Forensic Lab Forensic Crime Labs Are Important Essay

Forensic Lab

Forensic crime labs are important institutions within the criminal justice system and each lab must be up to standard in order for this system to operate at a high and fair level. A good crime lab begins with a good design based on solid fundamentals and thorough planning. The purpose of this essay is to design a digital forensic crime lab that can be used in a university setting. In order to this, the essay will explain the budgeting process while keeping business objectives in mind. The next step of the design will introduce how the physical controls can be used to implement this design. Criteria for success will also be discussed as well as a suggested floor plan to house the lab.

Budgeting

The setting for this digital forensic lab is within a university setting which denotes that funds could most likely be attained for these purposes. In most cases, IT professional does not set the budget, but rather must work inside of a budget that is dictated by the leadership of the university. Regardless, it is wise and prudent to minimize costs wherever possible and maximize efficiency as much as possible.

Reading and understanding how much money is in the budget is the obvious first part of the plan. After acquiring this number, resources may begin to be allocated. Dividing this project into large segments is helpful in determining a budget. For this case I will divide the resources into: Labor, Hardware/Software, Server, Furniture and Misc. costs.Each one of these subdivisions would receive an appropriate amount of funds to purchase the services and products under the assigned label.

Physical Requirements and Controls

Before noting what physical requirements are needed for this project, it is important to understand what the purpose of these tools are. Vacca & Rudolph (2011) explained that "the objective in system forensics is to recover, analyze, and present computer-based material in such a way that it can be used as evidence in a court of law, " (p.6). Knowing, this it is much clearer to develop the requirements and controls that are going to be used in this project.

The lab, being placed within a university, will have dual purposes. The first purpose is to use the lab as a state of the art teaching tool where future forensic experts may learn how to practice the craft with equipment and techniques that are being used in the real world. The lab can also be used as an actual forensic tool that can be contracted or used by local authorities to help in solving crimes and gathering useful evidence.

A large classroom with 100 square feet seems to be large enough to house the lab. The lab must be somewhat away from other parts of the university as a security measure. The lab must be held under the strictest of security policies to ensure proper command and control measures can….....