Technology moves at a fast pace. It moves ahead. The majority of people have computers now,†said Sergeant Andy Crouse of the Menomonie Police Department (MPD). The use of computers in law enforcement is growing, whether the crime was committed via computers — such as distributing CP — or whether the evidence in a drug case was retrieved from a hard drive and used to prosecute the criminal. Crime now “knows no tax districts, jurisdictions or boundaries,†said Crouse. Chief Todd Chaney of the Altoona Police Department, who often works with the computer forensics experts in Menomonie as well as other area law enforcement personnel, stated that computer forensics capabilities are “a critical need in law enforcement today, and are also a critical deficiency.†Law enforcement at all levels and jurisdictions, from local community police to state criminologists to federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, are finding themselves short of staff, short of equipment and, in some cases, short of technical training when it comes to recent developments in computer forensics…
