The threat to critical police data in today's world is real and growing at an exponential rate as agencies become more dependent upon digital technology for day-to-day operations. In addition, cybercrime is no longer isolated to financial institutions. Today's burglars are using social media and the Internet to fence stolen goods. They use smartphone technology to help evade detection by police, while simultaneously creating digital evidence of their crimes. Incriminating information that used to be found in a written format is now digitized on microchips. Police agencies are historically very slow to develop the operational capabilities to meet new demands, and now technology changes those demands almost daily. With many agencies facing economic cutbacks, just keeping officers on the street can be a struggle. Thus many agencies simply choose to ignore the ever-evolving world of digital evidence and cyber-related crime except in very narrow circumstances such as high-profile cases where external agency relationships can be leveraged for assistance. The routine cases are most often left to traditional analog investigative methods, which are quickly becoming outdated.
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