when it comes to actual digital evidence and electronic devices in general if we weren't able to lean on the tools we wouldn't be able to get the level of information we have or be able to solve the cases as we do it's very much so the unsung hero investigations a lot of people don't either realize or comprehend exactly what it is we do behind the scene and how intrical it is to these investigations But ultimately at the end of the day we do what we can to save kids my name is Jesse newbanks I'm the
senior digital forensic technician for the Maring County Sheriff's Office criminal investigations division our entire job revolves around electronic evidence we work internet crimes against children when you're dealing with the internet there is some sort of device that is used to access the internet whether that be a phone a laptop a tablet and the digital evidence of that is what our case is based on in iak we have the really unique opportunity to prevent someone from ever having the worst day of their life we can stop child from becoming a victim of sexual abuse and you
don't really get that opportunity anywhere else we conducted operation Summertime Blues in July 2024 it was probably our largest chat operation that we had conducted for operation Summertime Blues deputies pose as 13 to 15 year-olds to catch suspected Predators it took six days to arrest 33 men get on the ground right now stop deputies say it only took minutes for the these suspects to reach out to Children online with that operation obviously we arrested 30 individuals with that everybody had at least one phone on them we did have multiple individuals show up with a number
of other devices as well my team of digital forensic uh texts and examiners uh were kind of asked by our iak detective was going to help out and be there on scene and our role in that was being able to cooporate the evidence you know find those chats be able to show that yes they were here in Maring County yes we do have them talking to what they believe to be minors once we get a device and some form of legal order whether it be consent form search warrant whatever it is that gives us that
authorization to start going through that device SBR really allows us to get that level of access that we need to get all the data out of it specifically when we're doing these operations such as Summertime Blues there's a number of different platforms that these guys are talking on we need to be able to get the chats from whatever various different application that they're talking on to be able to show that this is in fact the person that was communicating with our undercover if we can turn around and really kind of impact them and try to
do something to change their lives because of what they are going through that's that's why we do it children can't really do anything to help themselves against people that pray upon them and we get the opportunity to step in for them and say instead of you being victimized we're going to step forward and be the ones that actually protect them from the people trying to pray upon them
