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Problem Paper 1
Liberty University
CJUS 542
Abstract
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When someone commits a crime, whether it be in-person, or over the internet, they should be
investigated properly and fully. In this paper, we will discuss the policy issues that should be
addressed as well as any legal issues that may follow if those policies are broken. Furthermore,
when those policies are broken, they may lead to disciplinary action and/or a criminal
investigation depending on the severity of the policy or if the offender had committed any crimes
or not. No matter the department, they should have policies in place when it comes to taking
photographs of company property as well as having visitors on the property. This is obviously
due to the legal ramifications that can come for someone not allowed on the property who can
get hurt. Furthermore, taking pictures and posting them online can paint a bad picture of a
department. When a crime does take place, a complete and full investigation should take place,
as stated before. This includes interviewing witnesses, victims, and the offender and taking their
statements for evidence. Furthermore, any and all evidence, where it be physical or digital,
should be collected and logged through proper evidence handling and should never be deleted,
even if a prosecutor says charges should not be filed. This evidence should be kept in evidence
for a period of time dictated by the police department’s policy. If the evidence is destroyed and
an internal investigation is conducted, the officers who deleted who photos could be disciplined
or terminated for not following policy on handling evidence.
Keywords: crime, evidence, policy, investigation
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Background
As the Commander of the Major Crimes Unit at a police department, I would definitely
want to be notified of these types of crimes, especially if involves a profession in the jurisdiction.
An accusation of rape is a major matter to be dealt with, no matter which person being accused is
a major matter to be dealt with. This type of investigation should be dealt with no matter the
type of person being accused. Furthermore, due to the accused being a public figure in the
community, these investigations should take no back doors with completing. The victim, in this
case, was brought forward by a parent in order to report what happened. According to the
victim, she was invited to the fire station for a tour by a firefighter. She stated she was “forced”
to wear department issued clothing and pose nude for photographs. Afterward, she stated they
had intercourse together on top of a fire engine while other employees were elsewhere.
The detectives interviewed the firefighter who stated he uses an online website to get
together with people interested in sexual liaisons. The detectives advised him the female in
question was 16 years of age and the firefighter was confused as her profile says she is 21 years
of age. According to the firefighter, they spoke online for some time and exchanged phone
numbers to begin texting before arranging a meeting at the fire station. The firefighter stated he
female came to the fire station voluntarily where, after taking nude photos in firefighting gear,
they had intercourse. The firefighter voluntarily handed over the camera with the photos and
showed the detectives the pictures described above. The detectives did their research of crimes
that met the incident; however, determined no crime had taken place. This was also confirmed
by a prosecutor. The detectives then deleted the images from the SD card on the camera and
gave it back to the firefighter. Lastly, the mother learned of the decision by the detectives and
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filed an internal affairs complaint. The Mayor of the city then demanded the Police Chief fire
both of the detectives.
Policy Issues
First, let’s talk about policy issues. Most departments have policies in place that say no
employee shall take photos of sensitive items within the department. Furthermore, I would say
that all departments have a policy in place that does not allow a nude photoshoot to take place on
company grounds as well as having intercourse, all depending on management, of course. The
evidence of the matter is the photos of the illicit encounter on company grounds as well as the
statement given from the firefighter. Furthermore, the online website showing the female as a
21-year-old woman is evidence as well.
In the past, people have made bad decisions when having illicit encounters on company
grounds and this was the way polices were put into place in order to stop them from happening.
Presently, it is much easier to meet someone online in order to fulfill such a request and to set a
meetup point to conduct such activities. Policies are put in place to stop these types of
encounters, as stated previously; however, they keep happening. In the future, policies will
continue to adapt to different situations that have happened in the past which, hopefully, will stop
people from doing illicit activities on company grounds.
