Many of today's US police departments have computer forensics teams on hand that can perform digital sleuthing when a case calls for it. For most departments, however, the online realm still isn't a standard "beat" during an investigation. Lieutenant Charles Cohen, an Indiana state trooper, hopes to change this with a lecture he's taking to police departments across the country about the usefulness of searching online communities for clues and for criminals. The message is simple: forensic experts aren't the only law enforcement people who need to be keeping a close eye on online activities.
Though some efforts have been mounted to track down information online for real world crimes, Cohen's lectures are geared towards beat cops and investigators who haven't really been clued in to the likes of Second Life and MySpace. As the Associated Press reported, many of these authorities still don't consider the online realm to be part of their responsibility or even a useful investigative tool. If a computer is in any way associated with a crime, investigators will often turn it over to specialized forensics teams that take months to produce exhaustive reports.
Cops 2.0
It is Cohen's belief that some simple digging through a suspect's PC and online profiles could produce more useful results in a much shorter time, leading to more arrests and fewer victims. Why are the police waiting on forensic experts to do work that troopers in the field could do?
As useful as online communities could prove to be in solving crime, Cohen of course admits that the sheer amount of content on the Web can also be a hindrance to investigations. Sifting through all that stuff can obviously lead to dead ends, so new approaches include practices like asking friends and victims where the suspect hung out online. Perusing Second Life logs, Craigslist posts, and even public MySpace profiles for likes and dislikes are all a part of Cohen's recommendations.
You might think that the police are already well-versed in tracking users online, but according to Cohen, that's simply not the case.
The new techniques seem to be having an initial impact. A growing handful of crimes are being solved or at least aided by information gleaned from searching MySpace profiles and staking out Second Life areas. But if these methods are going to continue producing results, however, a lot more work needs to be done to go beyond merely tipping officials off to these tools; more will need to be trained to understand how these networks function, as well as how and where the trends ebb and flow. As social networking criminals wise up to efforts from law enforcement, these digital clues and practices could evolve to become more cryptic and sophisticated as cops invade the web.
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