Setting up a Cyber Crime Investigation unit? 4 Things every Police Officer must know

As police officers, every now and then if we are lucky we get an opportunity to set up a crime investigation unit from scratch. This is a golden opportunity to make a meaningful impact on crime. However, most of us are faced with limited knowledge gleaned piecemeal from the internet or from secondary sources and end up more confused and uncertain than before.

Having set up 7 different CCPWC (Cyber Crime Prevention against Women & Children) Labs over the last one year with different police forces across the country (and a host of others as well), I thought I would share a list (based on my experiences) which Police officers may find useful.

Some of the important points to consider while setting up your Cyber Investigation Unit (CIU) are:

1. Clarity of the objectives the unit is set up for is critical. You would need a different setup for an intelligence unit vis.a.vis a unit that needs to report cases to a court of law. Does the unit need field capabilities or are all the exhibits going to be inbound. Plenty of thought needs to go into the operational situation going forward.
2. The establishment of a CIU necessitates both capital and operating costs. Capital costs are one-time expenses for infrastructure and equipment before moving on to the operational stage. Operating expenses will include building rental, license agreement fees (types of licencing is critical - I covered this in an earlier article), employee/cyber consultant pay, training cost of staff, forensic gadget upkeep/renewals/SMS, and office equipment and consumables.
3. People, process and technology (PPT) needs to be thought out in advance. In a number of cases where we assisted law enforcement in setting up their cyber forensic labs, we needed to provide capable resident engineers to assist them for a predefined hand holding period. Initial processes needed to be put in place to ensure smooth functioning. Fortunately our extensive experience of working in this area came in handy to do this. Training is a critical part of the CIU enablement process. Unless the technology selected is easy to use and the investigating officers are trained to the extent of being confident and capable of handling most of what they come across, the lab becomes a non-starter and can be a big waste of resources.
4. After deciding on a location and installing security mechanisms, the Officer responsible for setting up the lab must consider the facilities that will be required within the CIU. Getting the right tools for the planned work is crucial. It's really easy to get sucked up in the media hype that surrounds fancy technology and buying a lot of stuff which really does not do much in your scenario. There are a lot of small things that one tends to miss out - a fireproof evidence cupboard is a good example. This is where you need to have a responsible and experienced vendor partner to guide you.

Getting these 4 things right can make your CIU a very worthwhile addition to your Police Force. You can expect tangible results, positive press, and genuine respect from the public.