Nottinghamshire Police force leads the way in phone data analysis
Police in Nottinghamshire are leading the way in the prompt analysis of mobile phone data belonging to victims and suspects.
The Digital Forensics Unit was recently visited by Home Secretary Priti Patel who was briefed on their work.
A recent investigation by Channel 4 News revealed a backlog of more than 20,000 digital devices waiting to be examined by forces across England and Wales.
Nottinghamshire Police has just 31 phones, tablets and computers waiting to be examined which have all been triaged.
The force says that this is down to significant recent investment in specialist digital media and forensics officers, interns, graduate investigators, strict adherence to national proportionality guidelines, and the upskilling of other officers to examine devices linked to less serious offences.
Detective chief inspector Les Charlton is responsible for Nottinghamshire Police’s digital media investigation teams.
He said: “As technology has evolved so have the demands placed on police officers.
"Digital evidence now plays a significant role in the majority of police investigations and can be gathered from devices ranging from mobile phones to smart wearables.
"That creates a very significant demand that has to be managed effectively.
“When somebody has been the victim of a crime—particularly a sexual offence—we absolutely understand that the investigative process can be extremely difficult and upsetting for them.
“As police officers we have a job to do, but we want to do that job with as little additional upset to a victim as possible. We offer a bespoke same day and appointment service for phones to help victims.
“We understand that people’s mobile devices are actually a very big part of people’s lives. They are quite literally their link to the outside world—their friends and family—so we understand the importance of returning those devices to them as quickly as we can.
“Our ability to do that stems not only from our decision to employ more specialist digital staff over the last few years, but also from our strict adherence to national proportionality guidelines.
"But simply we will only ever proportionately review the minimum of somebody’s personal data—typically the messages they send and receive in the short period of time before and after an offence.
"In the vast majority of cases, we simply have no interest in anything that may have gone before.”
Thanks to the ongoing uplift in officer numbers, the force has been able to boost its digital forensic capability by more than 50 per cent over the last two years.
It has also implemented force-wide protocols to prevent a backlog of devices and always prioritises victims of sexual assault.
They, along with other victims of crime, consent to very limited examinations of their devices which relate only to the events immediately surrounding an offence.
The force also adheres to best practice guidelines from the College of Policing about the prompt return of data and devices. Typically the force looks to return devices within 24 hours.
DCI Charlton said: “Our aim is always to investigate proportionately, not to collect unnecessary amounts of personal data and to turn these devices round quickly.
“I want to say very clearly to victims in Nottinghamshire that we will only ever retrieve the minimum amount of data we need to investigate a particular offence.
"Once we’ve done that we will reunite them with their devices as soon as possible.”
Chief constable Craig Guildford said: “Ultimately this is about balance, retaining the confidence of victims and challenging some of the concerns we know they can have.
"Digital data has an increasingly vital role to play in our day-to-day work but we should never lose sight of the immense upset and inconvenience this can cause to victims.
"That’s why we have taken the decision to heavily and creatively invest in this area of our work over the last couple of years and why we will continue to do so the future.”
