Digital evidence is increasingly crucial to criminal investigations

Cell phones have become the new "smoking gun" for prosecutors and police in the Twin Cities and around the world, reports St Paul Pioneer Press. This month, British and Italian police helped arrest a terror suspect by tracing his cell phone usage minutes after London subway blasts.

"Prosecutors and police have quickly learned that lacking eyewitnesses, DNA or even a murder weapon, cell phone records can cement a circumstantial case and in some cases help locate suspects. With cell phones as typical as wallets or keys, investigators now frequently turn to digital evidence first.

"We search cell phones on all homicides," said Colleen Luna, St. Paul Police's senior commander of the homicide and evidence units. "Most people keep cell phones pretty close."

Investigators, with the help of global positioning systems, can figure out a suspect's location at the time of the crime. Phone records can show communication between suspects, conspirators and victims and help prosecutors check out alibis.

.. As cell phones become a mainstay of American life, the use of digital evidence would only increase.

"Digital media are part of everyday living," Stephen Cribari, a former federal public defender who teaches evidence at the University of Minnesota Law School. said, "So they are going to start appearing in court in an everyday way."

Related articles:

-- UK police making Gil Grissom jealous... - The Forensic Science Service (FSS) has developed a mobile laboratory which will travel to crime scenes and carry out real-time forensic investigation and analysis

-- The field of Cell Phone Forensics - Modern detectives are now using cell phone forensics to capture more and more criminals.

-- Police turn forensic skills on handhelds - Handhelds are likelier to lead to handcuffs for techie criminals following the release of a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

emily | 11:17 AM | SMS used by the Police |
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