Extract from Tim Rollins’s article “New Digital Forensic Tools: Using Improved Timelines to Solve Cases”
In 2023, law enforcement officials must review more data, more often, than ever before. Where a decade ago, an investigation might have required the analysis of a single computer or a smartphone, crimes today may have a web of evidence that spans multiple devices, social media platforms, cloud data storage, and more. Multiply that by the fact that almost every crime has a digital footprint—a text message or email, photographic or video evidence, location data, an internet search—and you have a recipe for a crisis.
Law enforcement departments across the country and the globe are overwhelmed by a growing backlog of digital evidence—and it’s compounded by the lack of trained digital forensic investigators. That translates into trials that are delayed, criminals free to re-offend, and victims who can’t move on from traumatic experiences.
Even though this challenge is rooted in the spread of technology, technology also offers the solution. There’s a revolution happening in the world of digital forensics, making it possible for law enforcement departments to scale up their investigations, train new forensic analysts, review evidence more intuitively, and solve cases faster. One of the most important technology features emerging to help investigators close cases is new, logical timelines.
