Law Enforcement Authorities' Legal Digital Evidence Gathering: Legal, Integrity and Chain-of-Custody Requirement

Abstract

When carrying out criminal investigations, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) apply new technology in very effective ways. However at worst, LEAs must perform many stages twice with the help of different technical tools. When investigating the identity of criminals LEAs may apply totally different technical tools than when gathering evidences for charge, because the data provided by investigating may not be valid in court. For that reason, a new monitoring system that goes beyond state of the art is needed. Three organizational layers need attentions: 1) LEA, the people that actually retrieve and store the information. 2) Prosecutors and their offices, how they get access to the information. 3) Courts, the final destination of the retrieved information. Until now, the information gathering tools for LEAs have been engineered focusing only on the best way to retrieve the information from the target. The attention paid to the legal, integrity and chain-of-custody requirements as well as social acceptance and legal oversight in connection with retrieving information has been inadequate and guidance on the matters has existed only in manuals written by legal departments.