President signs bill formally authorizing National Computer Forensics Institute

State and local law enforcers will continue to receive specialized training to incorporate cyber and digital tools into criminal investigations following the President’s signed a bill last week that formally authorizes the National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI).

The NCFI has trained nearly 7,000 police officers, prosecutors, and judges from more than 2,000 agencies across all 50 states since it was established by the Alabama Office of Prosecution Services and the U.S. Secret Service in Hoover, Alabama, in 2008.

U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) introduced the Strengthening State and Local Cyber Crime Fighting Act of 2017, H.R. 1616, earlier this year to formally authorize the NCFI.

“At the end of the day, getting the upper hand against cybercriminals will make our nation safer, and I’m glad that this critical piece of legislation has been signed into law to do just that,” Ratcliffe said.

The NCFI is housed in a 32,000-square-foot facility that features four multi-purpose classrooms, a mock courtroom, a forensics lab, a network investigation classroom, and various administrative work areas.

In an op-ed published in June, Ratcliffe noted that NCFI graduates have incorporated cybercrime elements into cases involving child exploitation, abductions, and money laundering schemes across the country.

“These are just a few of the types of cases in which investigators and prosecutors were equipped to find evidence that they otherwise wouldn’t have without the critical training provided to them by NCFI,” Ratcliffe said. “In one such instance, a police officer addressing a case in San Antonio, Texas, was able to recover critical evidence from a cell phone, which aided in identifying an individual who murdered a police officer in cold blood.”