Birmingham: Inside the West Midlands Police team helping investigate crimes in a digital age

It is 4am, on a chilly December morning.

Officers from West Midlands Police quietly approach a row of terraced houses in Birmingham.

Under the glow of a street light, one uses his battering ram to break down the front door of one of the houses.

As they file in, they are looking for a woman suspected of drug dealing – and her mobile phone.

They quickly find her in a bedroom and tell her “that phone is going to be seized because we believe it has evidence on it so if we think you’ve got potential to wipe that phone and we’re not going to allow that to happen”.

Back at force headquarters in central Birmingham, the force’s digital forensics manager Gavin Green tells me that they have seized more than 4,000 phones and computers for analysis in the last year alone.

The devices have helped them solve anything from shoplifting cases, to rapes and murders.

“In the past we were looking at the old fashioned Nokia burner type phones that had a limited amount of data but it’s developed – with a smart phone, you’re looking at a mini computer that holds a lot of personal data such as the location those people have been, you look at your iPhones for example you see the iOS updating on a near weekly, monthly basis so we have to stay abreast of those changes,” he said.

‘Help the cops on the frontline’

They tell me that 95% of crime they deal with now has an online connection – so they are expanding their digital forensics team – at a time when budgets are tight.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford stops by at the unit to explain why.

“The reality is since 2010 we’ve got 800 fewer officers in the West Midlands, more than anywhere else in the UK but we’re determined if we have a pound or ten pounds we do our very best for the public,” he said.

“It’s our job as senior leaders in the organisation to make those strategic decisions, make those investment decisions, bring new people, new blood into the organisation, apprentices, people more from the digital age that can help the cops on the frontline solve the crimes on behalf of the public.”

Aimee is one of the new recruits. Having recently graduated, she started with the unit in October.

She’s “triaging” the hard drive of a computer – looking for any files which would help her investigation.

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“We do a variety of crimes – kidnapping, robbery, burglary all that kind of stuff…but the main stuff is child abuse which obviously it can be very hard because it’s not nice seeing those kind of things”, said Aimee.

“It is very rewarding being able to help these children and put people away it’s really interesting work”.