Local Law Enforcement Updates Interlocal Agreement on Cell Phone Forensics

The Wenatchee City Council last week voted unanimously to allow the police department to update it's interlocal agreement regarding cell phone data extraction.

The interlocal agreement between the Wenatchee Police Department, East Wenatchee Police Department, Douglas County Sheriff's Office, Chelan County Sheriff's Office, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the local drug task force must be updated any time there is an identified need for change.

In this case, it's new software as well as some changes in leadership and administration within the various law enforcement agencies.

The forensic software/hardware is from a company called Cellebrite.

"This service allows us to pull anything of evidentiary value that may be on the phone." Wenatchee Police Captain Brian Chance said, "That would potentially include photos, videos, text messages, call history, and those types of things as they relate to criminal investigations."

Access to a suspect's cell phone still must be granted by a search warrant from a judge.

"It's not anything that would allow us to 'hack' into anything." Chance continued, "It's just relatively basic software that allows us to extract information from a cell phone so that we can view it and maintain it as evidence as it relates to our case."

Wenatchee PD will initially purchase the hardware and software, with the other agencies reimbursing the police department their portion of the associated costs later.