forensics lab. Initially, the department relied on a few detectives with basic computer skills to handle phone extractions. However, as the volume and complexity of cases grew, it became clear that a more sophisticated approach was necessary. By 2018, the department had established a full-fledged digital forensics lab, which has continued to evolve and expand its capabilities.

“Our goal is to expedite getting that data as fast as possible, downloaded from that phone and provided to the detective in a usable format that they can use to aid in their investigation,” said Ofc. Aaron Pennington, Senior Digital Forensics Tech and Omaha Police. 

inside omaha labOne of the key advancements in the lab’s capabilities has been the adoption of Cellebrite Inseyets and Guardian. Inseyets has played a crucial role in enhancing the lab’s efficiency. This tool streamlines the extraction and analysis process, making it easier for detectives to access and interpret digital evidence. The integration of Inseyets with other Cellebrite tools has further improved the department’s ability to handle complex cases.

“We download that phone, we can hit streamline, it immediately goes into PA. It’s already processing,” Pennington said. “We get it to Guardian and while that is uploading and being provided directly to our detectives, I’m already working on the next case or on the next phone.

Guardian has revolutionized the way the department handles digital evidence and collaborates with other stakeholders.

“When you’re trying to bridge the gap between a lab environment, an investigative environment and let’s say the judicial, you have so many policies and procedures and so many people trying to figure out how to do this, get our data from A to B,” Pennington explained. “When Guardian came in, it just solved all those issues. Guardian really has just freed us up. It’s built a bridge that we are unable to get over. It’s an inventory tracker. It’s a chain of custody tool.”

Previously, detectives faced significant delays in downloading and reviewing data from their servers. Guardian has alleviated these issues by providing instantaneous cloud access to data, allowing multiple detectives to view and tag items simultaneously.

Solving Cases with a One-Two Punch

The creation of the intelligence analysis squad came from a “what if.” What if there was a dedicated team who are case-specific analysts, working on specific incidents or series of incidents, and they’re able to process information and gather intelligence that they can feed to the detectives? The group of non-sworn professionals review things like cellular phone data, location data and social media accounts. With this the sole focus, Omaha has found they can do it faster and more in-depth, which frees up detectives for more traditional investigative roles. It has paid off in a big way.

“Our lab is phenomenal,” Christensen said. “They do a great job getting the phones unlocked and downloaded and things like that, and they also review the phones as well. But having a team of five analysts that you can allocate to one investigative problem or case really has changed our landscape. Our investigative analysis squad has really been a tangible force multiplier for us.”

Omaha has now had two straight years of 100% clearance rates for homicides.

“It’s really a holistic approach to investigations, which results in some pretty impressive clearance rates that we’re very proud of here in Omaha,” Christensen said.

A Resident Doctor out for Revenge in Two Double Murders

“I’ve been doing this job for a long time and the fact that now we have digital evidence as much as we do is vital,” said Donald Klein, the Douglas County Prosecutor who handles the largest cases in the county, including the murders of four people over a five-year time span.

A couple was found dead in 2013, five years after a little boy and a housekeeper were killed. And they were connected.

“We hadn’t solved that 2008 double homicide. But then when the second one happened, I remember going to the scene that day and the homicide detectives from OPD were there and they said ‘he’s back,” Klein recalled.

Anthony Garcia, a resident doctor at Creighton University Medical Center, who was terminated from the program for his erratic behavior, first murdered the young son of on the of the doctors who signed his termination letter along with the family’s housekeeper. Five years later, in 2013, Garcia murdered another doctor who terminated Garcia’s residency, and his wife at their Omaha home. A third doctor in the program reported an attempted break-in the same day. The connection was now clear between all the victims.

“It was really hard to believe that somebody wanted to get vengeance for that long,” Klein said. “Nobody ever identified Anthony Garcia as being the perpetrator of this. So it was all put together because of digital evidence and timelines and everything else that we can put together. I’m so grateful for the hard work that these analysts do. It’s one thing to download. Then you have to analyze the evidence and then we have to digest it, fit it into the facts of the case and then present it to the jury.”

Garcia was found guilty of all the murders and sentenced to death.

Training as a Cornerstone

Training has been a cornerstone of the Omaha Police Department’s success in digital forensics. The department places a strong emphasis on continuous learning and certification, ensuring that its detectives are well-equipped to handle the latest technological advancements. Certifications from Cellebrite and organizations like IACIS are highly valued, and the department actively supports its personnel in pursuing these credentials.

“My favorite thing about working in digital forensics is data doesn’t lie,” Pennington said. “No matter what the jury thinks about the witness, no matter if the jury doesn’t like police, when you put data up there and you and you visualize it in a manner that they can understand, in a simple way that they can understand, it’s unbiased and it is a witness that has come to be expected by juries. They expect this now.”