A few years ago it was very rare to receive a phone call from the defence team asking if cell site analysis would help their case when the prosecution had not introduced this particular type of evidence.
There are numerous areas of mobile phone forensics, better known as digital forensics, including cell site analysis.
We have considered the various options available should you be required to instruct a cell site analysis expert.
There are so few qualified, experienced cell site analysis experts in the UK that it is advisable to secure one for your case as soon as it is apparent that cell site analysis evidence is relevant.
During a short visit to the historical City of York, one of the Footprint Investigations cell site experts measured this cell as providing additional 3G capacity in the City.
In short, no, never just accept the cell site analysis evidence put forward by the prosecution.
You may not be disagreeing with the evidence as such; however you should always have the cell site evidence reviewed, especially as recently a large majority of the work we see is conducted by non-experts, usually police analysts or even mobile phone analysts, neither qualified to give expert opinion in relation to cell site analysis.
This is a light hearted look at an otherwise serious subject. During the course of our daily cell site analysis surveys we observe many types of cell site structures. Our dedicated senior cell site expert Greg Robinson, whilst surveying recently observed a cell site deploying very large antennas upgraded to provide multi channel 3G and 4G services.
Cell site analysis evidence tends to feature quite heavily in most serious cases such as murder and drugs conspiracies, but also in cases of burglary, harassment and the like.
Cell Site Analysis Experts are generally being instructed very late in many cases.
It would seem though that this is becoming the norm which is quite worrying as complex cell site analysis really does take time. A sought after cell site expert will normally be booked for some time in advance leaving fewer opportunities to take on very late cases.
Over the years our cell site analysis experts have either been instructed to prepare a cell site report for the prosecution or by the defence in order to potentially challenge a prosecution cell site analysis report.