2021 Digital Intelligence Benchmark Report: Despite Lockdown Drop in Crime, Investigations Still Slowed by Digital Evidence
PR90619
PETAH TIKVA, Israel, July 14, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --
Cellebrite, the global leader in Digital Intelligence (DI) solutions for the
public and private sectors, today published its annual Digital Intelligence
Benchmark Report for 2021, an analysis of responses from 2,000 agency managers,
investigators, analysts and forensic examiners working in law enforcement
agencies across 117 different countries.
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The study into DI -- which makes digital data accessible and actionable in
legally sanctioned investigations -- reveals that despite a drop in certain
crime types across some of the world's biggest economies as a result COVID-19
lockdown, agencies are still struggling to keep pace, process and analyze
digital evidence quickly and effectively.
Nearly half the world's population -- 3.9 billion people -- was under some form
of lockdown by the first week of April 2020. A United Nations report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=336657890&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unodc.org%2Fdocuments%2Fdata-and-analysis%2Fcovid%2FProperty_Crime_Brief_2020.pdf&a=A+United+Nations+report
) based on data from 30 countries revealed that reported robbery, theft, and
burglary declined significantly because of the pandemic, falling by more than
50% in most countries, with larger decreases where lockdown measures were
stricter. In certain countries, homicides also fell by an average of 25% during
March/April 2020 in the immediate aftermath of the pandemic. However, according
to an April 2021 CNN report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=3480597960&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2021%2F04%2F03%2Fus%2Fus-crime-rate-rise-2020%2Findex.html&a=according+to+an+April+2021+CNN+report
) the US saw a significant rise in violent crime (33%) in major cities in 2020
and it is not letting up in 2021.
Despite this temporary dip in certain crimes, the Digital Intelligence
Benchmark Report (https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3226720-1&h=1077668883&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cellebrite.com%2Fen%2Findustry-report%2F&a=Digital+Intelligence+Benchmark+Report) reveals the amount of overtime worked by examiners in 2020 declined by just 3 per cent compared to 2019 levels. On the other hand, investigators are spending an average of 48 hours a week reviewing photos, recorded videos, and text
messages from devices, along with CCTV and security videos, and creating
reports. Furthermore, investigators reported a 5 to 7-day average turnaround
time to receive data and an initial report from examiners in the lab.
The implications of not speeding up the digital investigation process for
solving crimes and saving lives are significant because, according to the
study, digital evidence plays a role in almost two thirds (63%) of all
investigations. Of those investigations, smartphones were an evidence source in
96%, followed by Windows computers (52%), feature phones (45%), tablets (39%)
and even emerging technologies such as wearables (8%) and cryptocurrencies (8%).
Mark Gambill, EVP at Cellebrite comments: "We could see there was no
improvement against many KPIs our industry tracks despite the dips in crime
we've seen throughout 2020. Law enforcement's ability to lawfully access locked
devices continues to slow-down investigations. And, we were not at all
surprised to see the importance of digital evidence to solving crimes clearly
reflected in the data, as well as new technologies such as crypto and wearables
playing a role in advancing investigations. Agency managers, investigators,
analysts and forensic examiners didn't have any respite last year and the
situation is about to worsen as crime rates, particularly violent crime, are
rising quickly across major metropolitan areas across the world."
The report also reveals that managers within law enforcement agencies recognize
that there are still major inefficiencies in the investigation ecosystem. 55%
of agency managers said they have a poor or no digital transformation strategy
and are likely to prioritize digital transformation.
The report highlights five major development areas that are inhibiting law
enforcement agencies from fully leveraging their digital evidence as part of
their investigative workflow:
-- Staffing shortages: Despite recruitment and retention challenges that
law enforcement agencies are grappling with, the Digital Intelligence
Benchmark Report revealed just 7% of agencies hired or plan to hire
additional examiners to help process digital evidence. This resource
crunch is placing an additional burden onto agencies that are at or
above their existing investigative capacity.
-- Skills shortage: Most law enforcement agencies are still lacking
sufficient IT expertise to implement and operationalize new digital
technologies to speed up the investigative workflow of collecting,
analyzing, managing, and storing digital evidence. Investigators also
lack the additional training needed to effectively use tools such as
analytics.
-- Tools & technologies: 97% of investigators feel key evidence is
missing or lost when reviewing digital data and 47% of examiners feel
they miss significant amounts of data from device examinations. They
agreed that with so much time and energy spent on reviewing digital
data, more effective tools are needed to accelerate time to evidence.
-- Inter- and intra-agency silos: Digital evidence from multiple devices
often needs to be compared, contrasted, and investigated alongside
other data sources such as cloud, CDRs, data from RMS and internal
police databases. However, because of silos between different
departments and IT systems, and evidence storage on removable media
rather than a centralized evidence management system, it takes longer
than it should to surface insights and leads. The report stated that 1
in 3 agency managers are not satisfied with the collaboration
capabilities within their agency and with agency partners.
-- DI Strategy and foresight: 55% of agency managers said they have a
poor or no digital transformation strategy and are likely to
prioritize digital transformation. A staggering third (34%) of agency
managers reported that they were dissatisfied with their agency's
strategy for collecting, preserving, managing, and safeguarding
digital evidence and 35% said they were dissatisfied with their
agency's strategy for processing and analyzing digital evidence.
The Digital Intelligence Benchmark Report also makes a series of
recommendations for how agencies can get back on the front foot:
-- Assess the gaps and outline a solid DI strategy to ensure your path to
digital policing is charted. Along the way you will surely need to
course-correct, but setting the direction is paramount.
-- Recruit tech-minded talent that are so integral to the future of
policing by changing traditional approaches to hiring and creating
career pathways that are attractive for skilled technology workers.
-- Invest in new technologies and training that enable investigators to
efficiently collect and review evidence from any device or source and
accelerate the analysis of that evidence to solve crimes quicker.
-- Break down information silos within the agency, and between agencies,
by building a culture of collaboration through first-class
investigative workflow for the digital age -- operations, systems,
personnel, and processes.
The full report can be downloaded at:
https://www.cellebrite.com/en/industry-report/
About Cellebrite
Cellebrite's mission is to enable its customers to protect and save lives,
accelerate justice, and preserve privacy in communities around the world.
Cellebrite is the global leader in Digital Intelligence solutions for the
public and private sectors, empowering organizations to master the complexities
of legally sanctioned digital investigations by streamlining intelligence
processes. Trusted by thousands of leading agencies and companies in more than
140 countries, Cellebrite's Digital Intelligence platform and solutions
transform how customers collect, review, analyze and manage data in legally
sanctioned investigations. To learn more visit us at www.cellebrite.com and
https://www.cellebrite.com/en/investors/.
Contacts
Media
Adam Jaffe
VP of Global Communications
+1 973 206 7643
adam.jaffe@cellebrite.com
- or -
RapidResponse@cellebrite.com
Investors
Anat Earon-Heilborn
VP, Investor Relations
+972 73 394 8440
investors@cellebrite.com
SOURCE Cellebrite
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