City crime scene that isn't what it looks like

'HOUSE OF MAYHEM' TEACHES STUDENTS TO CATCH CRIMINALS

- By CARL EVE

Alison Hernandez with forensic lecturer Hebe Unwin at the university's training facility

A NONDESCRIPT house in Plymouth is a hotbed of murder and mayhem - but it's all just there to teach students how to catch real criminals.

Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Alison Hernandez recently visited Plymouth Marjon University to see how the new batch of students on the criminology and forensic degree courses are learning the art of uncovering key clues, with a new slant on forensic digital investigation as technology becomes increasingly important to police inquiries.

Last year, Devon and Cornwall Police's specialist Digital Forensics Unit (DFU) investigated more than 3,000 digital devices containing more than 2 petabytes of data - the equivalent of two million movies or a 41,455 mile high stack of A4 paper enough to go around the world 1.66 times - in all levels of crime from drug offences through to child abuse, murder, and terrorism offences.

The number of mobile phones investigated by Devon and Cornwall Police has increased by 200% over the past two years, and risen from 500 a year in 2018 to currently more than 2,000. The volume of data has doubled over the past three years.

Digital forensic officers use specialised tools to recover, analyse and present digital evidence from electronic devices to support investigations into crimes and security incidents, and help secure successful convictions.