With continued advancements in technology and more phones on the planet than people, it will be no surprise to hear that 90% of all of our investigations involve some form of online digital footprint.  

As a team of specialist digital practitioners made up of police officers and police staff, they play a vital role in supporting investigation teams across the force. Whether that be phones, computers, tablets, satnavs, games consoles, you name it, our expert team of digital forensics experts have probably examined in.

Detective Sergeant Steve Dennison from the team said: “I guess you could say we are very similar to Crime Scene Investigators, in the same way they would look to establish what has happened at a crime scene, whether that be DNA, footprints, tyre marks, weapons we intricately examine digital devices in the same way.

“It is absolutely crucial that we preserve the devices like a crime scene to ensure they are kept in their original format so we can look to gather digital materials related to the investigation the officer is conducting.

“Whilst we do look to examine devices, it is really important we do our due diligence and thoroughly understand the officer’s investigation and why we need to access somebody’s personal devices. By doing this, we haven’t accessed someone’s personal data or information outside the scope of the officers’ investigation.

“Some examinations are a lot quicker than others as it completely depends on the nature of offence and the type of device being examined. I would say it is a bit of a myth that when devices are brought to digital forensics people may assume we are able to gain access straight away. It actually takes a lot of skill and training to crack the data security systems installed by the manufacturers.

“Each investigation is completely different, one day you may be assigned to an investigation by an officer looking into a drug dealer and be responsible for gaining access to and analysing mobile phones, the next you may be assisting our police online investigation team and have over 20 devices to analyse including hard drives, USB sticks, laptops and phones, all containing indecent images of children.

“Whilst we do support officers across all areas of policing including our major crime team, serious collisions unit and complex fraud cases, a large amount of work does involve supporting our online investigation team, meaning on a daily basis we are exposed to the most heinous and disturbing indecent images which we then categorise as a part of the officers’ case.

“It is definitely the most difficult part of our job as we not only have to grade the images, we also have to understand where exactly the images have come from to identify the victim.

“It definitely has its challenges, particularly as artificial intelligence increases alongside associated imagery and deep fakes. However, we work alongside other police forces analysing these through the national child abuse image database to support the identification and safeguarding of victims.

“As a team we always look at the bigger picture and knowing that we are able to assist in safeguarding vulnerable children, and assist in securing evidence is why we are dedicated and show up every day and do the job we do.”