New digital evidence course for legal professionals

Dundee

Leading forensic science practitioners involved in retrieving digital evidence from crime scenes are revealing their ways of working, in a new short course at the University of Dundee.

Aimed at legal professionals, the Digital Evidence Awareness course, led by the University’s Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS), delves into how digital evidence is collected and processed.

Participants learn about different types of digital evidence – such as data from mobile phones, laptops or even vehicle computers – and how devices are safely retrieved from crime scenes while protecting this evidence.

They also learn how understanding digital evidence can be applied to preparing or presenting a case at court and about the limitations of this evidence.

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid, Director of LRCFS, said, “Almost every criminal or civil case now has some element of digital evidence. Understanding digital evidence is an essential skill for specialists, including first responders at crime scenes and legal professionals.

“This course covers what digital evidence is and what it is not, how it can be secured and protected at the scene to ensure it is retrieved in the correct way. We also explore how digital evidence can be used in an investigation as well as how it can exclude people from an investigation.”

The content of the short, self-study course was created by Paul Reedy, a Fellow and honorary professor at LRCFS and one of the world’s leading experts in the field of digital evidence.

Paul began his career in Australia as a drug analyst and toxicologist before going on to lead the Australian Federal Police’s forensic capabilities.

In 2013 he moved to Washington DC to be part of the DC Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) and he has recently started up his own digital evidence consultancy, 4th Street Global.

Professor Nic Daeid continued, “Paul is a global expert in this field and has drawn on a considerable amount of his own experience to put together this short course.

“Legal professionals may already have a rudimental understanding of digital evidence but it’s likely to be limited knowledge that they have picked up along the way, as areas such as digital evidence do not tend to be taught as part of legal qualifications.

“Here at the University of Dundee’s Law School we recently added a digital evidence module to our LLB and LLM courses so that our students are well prepared for this evidence type in practice which we see as essential in their future careers.”

The short, self-study Digital Evidence Awareness course is available to access on the course page on the LRCFS website.