According to Levi (2017, para. 1), “there remains a problem of what metrics are
appropriate for judging the threat and harm from cybercrimes, and their impact on national and
human security.” Cybercrime has made an impact on all of our lives individually as well as
businesses and public departments as well. Policies should reflect this and should be improved
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to the fact that employees may be susceptible to inappropriate online behavior whether or not
they knew a crime was being committed or not.
Moving on to the policy issues regarding the police department; the detectives did the
right thing with investigating and then referring to a prosecutor for direction in the case. This is
common in police work and can help give the direction of where to turn to next in terms of the
investigation. Not all police officers are adept with cybercrimes; however, cybercrime is already
a problem and all police officers should have some type of training to get them up to speed.
According to Cockcroft et al. (2018, para. 2), “cybercrime is a growing and global
phenomenon, which police need to be trained to respond to, and refers to incidences where a
computer is used in the commission of a crime or as a target of crime.” The policy issues in this
scenario are that the detectives should have followed would have been the destruction of
evidence, in the sense of deleting the illicit photos. No law enforcement officer should make the
determination to destroy evidence on their own. All evidence, whether or not, a crime has been
committed should be submitted into evidence. If the determination to not charge the suspect in
the case is decided, the evidence will still be in the case file until a certain amount of years goes
by, determined by policy, to be destroyed.
In the past, evidence was handled the exact same way when it comes to collecting.
Collect the evidence and submit it. If the evidence is no longer needed, policy or law should be
the determining factor when it comes to destroying the evidence. I see this as case law in the
future that all evidence be held for a certain amount of years no matter the severity of the crime
or if charges have been brought forward or not. Cockcroft et al. (2018, para. 4) states, “police
cybercrime education and training issues remain an area of interest to police leaders, think tanks,
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policy-makers, and academics.” Policies should be in place for the collection and destruction of
evidence and these detectives would have broken policy in most police departments.
If it was determined someone had broken policy, it could be admissible in a court of law
in either criminal or civil proceedings. This can ultimately hold the detectives and fireman
responsible for knowing their actions were not appropriate which could lead to criminal charges,
a civil suit, termination, or any combination.
Legal Issues
The legal issues of the case are two-fold. This falls upon the actions of the firefighter as
well as the detectives. Starting with the firefighter; who should have known to conduct more
research into a female, who describes herself as a 21-year-old woman, online, who is really only
16 years of age. It is well known that people use the internet to make false narratives about their
identities and the types of lives they live. While it was determined the firefighter did not
knowingly take nude photographs and have intercourse with a 16-year-old girl, it still happened.
According to De Paoli et al. (2020, para. 9), “moreover, often, cybercrime is not recorded
even when it is reported. Typically, because either the police are unable to recognize when
cybercrime has taken place or they can only record it if there is a formal mechanism to do so,
which is not always the case.” During the investigation, the detectives should have taken note
the suspected crime started out online where the evidence, in this case, would be all of the online
chatting between both parties as well as the webpage with the victim. The detectives did take
note of reading the chat between both parties; however, made no attempt of collecting that
evidence.
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If it was determined someone had broken policy, it could be admissible in a court of law
in either criminal or civil proceedings. This can ultimately hold the detectives and fireman
responsible for knowing their actions were not appropriate which could lead to criminal charges,
a civil suit, termination, or any combination.
With the rise of cybercrime, we need to understand that law enforcement is not the only
department that needs to worry about legal issues. According to Scudder et al. (2018, para. 1),
“although these applications have the potential to make a more immediate and decisive forensic
intelligence contribution to criminal investigations, they raise policy issues that will require
detailed consideration if this potential is to be realized.” Professionals in forensics are, in fact,
the professionals we need to turn to for the best guidance. They have the most training and
experience and law enforcement can learn from them.
In my department, all detectives would not only receive extensive training in forensic
evidence, but they would also receive extensive training in the legal concepts when it comes to
seizing evidence, extracting, storing, and presenting said evidence in court. The days of
interviewing everyone in the community are over as the internet is now the community.
