16  H.Q.   Summer 2026
T
oday’s 
police 
leaders 
are facing a common 
reality: the volume and 
complexity of digital 
evidence is growing 
faster than the investigative capacity 
of police services.
Smartphones and other digital 
elements now play a part in the 
overwhelming majority of all criminal 
investigations. A single mobile device 
can contain years of communications, 
images, videos, location data and 
application records, often spread 
across local storage and the cloud. 
At the same time, police services 
are under pressure to do more with 
constrained budgets, manage back-
logs, protect officer well-being and 
maintain public confidence in investi-
gative outcomes. Artificial intelligence 
(AI) has entered digital investigations 
against this backdrop – not as a specu-
lative innovation, but as a pragmatic 
response to scale.
For police professionals, the most 
important question is not whether 
AI will be used in digital investiga-
tions – it already is – but how it is 
understood, governed and operation-
alized by those ultimately accountable 
for outcomes.
WHAT AI IS AND IS NOT DOING 
Much of the anxiety around AI in 
policing stems from misunderstand-
ing its role in investigations. Today’s 
AI enabled digital forensic tools, like 
those used to acquire and analyze 
cellphone and computer evidence, 
should not be used to determine 
guilt, draw conclusions or make 
investigative decisions. 
Their 
core 
function 
today 
is 
straightforward: 
to 
quickly 
help 
By Brandon Epstein, 
Technical Forensics Specialist, 
Magnet Forensics
Artificial Intelligence in  
Digital Investigations: 
A leadership imperative for modern policing
F E A T U R E

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