UW-Platteville will soon have more in common with popular TV shows like “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and “NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigation Service,” than many students may realize.

Graphic by Adam Boerst

UW-P has received a grant for a new digital forensic analysis laboratory. UW-P police officer Jason Williams and criminal justice professor Joe Lefevre say the lab will be used for the recovery and analysis of digital data in criminal investigations.

Williams and LeFevre came up with the idea and presented it to Chief of Campus Police Scott Marquardt. Williams and Lefevre wrote a project proposal on the advice of Marquardt and submitted the proposal to former Chancellor David Markee. Markee approved the proposal and started the search for grants to fund the project.

“I am very proud of [Williams and Lefevre] for putting together such an outstanding grant proposal,” Marquardt said.

Lefevre said the forensics lab would benefit the surrounding area as police departments both in Wisconsin and the tri-state area cannot rely on timely evidence back from the state crime lab. The new forensics lab will allow, for a minor fee, evidence to be returned in weeks instead of months.

“This lab will provide these departments with forensically sound evidence with a timely turnaround, which will result in higher conviction rates for electronic or computer-type crimes,” Williams said.

The lab was approved in August as a part of the Recovery Act in Wisconsin, which was instrumental in the receiving of the grant, as all money stayed in Wisconsin.

The new workstation is currently on the assembly line at Digital Intelligence located in New Berlin.

The workstation Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device, will “take evidence that police officers gather at a crime scene and store it on a hard drive,” said Lefevre. “It can then pull out information pertaining to the case credibly and with evidentiary value.”

This makes certain that officers, through editing of certain documents, never corrupt the information.

“The Secret Service uses FRED, and it will be our workstation until we can upgrade to the Cadillac of forensic workstations, the EnCase, which is made in Washington, D.C.,” Lefevre said.

The EnCase currently runs $4,000 and the Forensics Lab must look for more funding through grants for future expenses.

Both Lefevre and Williams have been through beginning training on how to use the new workstation. They will go through more specialized training on the use of equipment and the downloading of data through the company Digital Intelligence.

The future home for FRED is already picked out in Ullsvik Hall and Lefevre says he expects the digital forensics lab to be up and running by spring.