Police triad assembles tech unit to fight crime

Within the last decade, law enforcement has seen a proliferation of technology-related crimes -- from computer hacking to online child pornography -- and even more traditional crimes began leaving a trail of evidence on cell phones and computers.

Like dusting for fingerprints and collecting trace evidence for DNA testing, investigators now must be able to process high-tech evidence without corrupting it.

Friday, the Defiance County and Allen County sheriffs' offices and Lima police announced the formation of a multijurisdictional, technology crimes task force.

They hope it will allow area police departments to share their expertise, conduct training, and attract state and federal grants to help pay for operations.

Defiance County and Lima have equipped and staffed their own technology crimes labs in recent years.

"Technology really touches everything," said Lima police Lt. James Baker, program coordinator. "Back in the day when you had a homicide, you never thought of technology. Now, with cell phones and Facebook and MySpace, it's almost standard that an investigator is looking for those types of things."

Cell phones have become a tool of the trade for drug dealers, he said.

"There's just a lot of information out there," Lieutenant Baker said.

Defiance County Sheriff Dave Westrick said his department started a lab in 2002 that is staffed full time by Deputy Steven Mueller.

"Way back when, we thought that this was going to be the future of law enforcement," he said. "It turned out to be the right decision."

Sheriff Westrick said coming together with other departments in a task force makes sense.

"It's much like the drug units that you see around," he said.

"This gives you a lot more resources to work together and a lot greater propensity to come to a viable solution to crimes -- a good ending to crimes -- when you have other people's knowledge or input to add to your own."

Sheriff Westrick said Deputy Mueller has worked on investigations for at least 50 law enforcement organizations in northwest Ohio, including some federal agencies.

"We can examine cell phones, computers, really any magnetic or flash media using specialized software," Deputy Mueller said. "There's also specialized hardware to prevent corrupting or modifying evidentiary data. That's one of the biggest aspects."

Toledo police have had a computer crimes lab since 2005 that regularly does work for about 10 area police departments, Lt. Michael Troendle said.

In Lima, Lieutenant Baker said the lab, which is staffed by a full-time Lima officer and a part-time officer from the police department and the sheriff's office, processes all technology-related evidence -- recovering data for evidence in investigations.

Staff members also do public presentations on Internet safety, Internet predators, and related topics.

Equipment in the labs is expensive, he said, which added to the need to work with other agencies.

"We all know that with budget constraints, we've got to cooperate. We've got to not duplicate services," Lieutenant Baker said. "Having a task force makes it easier to get grants, which is one of the things we're looking for."

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-724-6129