How the Columbus Division of Police Accelerated its Digital Investigative Efforts, Finding Long-Term Success
With the widespread use of technology, it’s hard to imagine a criminal investigation without digital evidence. In fact, a survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), shows that in nearly all criminal cases, at least one digital device is involved.
Digital intelligence is especially beneficial due to its quick and efficient results compared to traditional methods like DNA testing, fingerprint dusting and ballistics. Results can be produced in a matter of hours or days, compared to the traditional counterpart, which can take weeks or even months, according to the FBI. All that means law enforcement can bring justice to those who break the law and exonerate the innocent in a shorter timeframe.
This has been the reality for Det. James Howe, who’s part of the Columbus Division of Police (CPD) Digital Forensics Unit. In his words, “I can’t even think of a homicide case in the past three or four years that didn’t have some work done by us, whether it be phones, videos, or computers.”
The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back
As it stands today, the Digital Forensics Unit for the Columbus Division of Police consists of a total of six forensics detectives with a sergeant and lieutenant specially assigned to the unit. They work with a comprehensive suite of digital forensics solutions, including Premium-as-a-Service, Physical Analyzer, UFED, and Guardian from Cellebrite.
Despite having that comprehensive arsenal of digital forensic solutions today, the unit’s beginnings were more restrained and limited —it was essentially a one-man show featuring Det. Howe as the only main actor. “In 2013, I just started training in digital forensics, but we didn’t have a dedicated unit. I started doing work for most of the division and it started to get overwhelming.”
Obviously, this is not an optimal arrangement when the detective is increasingly inundated with cases that have digital aspects to them. It was 2018 when things came to a head.
“In 2018 we had a couple of really big cases that were digital-heavy. It was then the chief recognized that we need an official unit. So, she earmarked budget for us and that’s when it kind of took off from there.”
With approximately more than 400 cases just two years ago, the number of total cases that Det. Howe and his team see has since ballooned to 518 cases. “We’re even doing more than homicide work now, extending to property crimes, felony assault crimes, and cases like that.”
The injection of funds and build-up of CPD’s Digital Forensics unit has seen marked success. Det. Howe was quick to highlight a selection of notable high-profile cases that involved digital forensics as the crux of the case.
Pizza Delivery Gone Wrong
“We had a pizza delivery driver who got called to a vacant house. The suspects had set him up for robbery and shot him. The driver managed to drive off but crashed his car.” The driver was pronounced dead on the scene. Initially, to track down the culprits, Det. Howe and his team needed the number that made the fake order but “as with these cases, the pizza delivery place didn’t have caller ID,” Det. Howe explains. They eventually were able to transpose two numbers that they used to link to a texting application.
From there, it led them to a Gmail account that was linked to the app’s download. Police tracked down an associated social media account, IP address and the model of the phone. Gang units were sent out to the suspect’s location, obtained through Facebook, and apprehended him and his phone.
“We ran it through UFED and were able to look at the database, see what has been downloaded and deleted off the phone and it all snowballed from there.” Det. Howe says. With crucial information in hand, the CDP was able to confirm the identity of two other culprits, leading to their arrests and the closure of the case.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
For all of digital forensics’ ability to build strong cases and speedy convictions, it also has the power to exonerate the innocent.
Det. Howe points to a case involving a suspect where homicide issues were charged. “The prosecutors called us and said things weren’t making sense and could we come in to look at the records. As it turns out, the records were generated using a program that had a three-mile sector for tower orientation, which was not realistic for the Columbus area where the crime occurred.
So, Det. Howe turned to the suspect’s story. “The suspect told the original detective that he was picking up his kid from school. The suspect just so happened to be in the area where the crime scene was. When they stopped the suspect, he jumped out of the car and started running away with a gun in hand. That’s why they thought he was tied to the case.”
Upon further investigation, the digital forensics unit managed to uncover proper mapping data that showed that the suspect had hit a tower near the school—corroborating the suspect’s story and leading to the dismissal of the charges against the suspect.
It’s all in the training
For all of CDP’s successes, the one obstacle that Det. Howe and the team are constantly met with is improper training.
The first notable example being detectives in the field that were not equipped with the proper ways to handle digital devices at a crime scene.
“The biggest problem is them turning the devices off so we’re letting them know not to do that and to get them to us as fast as humanly possible. We are aware of that, and we are training them at every level from recruit to the detective bureau and service side. Hopefully, that’ll eventually come to an end,” he said.
Det. Howe also cites the importance of training as a critical part when setting up a digital forensics lab and ensuring smooth operations overall. “Training first and getting the right people—two huge components.”
He emphasizes both non-vendor and vendor training that covers both sides of the coin—the former covering how to use the acquired solutions and the latter, practical digital forensics strategies. The magic is ultimately how one applies the former to the latter.
Riding on cloud nine
Describing how to maximize digital forensics and the speed advantage it offers, Det. Howe emphasizes the digital evidence management part of the process.
“You can’t store everything on a DVD anymore and thumb drives are too costly and time-consuming. So, when we got Guardian, one of the things that I thought was great was being able to share a link and provide immediate access to whatever evidence they [prosecutors and relevant parties] needed. It cuts down on a lot of time,” he said.
Conclusion
When asked what about digital forensics excites him, he points to the different avenues with digital evidence and the amount of critical evidence one can leverage from a single phone extraction. “You can show the pattern of their lives and what they’re into”.
“It also doesn’t hurt that one can solve a crime just by sitting behind a computer and you don’t have to, you know, put a bulletproof vest on, he added.
*https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2019-11/IACP_Digital_Evidence_Task_Force.pdf
