Other LanguagesReporter/Anchor:
YOU’VE SEEN THE SHOW “CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION” AND ALL OF ITS SPINOFFS, BUT WHAT ABOUT DIGITAL CRIME SCENES? WELL, TODAY GOVERNOR CHRIS GREGOIRE SIGNED A BILL THAT LAYS THE GROUNDWORK FOR THE CREATION OF A DIGITAL CRIME LAB IN OUR STATE. ATTORNEY GENERAL ROB MCKENNA, WHO REQUESTED THE BILL, EXPLAINS WHY WE NEED THE LAB…
“More crimes than ever are being committed against Washington residents that involve the use of technology and a lot of these crimes target children. Unfortunately your local police department’s ability to investigate crimes that involve technology such as a computer hard drive that an online sex predator is using is really limited because that police department doesn’t really have an adequate way to gather and preserve digital evidence.”
Reporter/Anchor:
SO WHAT DOES THIS NEW BILL, PASSED UNANIMOUSLY BY BOTH CHAMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE DO?
“This bill requires my office to study digital crime labs in other states working with the state patrol and to develop a blue print that we will bring back to the state legislature in about six months. It’s a pretty quick turnaround but frankly this is an absolutely necessary step to bring our state’s crime fighting capabilities fully into the 21st century. “
Reporter/Anchor:
BUT SOME MIGHT ASK, DOES THE STATE REALLY NEED YET ANOTHER STUDY?
“Actually we think that producing a blue print for a Washington state digital forensics crime lab will make it a lot more likely that the crime lab will actually be built. And although the money to build it isn’t available today, it will be in coming years and we want to be ready to build it as soon as the money becomes available. “
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Contacts:
Dan Sytman, AGO Media Relations Manager, (360) 586-7842
Janelle Guthrie, AGO Communications Director, (360) 586-0725