Family and Friends Forum

Sorry I don't have the answer. We are in the same position as you. First they said 3 months then it was 6 months and after being on this forum I'm preparing myself for it to take years. I think it's unfair that they mess with families lives like this.

I am in the process of compiling a list of FOI requests to all the police forces, asking them how long it takes to process digital devices.

There are huge variations across the country, with the longest time so far being 267 days and the shortest 30 days.

So perhaps an FOI request to your local force, asking how long investigations are taking to get to court, might give you a clue.

My husband was arrested July 2022. The police have received his devices back August 2023, they have the forensic report, but so far have been "too busy" to look at it.

I called the OIC every few months to get an update. He was always very helpful. He told me that they have an average time for devices to be checked.... but although these offences are classed as a serious crime, if eg there is a murder to investigate that will be done first

Hi - I would like to make a FOI request for the information. Can you share what questions you asked so that I can make sure I ask the right questions?

Hi, we were warned by our solicitor that due to backlog it could be at least a year..as it turned out it was nearly 18 months.

It's tough when you need to know what's there, however it's a process and can't be chased.

Xx

Edel2020 what areas have you found out timescales for if you don't mind me asking?

My OH was arrested March 22. 2 weeks ago they made contact saying they have found something and now have to send device off to forensics errrr what have they been doing all this time we thought the device was already at forensics how can they say they have found something if it hasn't been through the process and why take so long about it

Hi all..

Does anyone know why the backlog is so big?? Is it the amount of devices?? Lack of staff? ETC... x

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My husband was arrest July 2022 and we were told august last year 2023 that it would be another 500 days as there's a huge backlog it's had to be outsourced to be checked. It's a disgrace really, we've rebuilt our life's tried to get back to some sort of normality then when ever they feel like they will come a disrupt our whole life's again.

3 years and 7 months in, still RUI and no charges yet. It's so stressful and the police do not care. Will be 4 years this year of living with the PtSd just be prepared for the long haul.
xx

Hi husband arrested October 2022 ... NFA October 2023. I was told by the Officer in charge 3 months originally.
The Officer in charge was quite open with me and explained she couldn't push it through quicker as we didn't have children living at home. She said cases had doubled in the past 2 years but they didn't have any extra resources to deal with the increase.
I also think it depends which area you live in.
Hope you get some answers soon x

OH arrested Feb 2022. We have had 1 text from the police (around year later) saying no updates and nothing else since. We have no idea if they are being checked, or anything. So we are just waiting until we get a letter through the door about charges......

I've had replies from many of the forces, but its worth noting that a lot of them either refused to answer, or didn't know how long it was taking to process devices. It's also worth saying that there may be other reasons why things are taking so long, such as backlogs at the courts, backlogs at the CPS, staff shortages, or the force prioritising other types of offence.

These are the ones who have responded so far. Once I have all the replies, I will post a full list.

the Met - 267 days to process digital devices

kent 229 days

avon 161

cambs 110

west yorks 90

dorset 86

wilts 69

lancs 65

beds 60

derbys 30

herts 28

and these are the ones who couldn't, or wouldn't, give an answer

cheshire

durham

essex

gtr manchester

gwent

hants

lincs

notts

scotland

south wales

Indecent images investigations are conducted by a specialist police department, in our case it was called something along the line of "online child sexual exploitation" department.

They are specialist officers and they shouldn't investigate murders. Murders are investigated by the major crime unit

Thank for for collecting that data, it's interesting to read and informative. Fingers crossed

I think this data is really interesting.

We are under one of the forces listed, who has refused to hand over their data. I don't want to say which as I don't want any links to us, even though we didn't have any media reporting.

From arrest to sentencing my OH's case took 184 days. It took roughly 7 weeks for his one device to be checked. So taking out weekends and counting only working days it was around 35 days for his device to be checked. I know that this is not consistent across the force. Other people from the area have been waiting years.

I think it partly depends how easy things are to find and what evidence they already have. As said above, it was a specialist team who investigated. They do not deal with any other cases.

I myself am thankful it was over so quickly. I'm now almost a week overdue with our baby (a little boy and our first, could have almost guaranteed he'd be lazy). At the time of arrest the OIC said he would do what he could to make sure things were resolved pre-birth. It's the only thing he was honest about it would seem.

Things do move quickly for some but there just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. It's so peculiar.

Thank you for this Edel

Our son is from one of the forces listed and without disclosing his whereabouts let's just say that his force is towards the bottom end of the list. To date he's waited 370 days so considerably longer than the forces at the top end even. I'm no good at maths but I can't imagine that saying it's just an average with such a huge difference between what they are saying and his wait so far, is feasible.

I'd like to know when they start counting the days, as for the offender the wait starts at arrest and not from the day the police start to check the devices or get around to sending them off etc etc. Do they take the total time taken at the point where they get a small amount of the results back even if it then takes forever to complete the job? Our son had a second interview last May about something they'd found but silence since then. If they stopped counting the days taken at that point, it could well be in line with what they've told Edel. But it would be misleading as he is still in limbo waiting.

As far as I understand, there are two seperate processes involved. The device goes off to digital forensics who will check for iioc and if they find something that looks dodgy they will notify the OIC.

But then all the stuff they found, has to be looked at by another team who assess images. They have to confirm that what the digital examiners thought was iioc, was really iioc and not something else.

So that's another delay. They can and do cut the process short though, if they have a lot of images to look at. If the person has 1,000 images, they may just look at a few hundred of them and if those are all confirmed as illegal, they might decide just to prosecute for those and ignore the rest. At the end of the day, they only need one image to get a conviction.