KENNESAW, Ga. | Aug 10, 2022

“Assessing the needs for cybercrime educational opportunities for local law enforcement agencies in metro-Atlanta.”

Dr. James McCafferty and Dr. Michael Logan were recently named SunTrust Faculty Fellows for their grant proposal titled: “Assessing the needs for cybercrime educational opportunities for local law enforcement agencies in metro-Atlanta.” In addition to the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Drs. McCafferty and Logan teach courses for KSU’s undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity degrees. This project utilizes their interdisciplinary backgrounds to understand the cybercrime investigatory experiences and training of law enforcement in the greater metro-Atlanta.

Overview of the Project:  Local law enforcement agencies are directly responsible for the identification, recovery, and preservation of evidence in criminal matters. Police are expected to prevent crime and maintain order while also investigating a range of terrestrial (i.e., place-based) crimes. Increasingly these responsibilities also include a focus on digital forensic evidence and the recovery and preservation of this evidence from physical devices. However, the expectation for police to address cybercrime is hindered by the lack of broad training in these areas. To help fill this void, higher education institutions, such as Kennesaw State University, are uniquely situated to aid these local law enforcement agencies by 1) providing current law enforcement officers the technical education necessary to carry out digital criminal investigations and 2) increasing cybersecurity education in criminal justice curriculum so that future generations of law enforcement officers will be equipped to handle these investigations. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to directly measure law enforcement agencies’ experiences, expertise, and educational needs to address cybercrime in in metro-Atlanta.