CASE: . XRY
– An important investigative resource for the West Midlands Police Force The West Midlands Police Force is the second largest in Britain. They have been using Micro Systemation’s product .XRY for four years now.
An in-house solution for investigating handheld devices including mobile phones and pocket computers has had a positive effect on all investigative work. In the past .XRY experts had to be brought in to collect evidence. The biggest disadvantage was cost.
Another problem was the ineffective use of time since police were being used to deliver telephones back and forth. Ian Herbert is a detective at West Midland’s central department for criminal forensic investigations. He is part of the group that first evaluated .XRY and decided to introduce it to their hi-tech team.
During the evaluation they were particularly interested in flexibility–the solution they chose would have to be capable of collecting material from a large number of different brands and products. Another important aspect was that it could be adapted to conform to the rules and restrictions governing collection of material evidence in Britain.
They are pleased with the choice of .XRY, which, despite growing competition, is still number one when it comes to flexibility. In addition, .XRY complies with all the legal requirements and no problems have occurred in relation to how evidence has been collected. Previously, they were forced to look at the costs of collecting evidence. This meant that they had to forego examination of handheld devices that were connected to minor crimes.
But with access to .XRY, which is fast and easy to use, cost is no longer an issue. Now they can make detailed technical analysis of handheld devices related to all types of crimes, which has meant that they are collecting in more and better evidence all the time In a recent case they managed to collect evidence from a confiscated mobile phone – evidence that proved valuable and decisive in the trial that followed. First .XRY version 2.8 was used to find and recreate 12 erased photographs from a mobile phone.
When they later used .XRY version 3.0 another 200 photographs were found, leading to a real breakthrough in the inquiry. Detective Herbert values the close contact he has with Micro Systemation’s developers. They speak on the phone almost every week when he presents the ideas and suggestions he has received from other users.
These improvements are often already included in the next version of .XRY. West Midlands Police Force was one of the first to use .XRY. Other police forces have heard about their experiences and they are recommending .XRY. Detective Herbert concludes with a simple and matter of fact statement: “It’s a good product”.
FACTS
Twenty people work full time examining handheld devices and pocket computers. They support 20 local police stations, all of which have a local investigator. They go through 500 devices a month and the number is increasing all the time. They can examine 95% of the confiscated devices themselves. Detective Herbert and a colleague received two days training in Stockholm. Subsequently, they were able to personally train their colleagues back home, an arrangement they are very happy with.
Last page change: 2007-06-27 01:24