Case Study: LaPorte County Prosecutor’s Office achieves faster, more effective child exploitation prosecutions with Exterro FTK and FTK Lab

LaPorte County Prosecutor’s Office Relies on FTK Lab to Help Prosecute Criminals in Child Exploitation Cases

LaPorte County Prosecutor’s Office, working closely with the Michigan City Police Department and regional task forces, faced a critical gap in trained digital-forensics expertise needed to investigate and prosecute child exploitation cases. Local detectives joined the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) and FBI cybercrime task forces, but investigators needed tools and training to quickly process large volumes of digital evidence and identify abuse imagery for prosecution.

They adopted Exterro’s FTK and FTK Lab—cloud-enabled digital-forensics platforms that provide centralized case management, collaborative analysis, fast parsing/carving, and web-based review. The tools enabled investigators to extract and surface critical video and image evidence (leading to a 2013 conviction and significant evidence in a 2017 case), reduce manual workloads, speed investigations, and shorten backlogs. Investigators reported three key benefits: ease of use, faster case turnaround, and responsive vendor support.

LaPorte County

Matt Barr

Detective