Who:
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
Investigative Operations Bureau
-Computer Forensics Unit

United States Secret Service

The Tampa Bay Electronic Crimes Task Force (TBECTF) is comprised of 16 Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies; Currently,10 agencies participate in the lab.

What:
The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has unveiled the Tampa Bay Electronic Crimes Task Force (TBECTF) Electronic Crimes Forensics Lab.

The TBECTF is the 40th Electronic Crimes Task Force of its kind in the world, and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office houses the first lab ever that is located outside of Federal space. The Sheriff's Office was selected as the host location due to the commitment by the agency in conducting digital forensics and being on the forefront of technology.

When:
The lab was unveiled during a news briefing held on April 1, 2016.

The Tampa Bay Electronic Crimes Task Force was established in June of 2015.

Where:
The lab is housed at the Sheriff’s Administration Building located at 10750 Ulmerton Road in Largo.

Why/How:
The TBECTF lab is the most advanced lab in the state and offers superior technology and forensic capabilities. In an era of technology, the lab will help investigators access and extract information from electronic devices for their criminal investigations. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has assigned two detectives and an analyst to the lab. Additionally, this is the only lab in the country in which the FBI has assigned a computer scientist as a member of the team.

Some of the capabilities of the lab include the following:

The lab is able to perform forensic exams on any digital devices such as computers, cell phones, tablets, gaming systems, hard drives, and other electronic devices that store data.

In addition, the lab has ability to perform "chip off" forensics by removing the memory chips from motherboards and other media.  As it relates to cell phones this would be done when the screen is damaged, unable to power up phone, when ports on the device are damaged, etc. The lab is one of only a couple in the state that has this technology. One example in which the "chip off" forensics was used was in the Roberta Cable Case. A cell phone had been flushed into septic tank for over a year. Examiners were able to perform an internal “chip off” and recover images from the cell phone.

The Forensics Lab has received approximately 400 lab submission since it opened in June of 2015.

Video of the press conference can be viewed on our YouTube page :  https://youtu.be/Usfu1z4NadY