Family and Friends Forum

I think this is dependant on what region you're in and local police procedure. Some local forces can scan devices for "red flags" in local branches or even in your home. It looks for keywords and images/videos that might depict children/weapons/narcotics etc. I don't know whether they are doing the full download in local branches, this doesn't actually take that long if you provide the passwords but of course needs the right expertise and software/licenses/equipment.

They use the scan to "triage" and decide which devices ought to be sent off to the full forensic examination and which ones ought to be prioritised. Obviously this is important if they've confiscated more than one device off the accused. I know in places like Scotland police stations have digital kiosks where any old officer can scan the phone and look at surface level contents without actually accessing the phone directly and risk "altering" evidence.

However, many other UK forces have decided that letting the average Bobby do this is a risky business and devices should always be dealt with by digital forensics experts in special units if you want that evidence to be water tight for court. If it's seen to be handled unprofessionally and altered in anyway after seizure, legal representatives will leap on that and seek to have it thrown out as permissable evidence - embarassing for both the police and the CPS.

With regard to timeframes, you'd be lucky to hear back from them in six months. One year plus is the current average according to my person's solicitor. They did tell the solicitor one month but apparently he just rolled his eyes at this. Why they lie to people who know they are not be honest and deal with them daily is odd to me. That being said, they are not actually obliged to tell you or solicitor anything at all before charges...

Think it was 6 month from forensics for us . In our case they done a basic check at police station but wanted it checked deeper so went to forensics they found 5 more images x

Thanks MollyDog. Did they tell you they'd done a basic check and what that involves. My person's solicitor just told it was sent to forensics but they didn't mention looking at the phone at the station at all.

24 months NI here and not even been looked at. Its a disgrace. Cops here are broke and no manpower.

Hi, the day of the knock, the Police spent 4 hours in my home going through everything and they took thousands of pounds worth of electronics. During the ex's Police interview he admitted to using 3 specific devices which were outsourced to be looked at. Eventually these three items were ordered to be destroyed by the court. The rest of our belongings which included 2 new desktops, family cameras, the router, my sons gaming equipment were never returned to us. I received a letter from the Police stating that if I was prepared to pay the outsourcing company £80 per hour (7 years ago) to go through each and every single item, I could have them back. So, I couldn't afford the thousands this would've cost so I lost the lot, including all my family photos. My ex was re arrested 3 years ago and this time it took the Police well over a year to get his phone looked at. X

Bump

Re how long it takes, its 14 months & counting for ex-H. The police said 'October' last time they wanted to extend his bail, but now conveniently have no idea of the timeframe.