Crimefighter uses high-tech tools

Retrieving evidence of a crime is not easy. In the realm of computer crime, it can be impossible, unless investigators know exactly where to look and what tools to use to examine the data.

That's why Lt. David James of the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department spent last week digging into the basic elements of data recovery and digital evidence retrieval using the latest forensic tools at a week-long workshop in Oak Park, Kan., sponsored by the High Tech Crime Institute.

The workshop was an advanced course for law enforcement officers who had attended a previous workshop in January 2002. James earned a certificate for completing the work. Software applications used by criminals to hide data were discussed at length.

James is the only peace officer in the county to have completed this training. He assists other departments on numerous cases each year, using encryption software to find hidden and deleted files from a suspect's hard drive.

"David has been a lifesaver for us," said Jackson detective Lt. Jamie Humphreys. "Because he's had all that training, I go to him whenever we have something involving computers. I'm so glad that the cooperation between our departments is so good and that they allow him to assist us when we need him. We'd have been in real trouble if we hadn't had him working with us on some of those cases."

Former Cape Girardeau Police Department detective Trevor Pulley previously handled computer investigations for the city but left in August to join the Dexter police, said Sgt. Rick Schmidt. The city plans to assign those duties another to detective, he said.

As technology advances, criminals find new ways to commit the same old crimes, including harassment, drug sales, fraud and child pornography. It's important officers approach computer crime the same way they do other crimes, James said.

"It's a little like old-fashioned police work -- searching for hair, blood, bullets and fibers -- but here we take the same approach to searching for data or digital evidence" he said.

Some of that work is done online by interacting with suspects. Using special software, James can record words and images sent to him by suspects, in essence filming everything appearing on his screen like a movie.

James also hangs out in Web chat rooms under fake names and communicates with suspects with instant message software. Much of the communication concerns child pornography or sex with minors.

"You'd be surprised -- there is some real trash coming out of Cape Girardeau," he said. "But we will not entrap anyone or push them to do something they are not already predisposed to do."

Which is why James has talked to junior high and high school students to warn them about meeting people and sharing personal information online and the consequences of playing practical jokes with identity fraud.

"I try to make clear to them that what may be a 'practical joke' to you, may turn out to be a crime," he said.

James is also co-developing a course with criminal justice professor Mike Brown at Southeast Missouri State University to teach officers the basic precursors of computer crime and what is legally required before a computer can be seized for evidence.

mwells@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160