The National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction

local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in the U.S., more than 2,500 are members or affiliatesof one of the 61 Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces. The ICAC Task Forces havedemonstrated a dramatic increase in the number of computer forensic examinations they haveconducted. In 2007, they reported nearly 10,500 computer forensic examinations. ICACcomputer forensic capacity was increased in 2007 through targeted grants to 13 of the then-59ICAC Task Forces, totaling $2.6 million, for that purpose. These grants, which expandedcapacity at roughly one fourth of the ICAC Task Forces, had a direct impact – in 2008, ICACTask Forces reported 14,339 computer forensic examinations in 2008 and 19,269 in 2009. Inshort, following the issuance of capacity-increasing grants, the ICAC Task Forces performedabout twice as many forensic examinations in 2009.2. FBI Computer Analysis Response Team and Regional Computer ForensicLaboratory ProgramsChild exploitation investigators, as well as other federal, state and local law enforcementagencies rely upon the FBI’s Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) and RegionalComputer Forensic Laboratory (RCFL) programs to provide digital forensic search andexamination support, in support of their investigations. Nominally, the Computer AnalysisResponse Team (CART) is an organizational component of the FBI’s Digital Evidence Section(DES) that began in 1988 under the FBI Laboratory Division as one of the earliest computerforensic examiner groups in the country. Today, the term CART generically refers to threegroups: 1) the CART Forensic Analysis Unit (CART-FAU) that staffs and manages the FBI’sDigital Evidence Laboratory (DEL) which is fully accredited by American Society of CrimeLaboratory Director’s Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD-LAB) and assists in settingwritten, tested, verified, vetted, defensible forensic procedures and protocols for all CARTcertifiedpersonnel that are designed to meet and exceed the expert witness technical/scientificadmissibility requirements of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579(1993) and its progeny; 2) The CART Operational Support Unit (CART-OSU) which supportsand equips but does not manage CART-certified digital evidence forensic examiners but who areannually proficiency tested, monitored and periodically trained by the DES, and; 3) The CARTField Examiners, themselves, who are trained, certified, tested and monitored by CART-OSUand other DES units but are exclusively supervised and controlled by the management staff ofeach individual FBI Field Division in which they are located.In the FBI, there are approximately 225 CART-certified digital evidence forensic examinersdispersed at nearly 98 FBI locations, approximately 45% of which are sworn FBI Agents whilethe remainder are professional support staff. An additional 200 or so state and local task forceofficers and professional support from approximately 130 police agencies are also “CARTcertified”and are located at 16 Regional Computer Forensic Laboratories (RCFLs)geographically dispersed around the country.The RCFL Program is built on partnerships between the FBI and other law enforcement agenciesat the federal, state and local levels operating within a geographic area. An RCFL is a computerforensics laboratory and training center devoted to the forensic examination of digital evidencein support of criminal investigations. The RCFL Program currently manages a network of 14existing laboratories in major cities across the United States with two more labs due to open by131