Cybercrime and intrusions have been occurring over the past few decades. Over the years it has become more prevalent and sophisticated than in previous years. Cybercrime is used on a computer, whether by phone, desktop, or laptop over the internet or network. The world is connected through this technology and has many advantages; however, many disadvantages have been noted. This growing technology brings increased risk of fraud, theft, and exploitation. As technology continues to advance, the systems and software become vulnerable to cyber attacks that include viruses, breaches, media fraud, and phishing to name a few. The good news is, with the help of law enforcement and cybersecurity, that the cyberspace continues to be safeguarded with the use of specialized tools and technology. Since there is always a continued risk with advancements in technology, law enforcement, and other officials must enhance security and minimize risks to combat the cybercrime. Cybercrime happens all over the world and involves international cooperation. When it comes to international cases, it is challenging because other countries have different laws that aren’t designed to handle this type of crime. In most cases, local, state, and federal governments work together from multiple jurisdictions to combat the issues of cybercrime. However, in some cases, there will be jurisdictional issues that get in the way. There will be a need for future changes with fewer jurisdictional issues as well as tougher punishments to help solve and combat these cybercrimes. In addition, these future changes will have a significant impact on the field of policing.
Various Jurisdictions Coordination
Local law enforcement agencies receive the majority of the cyber crimes reports. Although the local officers receive the report, they do not always handle the case. According to a 2013 Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) survey, '66 percent of responding agencies refer cases to the FBI, and 51 percent to the U.S. Secret Service' (Page 7). On issue is local agencies do not have the same definition of cyber crimes, which makes collaborating with other jurisdictions difficult. With different agencies having different definitions of what a cybercrime is, they have a hard time getting the case to the appropriate resources. Local agencies differed in size which can cause issues. In my state of Idaho, we have departments that range from 6 officers to 600 officers. The smaller local agencies do not have the staffing to have a full-time committed cyber crimes detective. According to the article Cyber-Crime: Law Enforcement Must Keep Pace with Tech-Savvy Criminals “the pool of qualified candidates is limited because those investigating or examining cyber-crime must be highly trained specialists, requiring detective and technical skills, including knowledge of various IT hardware and software, and forensic tools” (WOLF, 2009). This presents an issue with time and training making them inadequate when it comes to handling these cases.
Jurisdiction becomes a large problem when investigating cyber crimes. Local, state, and Federal jurisdictions vary between physical jurisdictions. If a guy in Idaho steals money from a woman in Texas via a computer, the jurisdiction of the crime becomes a hassle. Many law enforcement officials agree the multiagency task forces are the key to solving many of these issues. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has created various multiagency task forces such as National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force (NCIJTF) and Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. ICAC is a collaboration of state local and federal resources that investigate cyber crimes involving children, such as online predators. Many times these online predators are out of state and are requesting inappropriate sexual nature images and videos from children or sharing them with other adults. ICAC solves jurisdictional issues because they have the ability to charge an offender with either a local, state, or federal charge depending on what statutes the offender broke. Multijurisdictional task forces allow the gap of jurisdiction to be bridged and the offenders to successfully be prosecuted. Many states are receiving grant money to create these cyber crime task forces.
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Possible Future Changes in Cyber-Related Laws
Local, state, and Federal laws will continue to grow and become more aligned in the eyes of cybercrime. Cyber crimes are still relatively new and as fast as technology is changing the language in the laws has yet to catch up in a more universally between, local, state, and federal jurisdictions. According to the book Cybercrime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime in order for the justice system to have clear guidelines “adequate criminal statutes addressing the various high-technology crimes and their punishment, and (2) consistent rulings from the courts as to how the law can be applied to investigations of high-technology crimes' (Moore, 2011, Pg. 258). Legislation and law changes will be the most significant shifts in the future. The ability for agencies to help with solving these crimes with fewer jurisdictional issues will drastically help in solving cyber crimes.
Punishments are always a significant factor in the deterrence theories. Right now many of the cyber crimes punishments are not harsh enough to gain a good level of deterrence. The risk of doing a little jail time is well worth the possible monetary benefit to many of the cybercriminals. Policy changes must ensure the prosecution and penalties for cyber criminals make them at least think twice. Deterrence will also be fixed with the jurisdictional issues. Cybercriminals understand how difficult it is for the smaller jurisdictions to solve these crimes, so they continue to commit them there knowing they do not have adequate resources. Some criminal justice personnel has theorized that more of a handle on programs created will be enforced or even charging the ones who make programs that allow for easy use of cyber crimes more accountable. The issue with holding the program makers responsible is the same thing as holding gun manufacturers responsible for their guns used in crimes.
Impact
Law enforcement agencies whether local state or federal, having the ability to investigate cyber crimes more adequately will have an enormous impact on the criminal justice field and police in general. With agencies having more qualified personnel trained and ready to handle these crimes, they can adequately serve the people in their community. Policing is slowly changing with the times. This is not just a policing issue this is a criminal justice issue. Laws and statutes must change for judges to provide harsher penalties and allow for police agencies to solve these crimes promptly.
Conclusion
Cybercrime takes up the majority of crimes in America. Local, state and federal multi-agency task forces are a start to solving the headache of cyber crimes jurisdictions. The criminal justice system needs to push the changes in the future of cyber crimes and policing. Although cyber crimes are not going to disappear and will not decline in the sense of crimes committed, with adequate changes to the criminal system some criminals prosecuted for their crimes. This paper discussed how the various jurisdictions coordinate and partner to address jurisdictional differences, identified possible future changes in local and federal cyber-related laws, and explained the overall impact these changes would have on the field of policing.
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