Economy Chief of Police Michael O'Brien
By Felicia Mycyk
The Economy Police Department has been awarded a grant for new cell phone forensic software.
The Economy Police Department has been awarded a grant for new cell phone forensic software.
Police Chief Michael O’Brien said "cell phones obviously are very popular today. Everybody is using them and criminals use them too. "
With the new software, the department will be able to do forensic examinations with cell phones in house rather than sending situations to the state police barracks in Edinboro.
O'Brien said turn around time from the state police can range from four to six months before getting information back from cell phones. '
The grant paid for 52 percent of the software cost, which was about $1,900, and the department paid for the rest. The department will be getting one license on the software and training is included in the grant.
O’Brien said his understanding of the software is that it will allow them to extract any data that is in a cell phone including some deleted data.
It will also allow for map plotting, which takes text and call detail records and gives a grid location of what tower the cell phone signal bounces off. This would allow a user travel history to be tracked, he said.
Councilwoman Pat Skonieczny commended the chief on receiving the grant.
"It takes a lot of time and effort to get grants," Skonieczny said, also mentioning that "any grant is very important because it saves the taxpayers money."
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With the new software, the department will be able to do forensic examinations with cell phones in house rather than sending situations to the state police barracks in Edinboro.
O'Brien said turn around time from the state police can range from four to six months before getting information back from cell phones. '
The grant paid for 52 percent of the software cost, which was about $1,900, and the department paid for the rest. The department will be getting one license on the software and training is included in the grant.
O’Brien said his understanding of the software is that it will allow them to extract any data that is in a cell phone including some deleted data.
It will also allow for map plotting, which takes text and call detail records and gives a grid location of what tower the cell phone signal bounces off. This would allow a user travel history to be tracked, he said.
Councilwoman Pat Skonieczny commended the chief on receiving the grant.
"It takes a lot of time and effort to get grants," Skonieczny said, also mentioning that "any grant is very important because it saves the taxpayers money."
Like Ambridge Connection on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and sign up for our weekly newsletter.
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