Police council funds ‘digital forensics’ office

The Cape Cod Regional Law Enforcement Council is channeling $8,400 for office space and clerical help for the region’s two police officers who specialize in collecting and analyzing evidence that is in a digital format.

Having an office devoted to digital forensics in Barnstable will make it easier for Cape Cod police officers to get the technical assistance they often need when dealing with digital-related crime, said Dennis Police Chief Michael Whalen.

“Just about every kind of crime involves some kind of digital forensics element,” Whalen said. “It’s probably harder to identify the cases that don’t have some digital aspect than those that do.”

Drug transactions, which account for a large majority of the Cape’s crime, almost always involve cellphone exchanges or texting, Whalen said. Embezzlement and credit card fraud are other common types of digital-related crime.

The cost of each town maintaining its own digital forensics specialists would likely be prohibitive, according to Whalen.

With the new office, he said, “Fifteen towns can take advantage of it, but you don’t have 15 towns bearing the expense of it.”

Barnstable Detective Kevin Connolly, one of the two officers who will staff the office, said that he and his fellow digital forensics specialist will provide quicker service to Cape police than they could get from the state’s digital forensics unit in Boston.

To keep up with changes in the field, Connolly said he undergoes two weeks of training at least once a year.

“It’s not like arson investigations, which really don’t change from year to year,” he said. “Computer technology is ever-changing.”