FF: Tell us about your previous background in law enforcement and what led you to set up Harper Shaw Investigation Consultants Ltd.
My background stems from Roads Policing in the UK, where I spent an early part of my career investigating road collisions and tackling vehicle related crime. I was part of a proactive roads policing department responsible for disrupting criminal activities involving vehicles, before moving into a dedicated department responsible for investigating fatal road collisions. I was fortunate enough to be able to follow my passion for investigating in this role and became a qualified detective and investigative interviewer, as well as forensic collision investigation and digital media investigator, as this started to feature more in investigations.
There was a culmination of factors that led me to set up Harper Shaw Investigation Consultants Ltd. Pension changes in the UK police service underwent a major transformation, meaning I was effectively going to have to work a further 7 years with no additional benefit. Also, resources were becoming less and less, so I felt I could not deliver a gold standard in those investigations that involved a death. Dealing with death every day is not good for your mental health, and after seven years of some seriously devastating collisions I was becoming poorly, as were others around me who had been in the same role. I still had a passion for vehicle related investigations, so with these factors and some others it was a case of entering into the unknown, with support from family and friends, to offer consultancy services in serious road collisions with an eye on vehicle data as part of the services.
FF: What services does Harper Shaw Investigation Consultants offer and what types of evidence can investigators recover using vehicle forensics?
Over the past eight years, we have offered a wide range of services from forensic collision reconstruction, speed analysis from CCTV, vehicle identification from CCTV, and acquiring crash data from vehicles as well as infotainment data. The business now specialises in extracting data from vehicles and training. It was never intended to go this way, but the proliferation of people wishing to use vehicle data in their investigations has increased year on year. In our first year, I think we examined about 4 vehicles for digital data from infotainment systems, whereas I think I have looked at 4 vehicles this week alone for infotainment type data, and there is no sign of it letting up coming out of the summer break.
The evidence that can be recovered using vehicle forensics can be wide reaching, as the vehicle has what I term an eco-system, whereby it interconnects with infrastructure and our devices along with third parties. The data types are endless, however the more common types are crash data, i.e. what was happening in the last moments before a crash, such as speed, braking input, steering input and seat belt usage, as just some of the data types seen on the airbag control module. Infotainment is another area of interest, with journey history, connected device information, and vehicle events such as odometer readings or door events that are sometimes stored on the infotainment module.
FF: What does a typical day at work look like for you?
As a small business owner, there can be so many different tasks in a typical day, as we still run the business in house with minimal staff. I might be literally cleaning the entrance to the building before students arrive for a training course at the start of the day, and later that morning, I could be inside a car removing an ECU for a serious crime investigation. We tend to work as and when required for law enforcement, so weekends and evenings are included. I can spend a large chunk of my time triaging enquiries to assist investigators in deciding whether they are to pursue the investigation, as well as writing up our findings after we have completed a vehicle examination.
As the modern world evolves, we also spend a large chunk of time creating content for our application (The Vehicle Network), which is becoming a resource hub for this type of work and for those public audiences that have an interest in our work. So, I guess a typical day is busy like most.
FF: Can you tell us about a specific case where vehicle forensics played a crucial role in securing a conviction?
Last year (2023), we assisted a law enforcement agency with a murder investigation where a number of vehicles had been used. A vehicle had been used to ram another vehicle before people got out of the cars, and tragically a person was stabbed which resulted in a fatality. One of the vehicles immediately prior to the confrontation had crashed into some railings, which then activated the emergency call feature on the vehicle using a paired and connected device to the vehicle. Whilst the vehicle’s infotainment system had a record of the device stored on it, it didn’t have any connection times. So, the fact that the emergency call feature got activated in a crash at the time meant that by utilising the connected and paired device to make the call it must have been in Bluetooth range of the vehicle to do so. Investigators could attribute the device to a suspect and were keen to know how close the device was to the car at the time and if it could have been inside the car.
The scene was chaotic, with masked individuals moving around and getting in and out of cars. We conducted tests to determine the range and performed a digital reconstruction. We had the vehicle returned to the crash site and used a test device paired with the infotainment system. We then established the range in most directions away from the vehicle until the connection was lost. The findings were surprising, in that we managed to exceed over 100 metres in one test, maintaining a Bluetooth connection to the vehicle from the device.
