Forensic backlogs are an increasing concern for many law enforcement agencies. Forensic backlogs are an increasing concern for many law enforcement agencies. Agencies must shift from simply collecting digital evidence to effectively analyzing the digital evidence collected. Media analysis is time-intensive and requires training to ensure that all pieces of evidentiary value are identified and processed.

The United Kingdom is facing a severe absence of forensic processing capacity, leading to a backlog of forensic work requested by law enforcement agencies across the country. Long delays in receiving results can have major implications for the criminal justice system and can leave vital evidence untested, resulting in convictions potentially being overturned or offenders going free. This blog article will discuss the issue of forensic backlogs in the U.K. and the steps that are being taken to reduce them, to the benefit of law enforcement agencies.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in May 2021 there were approximately 28,860 individuals employed as private investigators [1]. People or companies hire private investigators for a variety of case types that other professionals do not handle. Private investigators are often tasked with handling sensitive and emotionally-charged situations. Part of the responsibility in such cases is understanding how to retrieve data from devices and memory cards, which can provide evidence to help prove or disprove a client's situation or theory.

Video forensics tools help forensic analysts by providing a way to enhance and analyze video footage. These tools can improve the quality of video footage, make it easier to identify objects and people in the video, and determine the sequence of events.