Digital Evidence Use in Law Enforcement

This course will consider how the evolution and global reach of technology in the areas of criminal practice and privacy rights has created an environment and area of the law that is frequently enacted only to be outpaced, eclipsed, and rendered irrelevant almost immediately by the very thing it seeks to regulate. This course provides an overview of cybercrime, privacy rights, and digital evidence practice; focusing on the current legal and technical landscape facing investigators and prosecutors in our justice system as they respond to the now commonly overlapping digital, cloud, and physical crime scenes. This course will give students the ability to assess current issues in this space using real-world examples. Students will examine the various constitutional protections afforded to users in the digital space, the law and policies that govern detection and prosecution, using this evidence in investigative practice, understanding the principles of digital search and seizure, and privacy rights vs. privacy protections. This course provides a summary of this fast-growing area of the law arising out of digital evidence investigation as it is used in criminal law as well as in areas of collateral civil practice. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.