The Anatomy of Electronic Evidence – Quantitative Analysis of Police E-Crime Data

By understanding the past and present, the future can be predicted. This work seeks to understand how an Australian policing agency is currently receiving and analyzing sources of electronic evidence in the investigation of criminal activity. It shows how many devices are received, what kinds of device make up each analysis job, and for investigation into which crimes. From this, trends and workloads may be understood and future investments in equipment and research direction can be decided. The outcomes of this work may also allow for strategies to maximize training to non-technical staff and highlight investigative areas that may benefit from more use of electronic evidence. Finally, charting the trends in how commonly different electronic devices are analysed may allow for better handling of crime scenes and expand what is collected for different crime types. This work seeks to understand which types of crime are making most use of electronic evidence sources, to prepare for future changes in the discipline.