In 2009 the Southern Oregon High-Tech Crimes Task Force (SOHTCTF) added a mobile digital forensics laboratory to our task force.  This vehicle is equipped to allow two forensic examiners to work in the climate controlled and protected environment of the vehicle while conducting forensic examinations of digital evidence at the scene of a crime.  This vehicle has made it possible for task force members to immediately respond to incidents with all the tools and equipment necessary for a criminal investigation involving digital evidence.

It is all too common for our investigators to arrive at a scene of a crime or search warrant to find thirty or more items of digital evidence.  Prior to having this vehicle, most of those items would be collected and transported to the forensics lab, requiring them to be sealed, labeled, stored, and examined.  The mobile forensics lab allows us to do forensic previews and triage in the field, greatly reducing the amount of evidence actually seized and transported to the lab.  This provides several efficiencies for the task force and also provides case agents in the field with immediate results of some of the digital evidence, assisting them in their suspect interviews and more.

This vehicle was made possible by the following:

• Mercy Flights Ambulance
• Star Towing
• Whelen Engineering
• Valley Vinyl
• Advanced Graphix
• Mitch Jones Cabinetry
• The Sign Dude
• Advantage Tire

Side view of mobile forensics unit