Defining 'service levels' for digital forensic science organisations

As demand for support from the digital forensic science discipline by criminal justice systems continues to remain high, there is a need to ensure that this field can sustain its valuable contribution to many investigations. With well documented backlogs and the presence of relevant digital behaviour documented on devices in many criminal cases means that there is a need to ensure the field's resources can be deployed effectively. It is suggested that law enforcement digital forensic science organisations could consider the deployment of a system of 'Service Levels', designed to transparently outline the different types of forensic capability that can be deployed within a given investigative scenario. This work defines and describes a set of seven 'Service Level' to be considered law enforcement digital forensic science organisations when outlining their capability to clients. In addition, a 'Service Level Allocator' decision model is offered to allow clients to determine what Service Level is appropriate for their investigation. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.