# “A Ronin Without a Master”: Exploring Police Perspectives on Digital Evidence in England and Wales

## TL;DR

This study explores how police officers in England and Wales handle digital evidence in criminal investigations.

## Contribution

It provides new insights into police perspectives on the use and challenges of digital evidence in investigations.

## Key findings

- Digital evidence is fragile, volatile, and legally complex, requiring significant cognitive and interpretive work by officers.
- Digital evidence creates unique challenges and opportunities in investigative interviews and courtroom settings.
- Better communication workflows and training are needed to improve handling of digital evidence.

## Abstract

Despite digital evidence (DE) now being a major component of most criminal investigations, very few studies have examined how police officers themselves evaluate and use DE over the course of an investigation. Drawing on in-depth interviews with N = 13 police officers from England and Wales, four themes are presented: (i) Sense-making and handling of digital devices and DE in investigations; (ii) The interpretation and reliability of DE; (iii) Strategic use of DE in investigative interviews with suspects, with a subtheme of Digital devices and DE in victim-centered interviews; and (iv) DE in the courtroom. While often seen as objective and infallible, DE is fragile, volatile, and legally complex, highlighting the cognitive and interpretive work that officers must do when dealing with DE. This is important because this work has a direct impact on how investigations proceed, including what is taken from crime scenes and how it is used in investigative interviews. Findings show how DE creates unique challenges and opportunities within investigative interviewing, extending research on strategic disclosure into the digital domain. Future directions include setting up better communication workflows to reduce epistemic drift and offering more DE interpretation training to help officers in an increasingly digital environment.