According to Cordova et al. (2018, pg. 3), “an initial challenge to legal systems is the delayed
criminal laws. Traditional criminal laws focus its legal objects on physical objects but
cybercrime-related acts generally attack intangible objects such as information and information
technologies.”
Technical (forensic) Issues
Technology in today’s society plays a big role when it comes to forensics. The days are
over where it is only determining blood splatter patterns and collecting DNA. Forensic
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investigations now include technology that is ever-changing every day and can be hard to keep
up with. Not only do forensic specialists need to educate themselves on the new age of
technology, so do the magistrates. According to Bellovin et al. (2016, para. 5), “currently,
magistrate judges—who are appointed by district court judges to assist them in performance of
their duties—can issue a warrant to law enforcement to search computers, but only ones located
within their district. The proposed changes would grant judges the authority to issue a single
warrant to cover remote searches of a computer in other districts if its location has been hidden
or if it is located in five or more jurisdictions.”
The main technical, or forensic, issues involved in this scenario are that the detectives
have deleted the evidence in terms of the photos on the fireman’s camera. In any investigation,
all evidence is collected and stored property no matter the determination of the detectives.
Moreover, there was evidence in the form of the online profile of the victim which should have
been collected as evidence as well. This can show that the fireman and the female had a past
together and were talking before engaging in activities at the fire station.
An issue for these detectives could have run into would be remote searches of both of the
computers involved, being, the female and the firefighter. For local law enforcement, search
warrants are usually granted within the jurisdiction of the department applying for the search
warrant. However, remote searched is possible, and, according to Bellovin et al. (2016, para.
23), “the Fourth Amendment requires that warrants “particularly describ[e] the place to be
searched,” but that can be difficult with remote computer searches. In addition to the legal
complexity of determining from which judicial district a valid warrant may be issued, identifying
a computer's location often is not easy, even if its IP address is known.”
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Before applying for a search warrant for the website ‘Adult Friend Finder’, the detectives
could have inquired with the company to obtain all communication the young female and
firefighter conducted on their website. More times than not, the company will comply; however,
larger companies will require a search warrant to protect their customers. For future technical
issues involving this case would be the internal affairs investigation. This investigation will ask
why the detectives did not follow the policy and chose to delete the images on the camera. If this
policy was not in place before this incident, the Chief of Police would be sure pressed to make it
a policy in the future as pressure from the public would be too great.
According to Bulbul et al. (2013, para. ), “in order to ensure that digital evidence is
collected, preserved, examined, or transferred in a manner safeguarding the accuracy and
reliability of the evidence, law enforcement, and digital forensic units must establish and
maintain an effective quality assurance system. The very first part of this system is standard
operating procedures (SOP's) and/or models, a conforming chain of custody requirements, those
rely on digital forensics “process-phase-procedure-task-subtask” sequence.” This topic will be
discussed later in the paper; however, it is important to have training individuals in the
department who are adept at collecting digital evidence properly.
Moving on, I believe the Mayor of the city involved is jumping the gun asking for the
detectives to be fire before an investigation is completed. This is a standard tactic in politics to
get the heat off of the Mayor’s back by throwing people beneath him or her to the wolves. This
is a poor example of leadership and, in the future, the police department may resent this Mayor
as they now know the Mayor will not stand behind them. Investigations are important, whether
criminal, civil or internal, to discover the facts of the case instead of jumping to conclusions.
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Recommendation
My recommendations would mainly be to the detectives to understand they need to
collect evidence during their investigation. Once this evidence is collected it needs to be logged.
I understand that if a prosecutor advises an officer there should be no charges pressed, the
evidence already collected needs to be logged to matter what. The entire investigation up until
talking to the prosecutor will be logged and submitted into evidence. If not done so already, a
policy will be in place to state the above. Evidence shall be collected for an investigation and
that evidence will be logged into evidence up until the case is closed. Furthermore, evidence
shall not be deleted no matter the cause. This is to ensure no evidence is lost in case someone
makes a mistake in deciding whether or not to pursue charges. This can also protect against a
civil suit to show that the detectives followed all policies and procedures when collecting
evidence.
