An inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has found that police forces in England and Wales are ‘overwhelmed and ineffective when it comes to digital forensics’.

They concluded that police forces haven’t kept pace with the challenges of digital forensics within criminal investigations and in some cases ‘the police simply didn’t understand what digital forensics meant’.  The report determined that delays in which victims’ phones were being examined are ‘so egregious that victims are being failed’ by the police.

Matt Purr, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, commented that ‘Delays, lack of resources and lack of adequate training means some victims are being let down and officers are missing their chance to bring offenders to justice.’

Presently, there is a backlog of almost 25,000 devices waiting to be examined by police and the delay from downloading the content of these devices has had a knock-on effect on both the prosecutions of offenders and the well-being of victims.

HMICFRS concluded that victims’ needs were scarcely considered when the mobile device was being seized by frontline responders or investigators and that furthermore, victims’ phones and mobile devices, often containing private and personal data, wholly irrelevant to investigation, was being kept by the police for many months with little to no deletion protocol in place.

Inspectors found there was an ‘enormous gulf’ in performance between police forces. In certain parts of the country digital forensic examinations are slow, ineffective and remain lack professionalism in comparison to more traditional wet forensics i.e., fingerprinting and ballistics.

The report made nine recommendations to improve digital forensic services within the police, including that the national police chief’s council appoint a dedicated lead for digital forensics in 2023.