912.344.2516 J Fax 912.344.3421 J Armstrong.Edu

Vice President for Business & Finance 11935

Abercorn Street J Savannah, Georgia 31419

912.344.2516 J Fax 912.344.3421 J armstrong.edu

MEMORANDUM

TO: Jacque Stepherson FROM: Chris Corrigan

DA August 14, 2015 TE:

CONCERNING: Chancellor's Service Excellence Awards Program

It is my pleasure to nominate the Armstrong State University Police Department for the Chancellor's Service Excellent Award - Outstanding Team.

The Armstrong Police Department has evolved into a team that consistently provides "above and beyond" service to the students, colleagues, and other customers of the University System of Georgia. This nomination will provide a summary of the teamwork and service value that this police department provides to the university community and also to the larger community beyond the borders of the campus.

This team, through innovation, partnership, and the desire to provide service beyond that of the normal campus police department embodies the five attributes of service excellence.

• Respectful: The Armstrong Police Team approach to partnership is founded upon the principle that their role is to supplement and add value to our university's academic mission. In that regard, their approach is to respect the hard work of our colleagues and by leveraging the assets of the police department in innovative ways, they become involved in academic mission of the university by request. • Accessible: The Armstrong Police Team recognized that their unique abilities could provide opportunities for our students and colleagues and for the greater community beyond the borders of the campus. Their programs and processes have assisted the university in expanding their cyber-crime/cyber-security programs and have established Armstrong as a major cyber-crime influence for the Georgia Criminal Justice Community. • Informed: The Armstrong Police Team identified a national dilemma and a solution that is unique to Armstrong. That solution provides access to cyber-crime data that is critical to the growth of the Armstrong Cyber program. This data opens doors for faculty and student research by providing a continual flow of information about real-life cyber-crime throughout Georgia. The police

A U N I T O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y S Y S T E M O F G E O R G I A ... Chancellor's Service Excellence Awards Program University Police Department Outstanding Team Page 2

department team serves as a bridge between the Georgia Criminal Justice Community and the Armstrong students and faculty in the area of cyber-crime. • Supportive: The Armstrong Police Team assists our students and colleagues in Armstrong's goal of student success. A member of the team teaches the cyber law class because other qualified faculty was not available. The team also provides students with practical skill development through a unique digital forensics internship. This internship is the only digital forensics internship in the state that qualifies the students to take a national digital forensics certification exam. • Responsive: The Armstrong Police Team provides this service in response to the nation's demand for cyber-crime and cyber-security professionals and in response to the needs of the Armstrong cyber-crime and cyber-security programs. The team identified ways they could help solve problems in these areas.

The use of digital devices by criminals has exploded in recent years. The District Attorney for Manhattan, Cyrus Vance" may have said it best when he stated: "Cybercrime is the fastest growing crime trend in New York and around the country". Yet, throughout the country, digital forensics labs are mired in backlogged cases. Federal, state, and local labs are reporting an exponential increase in the volume of digital devices submitted for examination that greatly exceed the capacity of the labs. Many states, such as Georgia and Alabama, report that the digital forensics labs have a 7 to 19 month backlog of digital devices awaiting examination. In many cases, investigators are not submitting digital devices for analysis because they cannot place the case on hold for this long. Courts and prosecutors are increasingly concerned about these delays and the effect upon the due process rights of the defendant.

Additional capacity is needed, but budgetary restrictions and limited resources make it unlikely, if not impossible, that help is on the way. The funds are simply not available to dramatically increase digital forensics capability for our criminal justice agencies, so some agencies are training a single employee to use a single piece of equipment. The problem is that no single piece of equipment can successfully access all types of digital media and a single employee cannot keep up with the technological advances and case load in digital media.

At the university level, the cyber-crime and cyber-security programs lacked the resources to provide the students with applied skills that would increase their marketability after graduation. Their education was first rate, but employers were looking for entry level employees with some applicable and practical experience, in addition to the university degree.

The significance of this submission is that a small, 17 officer, campus police department in southern Georgia was able to redefine its role in the greater criminal justice community to arrive at a solution for this criminal investigative problem that has eluded federal and state government. In the process, hundreds of felony criminal cases for dozens of criminal justice agencies have been positively impacted. Since January 1, 2013, more than 1000 devices for over 400 federal and state criminal cases have been processed in 30 days or less.

This change was made possible by a redefining the role of the Armstrong Police to make the department relevant with the university's academic mission. This included directly connecting the police to the academic function of the university and in that regard, the police department chose to take a path that also connected it to the larger criminal justice community. The department created a digital forensics capability that utilizes the uncommitted time of the patrol officers. This capability is then used to provide criminal justice and computer science students with practical internship opportunities and to provide the criminal justice community with digital forensics capability and capacity. Making this capability available to the federal, state, and local criminal justice community has had an unprecedented impact upon criminal investigations in Southern Georgia. Prior to Armstrong's program, digital evidence was simply not available or simply overlooked. The Chatham County District Attorney, Meg Heap, noted that having this evidence within 30 days means that they can go to trial within speedy trial requirements and this can save the state thousands of dollars per case. In many cases, the digital evidence convinces the defendant to enter a plea rather than go to trial.

The impact upon the criminal justice community was significant. The backlog of digital forensics cases was reduced from 7 to 12 months to less than 30 days throughout southeastern Georgia. The evidence that was discovered included videos of crimes, pictures of stolen property, text and email messages about participation in criminal activity, and other evidentiary documentation of criminal activity and involvement for agencies such as the FBI, ATF, DEA, Secret Service, Georgia Bureau of lnvestigation, Georgia Department of Revenue, Georgia State Patrol, Savannah-Chatham Metro Police, Multi-agency drug task forces, and many other agencies.