When it comes to collecting digital evidence, I would designate an evidence custodian
who deals specifically with digital evidence. Beforehand, I would ensure they have the training
to do so and would continue to send them to training to keep them up with current trends and
changes in digital evidence. Furthermore, this person will be adept at dealing with cybercrime
as well. According to Stanciu & Tinca (2017, para. 611), “in a digital global society, there are no
borders and the cyberattacks could focus on any target wherever it is located. Economic chains
linking different companies characterize the global economy making the companies, in many
cases, dependent. The cyberattack affecting one of the companies in this chain could affect the
entire business in the economic group.”
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Cyberattacks can happen anywhere at any time, just as traditional crimes; however,
cyberattacks can affect entire companies across the board while the cybercriminal can stay in one
location. This is why it is important to have a person or people dedicated to fighting cybercrime
within the department and who understands the ins and outs of collecting digital evidence. This
is why I would recommend the department will all be versed in collecting digital evidence. Not
only will I have a cybercrime division, but all officers who are actively responding to calls will
receive continued education in digital evidence collection. This is to keep up with the growing
issue with cybercrime as criminals are not using traditional crime techniques. Most departments
do not have a cybercrime division and a lot of the smarter criminals know they can get away with
the crime.
Lastly, when it comes to collecting evidence, all policies and laws should be followed
exactly the same every time. This is why policies are implemented in the first place; to ensure
the correct way of conducting an investigation is followed. Furthermore, I understand everyone
should know every single policy the department has; however, realistically, this is almost
impossible to remember every detail of every policy. Sometimes, humans make errors and,
depending on the severity of the error, the individual can be retrained on how to conduct
themselves the correct way instead of losing their job. Again, I do not agree with the Mayor with
immediately wanting the detectives to be fired and believe that is a typical political move to get
the heat off of their back.
Something which is out of my hands would be the district attorney’s office who is in
charge of that prosecutor. If they stand behind their prosecutor then they should make a public
announcement stating so. If not, they need to either retrain or reprimand that prosecutor in order
to avoid the same mistake from being made again. However, prosecutors are normally exempt
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from punishment when making legal decisions. This prosecutor may have made the correct
decision; however, the public eye may not think so.
Conclusion
As law enforcement, we are required to know the laws as well as good evidence
handling. No one is perfect and people make mistakes; however, no person in law enforcement
should destroy evidence before it is collected. Policies should be in place to protect evidence
handling practices and those should be followed. Furthermore, the detectives who destroyed the
evidence would not be fired in my department; rather, disciplined and made to attend evidence
handling training which covered digital evidence as to the main topic.
As for the Mayor wanting the detectives to be fired before and an investigation was
conducted is completely political and the wrong way to support your law enforcement
community. The public should understand that the best way to handle incidents like this is a
thorough investigation that will be released to the public for transparency to show the department
holds their officers to a high standard which showing ways to fix the issue at hand. The decision
of the prosecutor would be taken into account as well; however, that does not excuse the
collection of the evidence. Ephesians 6:4 says “fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Be a good leader and
understand people make mistakes. Allow them to learn from their mistakes to make them a
better officer but be sure to provide the training necessary for them to succeed.
Lastly, if internal affairs conclude, after the investigation, the two detectives are liable for
a civil lawsuit; the department would need to defend their officers. More times than not,
departments will ‘pay off’ a complainant as to avoid a lawsuit; however, all departments need to
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be prepared in case one goes forward. As law enforcement officers, we need to understand that
we can be solely held accountable for our actions and our department may not back us up. This
is why we need to be constantly learning with the changing of time in regards to investigations
and evidence collections. Not a lot of officers are adept at collecting digital evidence; however, a
detective within the cybercrime division should know the consequences for not collecting
evidence and then destroying it; possibly to protect the firefighter. Proverbs 11:13 tells us “the
integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.”
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References
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