Research findings from the East Midlands Digital Evidence Survey East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration Research findings from the East Midlands Digital Evidence Survey

Aims of the survey To gain a more sophisticated insight into the ways in which digital materials are understood, handled and used To better understand the differences in ways of working with digital evidence across the five police forces in the East Midlands To identify areas where additional training and development is required to fill knowledge and competence gaps

Confidence dealing with digital evidence Approximately 80% deal with digital evidence regularly Key areas of focus: Computers – 64% daily/weekly use Mobile phones – 61% daily/weekly use Body Worn Video - 46% daily/weekly use

Training needs Those who have received training: approximately 85% found it useful Percentage who had not received training: Downloading CCTV – 89% Seizing CCTV – 67% Open Source – 77% Communications data – 72% Seizing digital exhibits – 61% Body worn video – 57%

The Specialists 74% knew who could provide support with digital exhibits Key issues identified: Only available to support slow time investigations Often miss opportunities re CCTV Do not provide sufficient explanations –guidance is most important role Could provide more help retrieving and converting evidence to readable formats

Barriers and Issues The percentage of respondents who reported barriers or problems when dealing with various aspects of digital evidence: seizing digital evidence – 32% submitting digital evidence to the CPS – 31% reviewing extracted data – 26% submitting digital evidence for examination – 22% interacting with device examiners – 18% reviewing digital evidence for court – 17%

Recommendations from participants Better training, covering the potential of digital evidence and the ‘how to’ Better equipment and software to support viewing, copying, editing and sharing digital evidence More specialist staff available to support investigations Speed up processes