I do a lot of testing, which I find interesting, and it not only helps the community but also ensures that I understand the limitations of the data when presenting in court. This use of vehicle forensics placed a suspect at the scene of the murder, and he was subsequently found guilty by a jury. Other evidence may also have played its part, but in my experience of dealing with complex and serious crime, it’s the layering up of evidence that helps build the picture, and I was proud that we could do our bit on the vehicle side of things and understand the limitations for the benefit of the court. This case study is available as a video presentation in our app.
FF: How is AI being utilized in vehicle forensics, and what advantages or challenges does it bring to the data recovery process?
AI is here isn’t it, and I do not think it is going way anytime soon. I love new technologies, and the possibilities of AI are endless in my opinion, but we have to nurture it and be wary of adoption too soon without checking veracity. With regards to vehicle forensics, I already see it in action in some areas a little left of field – stick with me here!
I have a contact that compiles a database of all the MOT (annual roadworthiness test of the vehicle after it’s 3 years old) failures here in the UK, and what this means is that when a certain age, make, model and trim level of vehicle fails the MOT on a certain fault it is logged. AI is being used to project the likelihood of failure on those components on that age of vehicle. This could mean that when somebody is planning a vehicle systems forensics examination, they could possibly identify weak points on the vehicle, possibly more useful in crash investigation. This is perhaps no different to human intelligence, in that a mechanic may well know typical faults on certain vehicles and what components are likely to fail, however what AI is doing is accelerating that knowledge and refining it with larger data sets.
AI is impacting how cars operate. They are machine learning (or not if we look at the recent cruise taxi scenarios), and this will impact crash investigators who will have to understand the technology to know if the vehicle operated as it should have and what was used to train it. This will impact both criminal and civil cases where there are serious injuries.
Another area where I believe it will change the landscape is in script writing and programming. Caution is needed here, but with the right amount of testing and refinement, automation can start to become a self-derived possibility, reducing the need for people with those specific skill sets—or at least decreasing the number of people required with those skills. Personally, I think it’s a good thing, but it needs nurture.
FF: What are some of the emerging trends or challenges in vehicle forensics, and how do you see this field evolving in the next few years?
Data privacy and the securing of personal data will be a challenge for investigators in the coming years. We are already seeing levels of encryption on newer infotainment systems here in Europe to protect personal data, which means accessing it for criminal investigations is a challenge. However, this is not something new; we are just following the phone landscape of years gone by. However, there are minimal commercial tools out there for vehicles, and the population of variations of vehicles globally is huge, so it’s a real and present challenge. Data privacy is also huge, and the vehicle is so different to the mobile phone in that it can have many users (just think hire cars and taxis).
The law is always behind technology, and I do not think the ramifications of accessing data on a vehicle is properly understood by the judiciary, and I feel changes will be implemented. One of the biggest challenges we have here in the UK at present is the Forensic Science Regulators Codes of Practice that came into force last year, where you have to demonstrate accreditation in ISO17020/25 for digital forensics. The car has been pulled in under that umbrella, along with many other IOT devices. The challenge here is that the car is not a phone or computer on wheels – it is a safety critical real time mechatronic system that just happens to control wheels – and the methods for examining them are totally different, meaning a whole new standard must be developed for this type of work. In short, we are in the wild west of vehicle forensics (which does sound mad when I am into my eighth year), and there is a long and undulating journey ahead.
FF: And finally, what do you enjoy in your spare time?
Spare time? Joking aside, after experiencing burnout and being consumed by work in the past, I can sometimes (not aways) see the signs, and I try to manage that with some of my hobbies. I do put them first more often than most and include them in my daily/weekly habits, so as to try and keep a balance.
I enjoy running and fitness, so I tend to train most days by either running or the gym. I completed a marathon back in May this year so am just deciding what the next fitness challenge is and ticking over so to speak.
My other hobby is DJing (House/Dance music), and I spend a lot of time listening to music and sourcing new music. More recently I have started collecting vinyl again, which was an addiction in the 90s. I am collecting a lot of 80s Soul and RnB, where the 1990s took samples from the original 80s tracks and turned them into dance songs for a rave generation. I do a weekly mix show on a platform called mixcloud. I did go back to DJing when I left the police to bring in some extra cash and support myself, which I enjoyed. My last physical outing was at a local outdoor festival in the summer.
