Connecticut State Police Patch STATE OF CONNECTICUT
Department of Public Safety
1111 Country Club Road
Middletown, Connecticut 06457
 
Contact: 
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 16, 2008
LOCAL OFFICERS COMPLETE TRAINING AS COMPUTER CRIME
INVESTIGATORS AT STATE POLICE COMPUTER CRIME LAB

   The Connecticut  State Police Computer Crimes and Electronic Evidence Unit, working with the National White Collar Crimes Center (NW3C), has been providing a yearlong, ongoing computer crimes investigative training program know as the Fast Track Forensic Program to police officers from local police departments in Connecticut. This program was created to expeditiously train a core group of local police officers in the field of Computer Forensics.

 Through the Connecticut State Police’s Internet Crimes Against Children Grant (ICAC), the State Police obtained $200,000 which has been used to complement numerous classes provide by NW3C in the state of Connecticut.

   This week, the State Police provided each local officer with more than $10,000 worth of computer equipment to use during the training.  The officers will bring the computer equipment back to their departments to begin conducting computer forensic examinations.

   During this training week, the local officers came to the State Police Forensic Laboratory to obtain their assigned forensic workstations and to be trained in the use of the machines and associated software which have been purchased for them.

   The overall Connecticut Fast Track Forensic Program started in early 2008. When training is completed this week, the local officers will return to their departments and conduct local examinations with the software, hardware and training that they have obtained so far.

   This Fast Track Forensic Training Program was implemented due to the continued growth in computer-related investigations and the seizure of numerous computers and related media. The shear amount of data has mushroomed as the industry attempts to make bigger and faster devices at cheaper prices.

   In the State of Connecticut, approximately 80% of the forensic casework is sent to the State Police Computer Crimes Laboratory, with the other 20% sent to local Police Departments. The problem lies with the fact that the growing volume of computer crime cases is exponentially larger than the current number of computer forensic examiners who are trained to investigate the evidence. The Fast Track Computer Forensic Program was implemented in an effort to put law enforcement in a strategic position to handle the current computer forensic caseload and to be prepared to deal with the future number of cases.  Officers in class this week at the State Police Computer Crimes Laboratory are listed below.

Bristol PD

Detective Alan Hornkohl

Canton PD

Detective Kevin Wilkison

Enfield PD

Detective Timothy Lewis

Glastonbury PD

Detective Rich McKeon

Hartford PD

Sergeant Andrew Weaver

Milford PD

Detective Todd Richards

New Britain PD

Detective Michael Grossi

New London PD

Detective Keith Crandall

Norwich PD

Officer Carl Dye

Redding PD

Officer Chris McManus

Southington PD

Officer Michael Kahn

Stamford PD

Officer Mark Sinise

Stratford PD

Detective Peter Grindrod

Thomaston PD

Sergeant Jim Campbell

Torrington PD

Detective Keith Dablain

Vernon PD

Detective Steven Prattson

Waterbury PD

Officer Mike Chance

Wilton PD

Detective Scott Sear

### END ### Lt. J. Paul Vance