WHEN:

August 19, 2024

8:30AM- 4:30PM

WHERE:

Muscatine Community College

152 Colorado Street

Muscatine, IA 52761

HOSTED BY:

Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office &

Muscatine Community College

It is highly recommended that students bring a laptop with a mouse. Please install Google Earth Pro (Free) and Castviz (Free) on the laptop before the course to follow along. 

This one day course is designed to provide law enforcement officers with the skills and knowledge needed to conduct effective geofence investigations. A geofence is a virtual boundary created around a geographical location using ‘Geofence’ and Cellular ‘Tower Dump’ technology. Geofencing has become an essential tool for law enforcement agencies in investigating and solving crimes.

In this course, law enforcement officers will learn how to utilize geofencing technology to investigate crimes that have occurred in a specific geographic area. They will be introduced to the fundamental principles of geofencing technology, including how to create geofences, how to analyze geofence data, and how to interpret and visualize geofence information. They will also learn how to use geofencing technology in combination with other investigative tools and techniques to solve complex criminal cases.

The course will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to geofencing technology
• Types of geofencing technology
• Creating geofences and analyzing geofence data
• Principles of a ‘Geofence’ and Cellular ‘Tower Dump’ warrants
• Electronic data from Geofence warrants  
• Advanced cellular “Tower Dumps”
• AT&T NELOs based geofence
• T-Mobile Timing Advance or Time Distance of Arrival (Geofence) Search
• Legal considerations for geofencing
• Integrating geofencing technology with other investigative tools and techniques
• Case studies and practical applications of geofencing technology in law enforcement

By the end of this course, law enforcement officers will have a comprehensive understanding of geofencing technology and how to use it effectively in their investigations. They will be able to apply the knowledge and skills gained in this course to their daily work, enabling them to solve cases more efficiently and effectively.

December 2023 Update:

On December 13^th, 2023, Google announced they would be changing the storage features of an end-user’s location based geolocational history.  According to news articles, most of this soon-to-be altered information revolves around the use of geolocation information stored or created using Google Maps.  It should be noted that Google possesses multiple avenues of geolocational collection outside the use of Google Maps.  Subject Matter Experts agree that Google would still retain and store this information as part of their main source of revenue generation for advertising and marketing purposes.  The issue becomes how much will Google encrypt their data to prevent law enforcement’s use of it. 

All students of our Geofence Investigations course will be taught the most current Geofence Investigative techniques using platforms beyond just Google. This investigative technique requires them to have a foundational understanding of how this information is sourced, stored, queried, and analyzed for future police investigations. All the courses we have developed and offered to law enforcement since 2018, provide law enforcement with the most up to date investigative techniques, which often change frequently. This course is no different, as these Geofence investigative techniques change we will continue to modify the course to include traditional tower dumps from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. It will also begin to include the most up to date information and best practices on the brand-new AT&T NELOs based geofence and the T-Mobile Timing Advance or Time Distance of Arrival (Geofence) Search. 

The lessons of U.S. v. Chatrie and U.S. v. Meza are fresh on the minds of defense attorneys who are eager to suppress improperly conducted investigations based on geofencing from electronic sources.  However, these court cases (and others) have provided a step-by-step process that law enforcement should follow when conducting other similar geofence-based investigations.  Objectives and training components of the Geofence class taught by Covert Media Consulting LLC teach best practices for successful Geofencing Investigations which mirror that of investigations in which “tower dumps” (whether engineering record-based or call detail records-based) are required.  It is our belief if a student master’s proper Geofence procedures and best practices then they can use this same foundational understanding and production protocol to properly request and analyze all cellular-based records within a respective area of a crime scene or area related to a criminal offense. 

In closing, no one truly knows how long it will take Google to hide or encrypt their data to prevent law enforcement from querying it.  In fact, due to Google’s reliance on this data as a mainstay of revenue generation, it is unlikely this will be a fast-moving operation.  It is highly recommended for all prospective students to attend this training opportunity which easily parlays into cellular investigations involving tower dumping.  

Cancellation Policy:

Full refund if cancelled more than 30 days prior to start of event

If cancelled less than 30 days prior to start of event there are no refunds, however you can swap seats with someone from your agency.

Recent Evaluations:

 “Thoroughly enjoyed the class. One of the most relevant training classes I’ve had in 21 years. Found a missing juvenile this morning using some of the resources you provided.” Corona, California Student 2022

“Honestly, this is one of the best course I have taken. It is extremely practical, and you cut out a lot of the BS that LE courses tend to come with. No BS just good knowledge. I can't think of anything else that you didn't cover. This is so much good new content that I spent a lot of time on typing out notes, so I can go over the notes again.” Corona, California Student 2022

“A lot of valuable information was presented in a very short period of time.  I truly found the class beneficial and would highly recommend it to all police personnel as the trend has become that more crime is being committed with clues and evidence located on the internet and woven into social media.” Shelton, CT Student 2022