Prior to the police department creation of the cyber forensics lab, campus police customer service was limited to traditional policing. Namely, security patrols, parking enforcement, and other public safety services that drive all USG institution police departments. What was missing was a direct connection to the academic function of the university. The police were not serving the faculty or the criminal justice community directly. The cyber forensics division was developed with the concept in mind that all university functions must be directly connected to the university's academic function.

By using uncommitted time, hiring additional officers to perform CFD tasks was unnecessary. Once assigned a case, it is up to the officer to manage his or her time along with their other duties with the understanding service to the community is paramount and not every officer needed to be on patrol at the same time to make the campus safe.

The Armstrong Police Team is training the next generation of digital forensic analysts with an internship provided in conjunction with the criminal justice department. Upon completion of the internship, the interns are eligible for the national certification test in digital forensics examination. This prepares them and makes them eligible to become part of the job market immediately after graduation. When they become employed they will greatly assist with lessening the nationwide shortage of digital forensics analysts/investigators. The internship has grown dramatically since its start in 2013. In 2013, the program was able to offer the internship to only 2 students. In the fall 2015 semester, the internship has 25 students enrolled.

Finally, the expertise and the value of the program have been recognized for its innovative and unique service to the Armstrong Community, the State of Georgia, the Federal IT Community, and beyond. No other campus police department has had such an immediate and long term impact on so many criminal investigations for so many agencies and directly supported the academic mission of the university. The level of service provided by this team to our students, colleagues, and other customers of the University System of Georgia is why the program has received the following honors:

• 2014 Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police Dr. Curtis McClung/Motorola Award of Excellence • 2015 Federal 100 Award by FCW Magazine • 2015 International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators Award of Excellence • 2015 Southern Legislative Conference State Transformation in Action Recognition (STAR) Award.

While the service provided to the Criminal Justice Program, its faculty and students, and to the greater Georgia Criminal Justice community is impressive. The police department team has also leveraged this capability into an enrollment management tool. Members of the police department are invited to regularly talk about the university and its programs at middle schools, high schools, community group meetings, and at conferences. The Chief of Police has delivered presentations on the Armstrong Program at UBTECH, GAGMIS, SCGMIS, GACP, and SLC conferences. Other members of the team have delivered presentations to a wide range of outside groups. The presentations include:

• July 29th 2014 recipient of the Dr. Curtis McClung/Motorola Award of Excellence at the Georgia Chiefs Association Conference. • Pembroke National Night out July 31, 2014. Car seat and fire extinguisher training. • June 17th 2014 UB Tech Cyber Forensics Presentation in Las Vegas. • July 16, 2014 Georgia Gang Investigators conference presentation. • 5/24/2014 Armstrong Police took part in the Savannah Mile run downtown savannah. • Cyber Forensics Recruitment Presentation 2/27/2014 for Military Police Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. • Key Note Speech Information Security Officers Conference 5/19/2014 • Sept 15th 2014 Presentation for Downtown Rotary on Cyber Forensics. • August 23rd 2014 Presentation for Student Government Association Retreat at the Ebenezer Center 2 hours. • "Mid Morning Live," WTOC television report 10/15/2014. • CFD Presentation for Bryan County High School, December 16, 2014. • Willcox giving Speech on opportunities and programs at Armstrong Philips AME church downtown council of churches 12:00 1/20/2015. • Willcox speaking to Council of Churches 1/22/2015. • Willcox features on Crime stoppers radio show, 1/22/2015. • Interview with County Access for GPTV, 1/23/2015. • Willcox presentation GACP Cyber forensics presentation 1/26/2015 in Augusta Georgia • CFD presentation for Hunter/Ft. Stewart Ranger Battalion 1/27/2015. • Media Interview on fair and impartial policing, 2/19/2015 with Chief Willcox and Chief David Lyons. • College Access Mentoring Information and Outreach for Hispanic Students ("CAMINO PROGRAM") Afterschool Presentation and Recruiting Event in Digital Forensics for High Schools. o New Hampstead High School: February 26, 2015 from 16:30-17:30. o Tattnal County High School: March 04, 2015 from 15:30-17:00. o Windsor Forest High School: April 3, 2015 from 15:15-16:40. o Toombs High School: March 27, 2015 from 15:30-17:00. • CFD Presentation for Chatham County Board of Education, 3/12/2015. • Georgia State Intelligence Network Conference 4/22-4/24 2015. Chief Willcox and Lt. Taylor Presentation on Cyber Security and Forensics. • Linnaeus Swedish University Professors tour of CFD. 3/24/2015. • Wayne Willcox, winner of the FCW (Federal Computer Weekly) Federal 100 Award, 3/26/2015. • Wayne Willcox, winner of the IACLEA Administrative Excellence Award, to be presented June 30, 2015.

The Armstrong Police Department Team has evolved in the last several years. In the beginning, the team consisted of only members of the police department. Not too long afterwards, the Criminal Justice faculty became part of the team effort. As the program developed, the team was expanded to include Admissions and Recruitment and Media relations. Recently, the Computer Science/Information Technology faculty and the Liberty Center and Military Outreach offices have joined the team. Service to our students, colleagues, and to the State of Georgia is measured in the value that we provide to the University's academic purpose. The Armstrong Police Department Team has created a unique environment that embodies the Chancellor's charge to provide service "above and beyond" expectations and we believe that the value that we add is exceptional.