Forensic Examination

  • Reference Number: 2278
  • Date released: 04 January 2010

Request

  1. Does your Force have a requirement for the forensic examination of computers, digital media and/or mobile telephones seized during the course of criminal or other investigations?
  2. Does your Force have a unit or units whose specific role is to conduct such forensic examinations?
  3. If so how many computers, other digital media and mobile telephone have been examined in the financial years 2009/to date, 2008/2009 and 2007/2008?
  4. How many computers, digital media and mobile telephones remain unexamined in the current year and what is the average backlog period for examinations.
  5. Does any unit, tasked with the forensic examination of computers, retain a hash library of indecent photographs of a child (C4P or similar) and if so, a) How many hash values does it contain in total and individually for each of the 5 levels currently in use for sentencing purposes.
  6. If your Force does not have such a specialist unit or if they cannot handle all requirements in house then please provide the following information: a) who conducts forensic examinations of computers, digital media and/or mobile telephones on behalf of the your Force.  b) How is this facilitated, e.g.. Advertised Tender, ad-hoc, local contract etc.
  7. How many computers, digital media and mobile telephones were outsourced for forensic examination in the following financial years - 2009/to date, 2008/2009 and 2007/2008 and at what cost?

Response

In accordance with section 1(1) (b) of the Act our response is provided below;

Question 1: Yes.

Question 2: Yes.

Question 3:

Computers

2009 to date = 335

2008-09 = 302

2007-08 = 325

Other Digital Media

2009 to date = CD's - 841, DVD's - 548, floppy disks - 460, zip disks - 0, compact flash - 21, digital cameras - 25, PDA's - 1, mini disks - 3, USB Pen drives - 32, MP3 players - 1, Sat Nav's - 3, game consoles - 0

2008-09 = CD's - 7857, DVD's - 2941, floppy disks - 1081, zip disks - 8, compact flash - 61, digital cameras - 54, PDA's - 13, mini disks - 51, USB Pen drives - 77, MP3 players - 14, Sat Nav's - 16, game consoles - 7

2007-08 = CD's - 6456, DVD's - 1794, floppy disks - 2870, zip disks - 14, compact flash - 104, digital cameras - 95, PDA's - 8, mini disks - 790, USB Pen drives - 60, MP3 players - 24, Sat Nav's - 5, game consoles - 0

Mobile Phones

2009 to date = 471 handsets

2008-09 = 954 handsets

2007-08 = 1263 handsets

Question 4:

Computers = 190

Other Digital Media = Unknown until we actually receive the items.

Mobile Phones = 144

The average backlog is approximately - 4 months for computers and 3 months for phones, but this all depends on the priority of each case.

In addition and in relation to Questions 3 & 4: The Cheshire Constabulary can neither confirm nor deny that any additional information is held in relation to these questions by virtue of Section 23(5) Information supplied by or concerning certain Security Bodies;

Section 30(3) Investigations and Section 31(3) Law Enforcement.

Confirmation or denial of the mere existence of investigation material or the involvement of exempt FOIA bodies will in itself provide exempt information into the public domain. It is therefore appropriate to follow this course of action under the auspices of Section 17(4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This should not be taken as an inference that the information you have requested is or is not held by the force.

Question 5: Yes E-Forensics maintains a hash library and use C4P

We have in total 58,187,716 hash values, and for each of the 5 levels - 1)= 425,5430, 2)=229,082, 3)=322,163, 4)=163,337, 5)=131,490

Question 6: We handle most requirements in-house; however on occasions we have outsourced

A) The FSS and Aequitas Forensics, Manchester

B) Both through tender and ad-hoc

Question 7: 100 mobile phones £5,000

In addition and in relation to Questions 6 & 7 The Cheshire Constabulary can neither confirm nor deny that any additional information is held in relation to the questions of external resourcing and workload by virtue of Section 23(5) Information supplied by or concerning certain Security Bodies;

Section 30(3) Investigations and Section 31(3) Law Enforcement.

Confirmation or denial of the mere existence of investigation material or the involvement of exempt FOIA bodies will in itself provide exempt information into the public domain. It is therefore appropriate to follow this course of action under the auspices of Section 17(4) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This should not be taken as an inference that the information you have requested is or is not held by the force.

In addition and in relation to all of your questions. The Cheshire Constabulary neither confirms nor denies that it holds any other information by virtue of Section 23(5) Information Supplied by or Relating to Exempt Bodies. To give a statement of the reasons why neither confirming nor denying is appropriate in this case would itself involve the disclosure of exempt information, therefore under Section 17(4) no explanation can be given. To the extent that Section 23(5) applies, the Cheshire Constabulary has determined that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exclusion of the duty to neither confirm nor deny outweighs the public interest in confirming whether or not the information is held."

Back to Category List