In March of this year, I went to a public meeting in Madison about Google Fiber as a private citizen who is enthusiastically hoping that the project will come our way. I believe that it is a fantastic opportunity for our community. I didn’t go as a representative of the police department, though I believe that the installation of fiber could potentially bring some really interesting innovations and improvements to policing in Madison. While I was at the meeting, some of my comments regarding my profession and my thoughts about how Google Fiber could change the face of policing were recorded on video. Some of my comments were edited and posted in a very truncated manner to the Internet. By the time the video got to YouTube, the comments were somewhat out of context, and so I’m hoping to provide more background here for those who have questions about my comments.
I’ve been a detective and computer forensic examiner for the City of Madison Police Department for over 10 years. I work with two other sworn officers, one from the City of Madison, and one from Dane County in the Computer Forensics Shared Resources Partnership. Our job is to investigate both Internet related crimes and crimes involving evidence stored digitally on computers, cell phones, and other media. We deal with many terabytes of evidentiary data from computers, cell phones, and other digital storage devices that come to us from victims, suspects, and even sometimes third party witnesses. The Computer Forensics Shared Resources Partnership has a completely stand-alone forensic network, and the evidence stored on our forensic network is physically isolated not only from the Internet, but from the city and county networks as well. Due to the nature and sensitivity of the data we deal with, this is an absolute necessity. We don’t move large volumes of data across the Internet, and so in that way Google fiber wouldn’t directly affect the way I do my job or how we store and deal with digital evidence in the SRP.
My enthusiasm for the future of fiber in our community has to do with the possibilities fiber connection would bring for the ability of the Police Department to communicate with Madison’s citizens through Internet based means… It would be nice to have the ability to hold community meetings across the city in a virtual environment to give personal safety tips, crime prevention, internet safety classes to schools, community notification messages, and other information in an interactive way. And it would be nice to be among the first communities to support Internet based community policing and embrace the advantages that technology can bring to a community. Imagine the possibility of visiting a ‘virtual’ Madison police station to file police reports, ask policing related questions, and talk face to face with an officer from the convenience of your own home. I think the possibilities are exciting and broad reaching, and I really hope that Madison is chosen and the city Google has been searching for.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Thanks!
Cindy
Det. Cynthia Murphy, EnCE, CCFT-A, DFCP
Madison Police Department
Computer Forensics Unit
211 S. Carroll St.
Madison, WI 53703
cmurphy *at* cityofmadison.com
608-267-4148
