These days, in an increasingly online world, the process to convict criminals is more complex and dynamic than ever, with many criminals hiding mounds of evidence online that can be buried deeply – or worse, deleted. Anyone can erase text messages or a hard drive, so law enforcement must be one step ahead; they must be able to uncover less obvious online sources or recover deleted information. That’s not as easy as it sounds – and that’s where the UCCS College of Public Service Public Safety Initiative (PSI) comes in.
Law enforcement has an overwhelming task. While perpetrators can use online means to identify, prey on and target victims, carry out crimes, share resources, and exponentially increase the number of targeted victims, law enforcement officers, other public safety personnel, and prosecutors must become much savvier at uncovering that evidence through a variety of online methods. Their growing proficiency in digital forensics involving everything from emails, texts, chats, and social media to phone records and external hard drives is, in part, due to training offered by the UCCS Public Safety Initiative in the College of Public Service.
The UCCS Public Safety Initiative helps Colorado crime-fighting efforts by providing specialized digital forensics and cybercrime training to law enforcement and public safety personnel throughout the State of Colorado. In 2023 alone, the UCCS PSI sponsored 42 specialized training courses and trained 237 law enforcement/public safety personnel across 106 Colorado agencies to enhance cybercrime investigative abilities. These trainings include topics such as Undercover Chat and Vehicle Systems Forensics, helping law enforcement uncover critical information used in prosecuting criminals who now rely so heavily on online means to identify, target, and prey on victims.
In part due to the training opportunities provided by the UCCS Public Safety Initiative, the Denver District Attorney’s Office collected evidence that assisted in what has now resulted in a 158-year sentence for Dr. Stephen Matthews, a board-certified cardiologist and serial rapist who has actively targeted women online since at least 2019, and a 448-year sentence for Robert Hawkins – believed to be the longest human trafficking sentence in U.S. history – a convicted human trafficker and pimp now classified as a sexual predator and habitual criminal.
The College of Public Service (CPS) is unique. UCCS is one of the few higher education institutions that has embraced cybersecurity as a key skill not just for technology majors, but for its criminal justice students. CPS offers a Cyber Crime and Cybersecurity Option Area for its Bachelor of Criminal Justice degree seekers. CPS ensures its students are being trained on the latest challenges that both the private and public criminal justice sector face these days – a war waged online against criminals.
Understanding the importance of multi-disciplinary training in cybersecurity, in partnership with CPS, the UCCS Cybersecurity Programs Office (CPO) provides funding to the College of Public Service, not only to help develop the cybersecurity education pathway, but also to fund specialized digital forensics and cybersecurity training available to Colorado law enforcement through the Public Safety Initiative. The work of the CPO and the UCCS College of Public Service, including the Public Safety Initiative (PSI), is made possible by funding secured through the State of Colorado Cybersecurity Initiative (CSI) – a funding source provided by Colorado Senate Bill 18-086.
“There is nothing better than knowing what we do truly impacts our communities,” said Janet Van Kampen, Program Director for the Public Safety Initiative in the College of Public Service at UCCS. “These two criminal cases highlight the impact of the Colorado CSI funding from the State Legislature. Without this funding, many law enforcement agencies throughout the state would not have access to the training offered by the Public Safety Initiative on the emerging techniques used in fighting crime online.”
“Phone and social media data played a crucial role in securing the conviction of human trafficker Robert Hawkins,” said Chris Gray, an Analyst in the Denver District Attorney’s Office. “In another case, because of the training from the UCCS Public Safety Initiative, our team was able to use digital evidence to prove that two defendant phones were powered off immediately prior to a robbery/homicide and powered back on immediately after. This became critical at trial.”
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann concurs: “Not only has digital evidence helped the DA’s office in these cases, but it is becoming prevalent in all our cases. Criminal activity has evolved immensely in the last decade, given the prevalence and use of digital assets and people’s online presence. Law enforcement has to evolve along with it. The PSI training from UCCS has been a valuable resource to assist in that evolution.”
Understanding the criticality and effectiveness of the digital forensics methods that Chris Gray has learned in his career, he adds, “I have presented insights on what I call ‘The Digital Witness’ at several major conferences across the country, sharing the expertise I gained from PSI training with my law enforcement colleagues nationwide. The PSI digital forensics training underscores the importance of online data, extractions of phone records, cloud data, and online open-source intelligence (OSINT) that enables law enforcement to solve crimes and hold offenders accountable; these are the “Digital Witnesses” to today’s criminal activity.”
“My team has been able to show links in many human traffickers cases between disparate buyers, sellers, and traffickers,” Gray continued. “Much of the time, in these cases, the digital footprints we have been able to examine have led to guilty pleas from traffickers while limiting the impact on victims at trial and during testimony.”
These examples underscore the strength of timely and dynamic digital forensic and cybersecurity training provided through the Public Safety Initiative and the Colorado CSI funding, ultimately making Denver and Colorado safer places to live and work. Unfortunately, these programs are at risk. The UCCS Cybersecurity Programs Office, who secured the state funds and provided the funding to the UCCS Public Safety Initiative to offer this specialized training for Colorado law enforcement beginning in 2018, is at risk of being de-funded from the 2025 Colorado state budget.
As stated above, the College of Public Service and the Public Safety Initiative are funded via Senate Bill 18-086. Although the most recent round of funding was originally awarded for a three-year term beginning in July 2024, it was not included in the Governor’s 2025 draft budget to the Legislature that was put forth in November 2024. To continue the progress that Colorado law enforcement has made, however, the funding must be renewed.
For questions regarding the Cybersecurity Programs at UCCS, visit our website at cybersecurity.uccs.edu or email [email protected].
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