Galesburg City Council on Monday approved a $15,000 purchase of digital extraction software and hardware.
The programs will allow Galesburg Police to access digital evidence of crimes on cellphones, social media, cloud storage, and other digital platforms. Still, police would have to obtain a court-ordered search warrant before using the equipment.
Police Chief Russ Idle says in the past Galesburg has been able to take advantage of other departments that have bought these programs.
Idle says up until recently they’ve able to take advantage of the programs on a “handshake and a favor”
“But the vendors are starting to figure that so they’re starting the restrict access to the number of times you can use it as a matter of their business policy,” Idle told the council. “So, they can’t do it anymore and we’re going to have to get our own.”
The City Manager Todd Thompson noted that this won’t enable police to access residents’ information at will.
“It is important to note that any types of searches using this software are only conducted after a search warrant is obtained.”
The products from Grayshift were determined by staff to be the better of the two options available for this service. GrayKey will work on both Android and Apple phones while the other bidder did not.
Council unanimously approved the bid from Grayshift for $15,000. Monday’s meeting was presided over by Deputy Mayor Larry Cox.
