I am able to announce big changes at DataTriangle. I have been employed by the Alachua Sheriff’s Office as a Deputy Sheriff for the last 14 years. Most recently I was assigned to the FBI CyberCrime Task Force, Internet Crimes Against Children, and the computer forensic examiner. Yes, this has been as busy and stressful job as it sounds!

I am leaving the Sheriff’s Office to devote myself full-time to DataTriangle. I will be doing work in the areas of computer forensics, data recovery, and website administration. I will supervise staff members working on general computer repair services in the Gainesville, Florida area.

My recent computer forensics experience translates most closely to work in criminal defense cases. As I have always done though, my goal is to expand my experience. I have already worked civil cases involving digital evidence. I anticipate working a lot more with the increased availability. I have also had Gainesville Attorneys approach me requesting e-discovery services.

There is a great deal of overlap between e-discovery and computer forensic practice. A lot of the difference lies in acquiring a few new software tools and becoming proficient in them. I am in the process now of buying these tools and practicing. I don’t presently see myself trying to get into large scale e-discovery work. I am more interested in supporting law firms with their small to medium size e-discovery matters.

It is with great excitement that I enter into the private practice of computer forensics! The excitement is somewhat tempered by sadness at leaving all the great comrades and professionals that I have worked with through the years in law enforcement. I wish all of them the best of luck and safe patrols!

I was happy to learn that the case agents, attorney, and jury were very happy with my testimony.  Everyone told me that I was very clear and did an excellent job of making highly technical material understandable.  Being technically accurate and at the same time understandable, I believe, is one of the greatest challenges to anyone testifying as a computer forensics expert.  Throughout my training I have always tried to ask myself, “How would I explain this to a jury?”

The entire case was a great experience from working with the U.S. Attorney, investigators, criminal defense attorney, and everyone else involved in this case.

I am proud and happy to have accomplished my goal of being recognized as an expert in state and federal court.  I look forward to continuing to learn in this field, and hope I have a long and successful career in it!

Yesterday, in the Rhoden v Rhoden in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida I testified as an expert witness in “Computer Forensics and Cybercrime!” 

Since there is not a universally accepted gold standard in computer forensics certifications, testifying as an expert in court is about the only standard that indicates you have entered the top tier of the field. 

I very pleased to have accomplished a goal I set for myself in 2006.  Hopefully this is just the mid-point of great career in computer forensics.

As far as the class.. other than to say it is a good course.. this is one I really can’t talk about.

I installed the software.  I did some initial testing with it.  It looks very good.  The software has computer usage controls.  The program will even save screenshots and email user activity logs.

The usage controls by time are VERY important.  What I have seen time and again in law enforcement.. is kids getting in trouble online after mom and dad are in the bed.  This is especially bad if the computer is in junior’s room.  (Something I consider a safety nightmare for kids.)

If you are going to let junior have a computer in their room, this software allows the administrator to block them from being up secretly in the middle of the night chatting with some stranger.

I have by no means tested this product throughly.  There are ways around it.  I will not go into them.. as to not educate kids trying to get over on mom and dad.

This software is certainly far better than an unprotected unmonitored computer however.

Is this all the fault of the state attorneys office or law enforcement. Yes and no. One limiting factor that everyone involved in arresting and prosecuting criminals is funding.

It is common for me to talk to crime victims now days who are frustrated at the slow response time, slow investigation, lack of investigation, or slow/ no prosecution of their case. Honestly, I have kinda quit being totally dishonest about the total situation when people talk to me about it, especially off-duty. When the citizens/ county government are unwilling to fund more law enforcement officers or prosecutors dis spite growing population and crime…..What are we in criminal justice to do?

For example, I suspect there are now hundreds of burglaries per year for everyone Detective alloted to investigate them. So, I don’t find it a big surprise that our local clearance rate for burglaries is horrid compared to some other jurisdictions.

Every year it becomes easier for criminals to victimize people to start with because our number of law enforcement officers on the road patrolling is not growing with the population. There is simply to much area for officers to effectively cover and suppress crime.

There is also a side… that the law enforcement environment, state wide mostly, has not encouraged officers to perform aggressive pro-active law enforcement. Alot of that can be thanked to 20 years of having far more lawyers than society needs. I can’t tell you how sick street level officers get of hearing about potential “liability” being a reason for not doing our job. There are supervisors now that will gladly walk away and leave a bad guy on the street than risk any small chance of “liability.” Unfortunately, some supervisors and street cops get so beat down by liablity arguements….they eventually decide the only way to avoid liability…is to do nothing unless called somewhere or it jumps right up in their face.

Of course hand in hand with this, is the non stop progression in the law enforcement community to investigate each and every citizen complaint no matter what or when.

It is now common place for cops to even get in trouble at work for incidents away from the job that have NOTHING to do with work. State wide there are many examples of this happening. Just a for instance.. a cop goes to his local hardware store where they sold him a broken drill. He is off duty, not in uniform, never mentions where he works or that he is a cop. He gets into an argument with the manager because he will not take the return. This kind of things happens to citizens all the time right?? Well, lets say this manager has seen the cop in uniform before and knows he is a cop and where he works. Now agencies are actually taking complaints about incidents like this and investigating their officers. They even will hand out extreme discipline actions…just like this happened on duty, in uniform.

I would ask regular citizens out there… How would you feel about getting days off without pay from your job because you got into an argument at the hardware store? Well that is the state of things now…. it is sad.

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070523/SUNFRONT/705230342/-1/newsIt is unfortunate that the individual was even out on the street to be involved in a confrontation with an officer.

I hope the City of Gainesville and Gainesville Police Department are supportive of the officer.  They have had a history in the past of not supporting their officers.  Hopefully, they have learned from that experience.

 I wanted to say, it is an excellent course.  The lead instructor is Clabe Polk of DEP. It reinforces my experience, so far, that environmental crimes are a bit different than anything else.  Even as a Level III course, you are just beginning to get into the technical aspects of how the environmental crime statutes relate/ tie into the Florida Administrative Code (FAC).

Kathy Martinez, Special Agent, and Tracey Hartman, a DEP Attorney, presented a block on search warrants.  It was the best presentation on search warrants I have ever attended. Search warrants are kinda strange thing in law enforcement.  Lots of cops, even Detectives, will tell you about when you need one or what it takes to get one. The funny thing is, if you as these same folks if they have ever personally written one, they will tell you “no.”  Both of the instructors for this block on search warrants, clearly had a lot of first hand experience.

The case also provides a fairly detailed walk through of an environmental crimes case.  This walk through includes a real scene and hands on sampling.

 Tymn Rice, with the Florida DEP, provides a great instruction block on the basics of sampling.  He has the rare gift of being a scientist, but being able to relate things in common sense terms.

William Martin, of DEP’s Site Investigation team, taught a block on Florida Geology and soil/groundwater sampling. He was a dynamic speaker with the same gift to break science down to common sense terms.  His entire team is very skilled and willing to teach and/or help law enforcement.

Lt. Tim Gorman with DEP taught several short instructional blocks.  These blocks did  a good job of tying in science, safety, and real world law enforcement.

I highly recommend this course to any law enforcement officer assigned to environmental crimes investigations!