Cyber Investigations, A Law Enforcement Needs Assessment

The purpose of this article is to assess the needs of local and state law enforcement agencies to investigate both cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crimes. While large federal investigative agencies have the skills, tools and resources to investigate cyber-crimes, the increasing propagation of such crimes has overwhelmed their ability to investigate all but the most serious national security threats and large-scale cyber-crimes. To that end, this article assesses the current knowledge, skills, and abilities of local law enforcement to perform cyber-crime investigations and more importantly their desire to do so. As these crimes grow in ease and popularity it is posited that local law enforcement will be required to have the technical skills to investigate a myriad of cyber-crimes at the local level. As such, there will be a need for local training in cyber-crimes investigation and shared investigative resources. Additionally, this paper gauges local law enforcements' willingness to participate in such training.