In the last 7 years I gave been a cell phone/network export in over 65 cases. A majority of those cases I work with the criminal defense attorney and their client. Many of the cases are civil where I work with both the attorneys for both the plaintiff and the defendant. In all of the criminal cases the prosecution uses a law enforcement person with some cellular network and software training. They typically have dedicated officers that can extract the data from the phone and analyze data that is provided under a search warrant from the wireless operators. They use various software tools to extract data as well as perform analysis on the extracted data and data they obtain from the wireless operator.
Their training ranges from a week or two to several multiple day courses on various aspects of the cellular technology and software tools. Rarely, if ever have any of these "experts" has an engineering degree nor has performed engineering type work. Their background is usually law enforcement with related education associated with law enforcement.
It is critical to make a distinction as to their expertise. Based on their law enforcement background and their experience and training in analyzing the cell phone data one would logically assume they have an expertise in presenting the data in a more understandable form such as point locations on a map for example. We can also assume they are experts in analyzing the data as it associates with criminal activity. For example, they may track the movement of the cell phone in relation to other gathered data to come to some conclusions.
However, in many of these cases we get into the details of how a cellular system actually works, how radio waves are transmitted and coverage areas of cell towers. This gets into a completely different type of expertise. This requires a special knowledge of how different technologies in cellular systems function, how different frequencies affect coverage and many other factors involved. For example, one cannot just draw a circle with a one mile radius around a cell tower and call that the coverage area. Many factors go into the cell tower coverage area. There have been cases where I had to dig into the messaging between the phone and the tower and characteristics of the messaging in order to analyze timing advance phone location estimates. Hundreds of white papers have been written on phone location estimation through the use of round trip time analysis. Accuracy depends on many factors so one must understand the varying technologies and the conditions of the network at the time of the incident.
It is irresponsible to call the law enforcement personnel experts in cellular technology. Here is an example. Let's say a bridge collapsed and the local government wanted to determine the cause of the collapse. Would they hire a recent civil engineering graduate? Or would they hire a person with a civil engineering degree and 30 years designing bridges with experience analyzing similar types of failures ?. They both have civil engineering training yet is is very clear who the "expert" is in this case.
The same goes for cellular technology. Are you going to hire a law enforcement person with some training classes in cellular technology or a person with an engineering degree, 30 years designing/testing cellular networks with experience analyzing cell phone data for legal cases ?
I have worked on fewer civil cases than criminal but in the civil cases I will typically go against an expert hired by the other side. Most of the experts I go up against are really computer forensic experts. They understand how to analyze computer files, folders, operating systems, applications, etc. The assumption that the phone is just another computing device let's them identify themselves as cell phone technology experts as well. This is far from the truth. A cell phone may have files and folders, operating system and apps but is functions very differently than a computer. It communicates over highly technical radio signals. For example, when determining location a computer's IP address can be identified and via the internet provider the location of the computer is easily determined. This functions completely differently in a cell phone. Location is not as simple as that. It involves many variables and differing technologies.
So for the sake of your client please hire the correct expert. If it is a computer case hire a computer expert. If it is a cell phone case make sure you hire a cell phone/technology expert.
Comments