“Our main purpose is to do forensic examination on digital evidence that’s seized during an investigation, a criminal investigation,” Special Agent Miles Wiltrout of the FBI says.
After nearly 2 and half years in a small room in city hall, the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force now has a space of its own at MPD.
“We have room for all of our agencies,” Wiltrout says, “homeland security, Medford Police Department, FBI.”
Wiltrout took us inside the new facility, specifically designed to reduce static charge.
“If you have a digital device that contains evidence if it gets hit by a static charge that’s strong enough you can damage that device and possibly damage the evidence,” Wiltrout says.
The task force also has more than three times the space, meaning all its tools are now in one place.
“Now that we have everything together we can work collaboratively,” Wiltrout says.
That’s a big plus, as the task force is already investigating 10% more cases this year, than the same time last year. And with 8 work stations, instead of 2, they’re ready to expand as the case load continues to grow.
“There’s always gonna be somebody else, there’s always gonna be another crime, and there’s always gonna be a need for more people to help out.”
More than half of the task force’s cases continue to deal with child sexual exploitation. Detectives say they’re also seeing an increase in traditional cyber crimes like business email compromise.
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