“If you see it in the news locally, chances are our students are actually working those cases,” said Jason James, ISU assistant professor of cybersecurity and director of the Vigo County HTCU on campus.
In fact, those student efforts assisted with the Vigo County prosecution of a man convicted of murder last year and sentenced to serve 60 years in prison.
James spoke during a HTCU Showcase Tuesday at the university.
The event was an opportunity to update legislators and other officials on the local HTCU, a digital forensics lab under the supervision of the Vigo County Prosecutor’s Office. There are 10 such High Tech Crime Units throughout the state.
Locally, the collaborative effort also involves the Terre Haute Police Department and Vigo County Sheriff’s Office.
The 10 units statewide, which were created through state legislation and began operations in 2022, assist prosecuting attorneys with investigations, collecting evidence and prosecuting crimes.
“This is great for law enforcement and great for the prosecutor’s office,” said Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt. The student interns are sworn in as digital forensic investigators for the prosecutor’s office.
One of the biggest advantages of the program is that data from devices can be downloaded and processed much more quickly than in the past, Modesitt said.
“It’s really valuable because we had to depend on the Indiana State Police crime lab before we had this HTCU,” Modesitt said. That state police lab serves the whole state and it could take several months to get the processed data back, he said.
Those attending Tuesday’s showcase included legislators, law enforcement and prosecuting attorney staff from the eight counties served by the Vigo County unit. State Rep. Gregory Steuerwald, who in 2021 authored the bill creating the High Tech Crime Unit program, was among the attendees.
He was impressed with what he heard.
“When writing a bill, you don’t know how it will turn out in practice,” Steuerwald said. “This far exceeds anything I thought would happen.”
The showcase provided information on what the HTCU has been able to accomplish with the funding provided by the Indiana Legislature over the last three years.
The Legislature has approved $3 million per year for the statewide program, and each of the 10 units has received about $300,000. Funding comes through the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council.
With a budget session in 2025, those involved with the HTCU are hoping for increased funding — an appropriation of $4.5 million per year due to increased costs, including software licensing and personnel.
James said the program has grown from three students to nine student intern/investigators this year. Students have paid internships, and they also receive academic credit.
The program has greatly helped in speeding up processing of digital information from devices, James said.
“If a detective on a case needs a phone back right away, we can turn that device around in one day’s time,” James said.
The program serves 34 law enforcement agencies in an eight-county region and it has worked more than 637 cases in the past 2 1/2 years.
Students who participate in the program are successfully obtaining jobs after graduation in their chosen field, from local law enforcement to the National Security Agency.
Because of the program’s success, the ISU’s School of Criminology and Security Studies has expanded its internships — although they are unpaid — to include a jail intelligence unit, a cold case homicide unit (those students are sworn investigators) and a human trafficking and intelligence unit.
About 40 students have benefited this past year from internships in the various investigative units, James said.
“Our goal to grow it as big as we can” so even more students can receive those real-life work experiences, James said.
Steuerwald is optimistic the program will continue to be funded. In next year’s budget-writing session, “This will be on the agenda as a budget item,” he said. He will provide legislators, including those involved in drafting the budget, with all the information he learned Tuesday.
According to Modesitt, the HTCU “will not keep going if we don’t have the funding.” Officials also hope the program increases student interest in careers in law enforcement and the legal profession.
Among the Vigo County HTCU interns this year is Payton Ferency, an ISU senior whose major is intelligence analysis.
She aspires to a career with a federal agency. “I would love to specialize in counter-terrorism. Those are big dreams,” she said.
“I’m really interested in finding different, unique ways to help me in my future,” she said. “I’m not the most techie person. I knew this unit would not only challenge me, but I would learn a lot from it.”
She was inspired to pursue a career in criminology/security studies by her father, the late Det. Greg Ferency, who was a 30-year veteran of the Terre Haute Police Department and an FBI task force officer.
While he never pushed her toward that career path, “Seeing him so passionate about his job made me want to be just as passionate about something,” Payton Ferency said.
She wants to help people, “and I think this is a great way to do it,” she said.
© 2024 The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
