Long before I started working with Detego Global, I had an extensive career in law enforcement. For almost three decades, I worked in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Division of State Police. Here, I took charge of various roles, including that of a Narcotics Detective, Tactical Flight Officer, and the Sergeant of the Detective Unit.
I headed a team of investigators responsible for carrying out digital forensics investigations, to help uncover evidence capable of solving homicides and other serious crimes. The work I did with the police even inspired me to start my own company, where I provided Digital Forensics solutions to help those navigating the complexities of digital investigations.
As crimes continue to evolve in the face of new technology, devices and encryption, so has the need for powerful digital forensics tools and services. For years, teams like mine found it challenging to surface critical evidence rapidly, accurately and efficiently from digital devices. And as the world has continued to transform, the demand for these solutions has become greater than ever.
How Detego Would Have Helped In My Previous Role
Now that I’ve started my role as Technical Sales Engineer for Detego, I can look back and see clearly how such a platform would have been indispensable to me and my team during my career in law enforcement. It’s also become increasingly evident to me how valuable Detego would have been when I first launched my own forensic consulting company.
Here’s how I believe Detego would have transformed my previous roles:
Decreasing processing times
Digital forensics can be a long, drawn-out, and extensive process. In the past, I would often have to tie up forensic machines overnight just to acquire copies of hard drive evidence, preventing other teams from accessing them. This often caused significant backlogs of evidence, leading to huge queues of cases just waiting to be handled.
Ballistic Imager provided by Detego would have allowed me to decrease the processing times involved in managing complex cases, thanks to its phenomenal speed – enabling 1 TB of data to be captured in less than 8 minutes.
Reducing backlogs
The capabilities offered by Detego’s Field Triage module would have saved my team hours of manpower and reduced the backlogs we faced every day. Being able to scan data instantly and determine the value of evidence with quick alerts would have meant investigators were able to rapidly focus their attention on the correct area.
The extra ability to customize the Field Triage module would have given each team member in the field more scope to fine-tune their examination and weed out non-pertinent items that would’ve otherwise added to the backlog of devices that needed to be investigated.
Solving cases
The Fusion functionality offered by Detego could have been extremely useful to the investigations conducted by the detective unit. Our investigators frequently found it tough to link suspects, witnesses and families to various crimes. At the end of my career, we were working tirelessly on the ongoing fentanyl epidemic, responding to deaths by overdose. Each case was investigated to attempt to locate the supplier.
Being able to leverage link analysis with a dedicated tool, rather than having to export data files into separate software packages, would have allowed us to reach crucial conclusions faster.
Better data analysis
The Analyse suite offered by Detego could have been indispensable to my team as well. The customized workflow elements of the solution, combined with the ability to centrally view and analyze data from exhibits from a variety of different devices, would have allowed us to get to actionable data faster.
Not to mention, the integration of AI and the ability to instantaneously view data as it was added to the platform could have accelerated the results we achieved in the field and in the lab.
Detego Can Transform Law Enforcement Teams
Looking back now, with the experience I have in the industry, it’s easy to say Detego would have been a world-changing solution for my role. I’ve tested and used many of the available hardware and software tools available to digital forensics practitioners to date, but I’ve never encountered anything as efficient and impactful as Detego.
The unified nature of the Detego Platform and its various modules helps law enforcement professionals to make the complex and often daunting task of searching through digital evidence much simpler. I believe this platform has the power to change the way investigators operate for the better in the years to come.
-Mike Bates-
See how Detego can help transform your approach to digital investigations and request a free, fully functional trial here: https://detegoglobal.com/solutions-for-law-enforcement-teams/
