NCJ Number
165222
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 63 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1997) Pages: 42-44
Date Published
1997
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article profiles the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Computer Evidence Recovery (CER) program, which is designed to address the Florida law enforcement community's need for computer forensic services.
Abstract
The CER program makes it possible for law enforcement agencies in Florida to submit personal computers, disk and tape media, electronic organizers, and other computer items to the crime laboratory for examination. Analysts use a variety of hardware and software tools to examine, extract, and/or preserve stored information of potential evidentiary value. Stored information on computers may be found in several different formats, including typed documents, spreadsheets, database records, graphical images, digitized photographs, and video segments. With the increasing use of the Internet, stored information may also take the form of cache and history directories and e-mail correspondence. When the CER program was developed 5 years ago, it was placed organizationally within the crime laboratory. Although CER has always been treated as a laboratory service, that point recently became moot with the redesign of the department's structure. Today, laboratory and investigative functions have been combined into regional service centers around the State. Four services are offered within the CER program: examination of evidence, assistance in the collection of computers from crime scenes, technical assistance, and training. Each of these CER functions is described in this article. The essential hardware and software tools are also described. In a discussion of the future of computer forensics, the author notes that several agencies around the country have already established or will be establishing computer evidence recovery units in the near future, including agencies in New York, Minnesota, and Iowa, as well as the Virginia State Police and the Illinois State Police.