Using A Digital Forensic Investigator To Track Runaways

By Stephanie Walker


The modern world has some new tools available in the search for missing people. Whether they are runaway teenagers or missing women and children, anyone carrying a cellular telephone or other device can now be tracked. Many new police departments even have a digital forensic investigator as part of their team, and this person can be utilized on-call in the search for those who fail to make it home.

The GPS system which provides us with directions to our local coffee house can also be used to find our missing kids. Smart parents keep location sharing turned on with their kids so they can see where they are at all times. This can not only save their lives in an emergency, but it helps keep the kids out of trouble, or at least informs the parents if their kids are not where they said they would be.

Hackers in the late 1990s began showing police the potential for these technologies in missing persons cases. When they were able to get a hold of a device and bring up messages, even deleted ones, it helped the detectives create an accurate timeline. The results were so effective that there are entire groups in many larger police departments devoted to this task.

At that time GPS did not exist for the average individual, so finding the device was imperative to the investigation. In those days it was easier to delete historical data for good. However, most people were not yet aware of the fact that law enforcement was going after cellular telephones for the messages or other data they could provide, and this ignorance actually assisted them in many investigations.

Due to the erection of cellular and WiFi towers, as well as the launch of many hundreds of satellites, every Internet interface device can be tracked to a few feet of its location. RFID chips help people to find lost pets, and now they can even be used to find lost toys. The fact is, it is more than just telephones that a kidnapper would need to get rid of in order to prevent being tracked.

There is some loss of privacy when technology reaches such a point, and it is important to have laws in place that protect average citizens. Law enforcement in this country is required to obtain a Court Order before they can infringe in this way. In most circumstances, citizens are quite willing to have investigators obtain any data they can in order to find their missing loved one.

Debate rages when it comes to what is or is not allowable between private citizens, as much of this technology has become available to everyone. Parents routinely keep tabs on their children. However, controversy remains about whether or not these same parents, if married and/or living together, should be able to keep such tabs on each other.

Of course, men think they should never be spied on or monitored by wives or girlfriends while women believe that anyone in a committed relationship has a right to know what their partner is up to. Men, it seems, by and large wish to be able to keep secrets in their lives. Even those who are not cheating appear to want to keep open the potential to get away with infidelity.




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