Digital Forensics: A Foundational Piece Driving the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department's Investigations

Logo of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department – Source: Wikipedia

The state of Indiana passed a new law in June 2021* that significantly boosted the state’s ability to process digital evidence. Ten new high-tech crime units were added across the state since then.

At the core of it, the new law is a testament to the increasing importance of digital intelligence, and the role it plays in solving modern crimes and bringing perpetrators to justice.

A fact that has also long been embraced by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD), which is a big proponent of digital forensics and the value it brings to the investigation process from crimes against children to felony cases.

Police pull over vehicle – Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Investigation – Source: Cellebrite

Humble Beginnings

An early adopter of this branch of forensic science, IMPD has had a decade’s experience but their start in the field was more modest. As IMPD’s Lieutenant Bruce Smith puts it, “When they got started around 2013, we didn’t have a digital forensics lab, it really was just internet crimes against children division. Detectives would simply drop the phones [of an active case] off and, we had limited procedures on how to deal with that.”

10 years on, digital evidence stands center stage for the IMPD. “Digital evidence is really a foundational piece for almost all of our investigations now, especially our major felonies,” Lt. Smith remarked. That importance is also reflected in how the digital forensics team grew.

“Now, there’s a whole designated unit and, they are getting more and more advanced,” he added. IMPD’s digital forensics arsenal now includes Cellebrite Premium Enterprise with multiple end-points, UFED, Physical Analyzer, Commander and Responder.

Police badge – Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department – Source: Cellebrite

According to Lt. Smith and cohort Sergeant Nathan Schmidt, the department is also collaborating with Indiana University on an undergrad program for digital forensics.

The goal of the collaboration is to create a civilian pipeline to the digital forensics incident response field that will further boost the department and the state’s digital forensics capacity and capabilities—further highlighting the importance of the field and digital intelligence.

The Foundation Piece

Speaking to the power of digital forensics and its crucial role in modern-day investigations, Lt. Smith highlights the Jared Fogle case that saw the former spokesman arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography and child sex tourism.

On July 15^th, 2015, Indiana State Police and FBI raided Fogle’s Indiana residence which ended with the seizure of smartphones, computers, and digital storage devices. The combination of incriminating text messages and shared media content gleaned from these devices helped led to Fogle’s 27-year prison sentence.

Painting a picture

Sgt. Schmidt was quick to point out digital evidence’s ability to tell a complete story—especially when compared to long-standing methods such as DNA.

Case in point, the mass shooting at the Indianapolis FedEx facility—one of the deadliest in the city’s history with nine victims including the shooter himself.

“It was a chaotic scene very early on, and we had to gain some control to figure out who was the suspect. We had video evidence that helped and social media accounts that led to the seizure of digital devices belonging to the shooter,” Lt. Smith shared.

From there, IMPD was able to extract evidence from those devices that revealed some of the background and story behind the shooter and his motives.

“We got to see a little bit more into who this person was and certainly got to dispel some early myths about motivation because of the digital forensics footprint he had left,” Lt. Smith mentioned. It helped investigators paint a clear picture of the shooter’s state of mind and intentions. “It [the digital evidence] proved valuable even though there was no prosecution.” He added.

Lt. Smith and Sgt. Schmidt also cited other ways digital forensics and Cellebrite’s solution have helped the department.

Police motorcycle patrol – Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department – Source: Cellebrite

Force multiplier

As staffing issues hit agencies across the country, technology, and digital forensics has acted as force multipliers for the department—reducing the demand for personnel at all phases of an investigation.

Freeing up courts

As Sgt. Schmidt puts it, “a huge advantage of evidence you can get from digital forensics is that it can free up cluttered court calendars. Some of the evidence is so strong that it goes straight to plea deals that are 40, 50, or even 60 years. So, those predators and community threats are gone, and the strength of digital evidence is what allows for that.”

On how agencies can maximize their digital forensics, Lt. Smith and Sgt. Schmidt share a few pointers from their experience.

Resource sharing

“We are seeing a lot of smaller agencies that are trying to build up their lab that might only have UFED or Physical Analyzer and they need something a bit better like Premium,” Sgt. Schmidt said, which is where cross-collaboration and resource sharing can become a critical component, helping smaller bodies get the same edge in their investigations.

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The spirit of collaboration

As digital evidence grew in prominence, caseloads for labs grew in parallel which is where collaboration on work also comes into play. “There’s enough work to go around, so I’m not taking work from any other agency and vice versa,” Sgt. Schmidt shared.

Collaboration can also extend beyond work, “Even if it’s just knowledge sharing like hey, do you have this product? What do you think of that product? You get insights and feedback on these kinds of things which is helpful.” – Sgt. Schmidt

Education, education, education

As a digital forensics examiner, Sgt. Schmidt stresses the importance of continuous education for all personnel that’s part of the investigative process. A prime example is, “There will be detectives who don’t submit stuff for digital evidence, and they don’t know they’re missing out on the boat because they’re not taught, which is unfortunate,” he shared.

Technology is constantly evolving and growing, so ongoing education is important—not only for the examiner—to ensure that associated devices are processed accordingly and that digital evidence has the desired impact on relevant investigations.

As a closing remark, Sgt. Schmidt emphasizes the need for continuous improvement in digital forensics as crimes continue to evolve. “We have this great lab, we have great tools, we have fantastic people, extremely smart people like Bruce alluded to.

And the question that I deal with every day is how do we scale that up? How do we make this better? How do we meet the demand? How do we step into that role as an investigative support unit that supports everybody.”