This past Tuesday, March 28, my fundamentals in biomedical sciences (II) class was visited by Sgt. Laura Grantham from the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office. Sgt. Grantham specializes in the field of digital forensics. She was hand selected to enter training for this department. Training in digital forensics is incredibly extensive and requires 2,015 hours of training. She was trained in Hoover Alabama underneath a five-week-long course. Halfway through the course, participants are tested on the material, and if they failed, they were kicked out of the program (Sgt. Grantham, of course, passed). The course ended with an exam that took three days to complete.
Studying digital forensics is, of course, very important to catching criminals, but items can only be taken into evidence if they are found. Finding digital forensic evidence pieces can be difficult, as criminals are actively trying to rid any trace of the materials. This evidence can be hidden in strange places including poker chips, sprinkler heads, and even in the walls of a house. This is where we need the help of some furry friends! Dogs can be trained to become Electronic Storage Device (ESD) seekers. Sgt. Grantham is aided by one of these pups: Estee (S-D, get it?) Lader. Estee was originally being trained in Indiana to become a service dog, but unfortunately didn’t pass because she couldn’t defeat her desires to chase after leaves. She then switched her training to become an ESD dog, and after ten months, she passed! Her job is to search for electronic devices that may be used as forensic evidence. She enters a scene after an inital search for obivious devices has been performed. She is able to search for the smell of a chemical in the circuit board on any electronic device. She collects anything and everything that may be evidence because “its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it”(Sgt Grantham). She continues to train everyday through mock searches. We got to witness one of our very own!
Sgt. Grantham wanted to remind us that everyone leaves behind an electronic footprint, so its very important to be conscious of what we do online. Sometimes the people online are lying to you for horrible, disgusting reasons. I loved getting to meet Sgt Grantham and Estee, and I wish them both luck for their future endeavors. (I also hope Estee comes back again soon!)
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