As O’Neill Criminal Justice major Nichole Reatherford walks into the crime lab, she starts checking bags filled with electronics—things like phones, computers, smart watches, and more. The devices are evidence—and she’s looking for someone’s digital fingerprints.

“Everyone’s physical fingerprints are important, but our digital fingerprints are just as important,” she explains.

She reads the case warrant carefully, making sure she knows exactly what she can—and cannot—look for or through on each device.

“You always have to make sure you have a detailed warrant for each device,” she says. “Not following the warrant can literally set a guilty person free.”

She opens the evidence envelope, pulls out the devices, and arranges them neatly on her desk, taking meticulous notes as she goes. Organization and documentation, she says, are critical to what she does.

Then she gets to work. She plugs in the devices to the department’s forensic tools and uses software to scour apps, text messages, and call records—anything that might be of use to detectives.

“I like to think I’m like an undercover agent,” she chuckles. “That’s always been the joke in my family—that I could track down almost any information, digitally.”

Reatherford is one of two interns currently working with the Digital Forensics Unit, a partnership between the IU Police Department and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. IUPD Detective Sarah McKalips leads the internship and helps introduce students to the world of digital forensics.

(more…)