The growing number of digital devices in all of our lives is making computer forensics one of the busiest fields in law enforcement. Patrol officers are now not only faced with computers and cell phones, but cars, refrigerators, TV sets, game systems, and dozens of other things that have hard drives and can store digital evidence. That means that the number of potential digital crime scenes is ballooning daily. And officers in the field need tools for determining if any critical digital evidence is present on a device.

That's the idea behind a new Mobile Digital Forensics solution for the Dell Latitude E6400 XFR rugged laptop, which was developed by Dell and using Spektor software from Evidence Talks.

The new solution lets officers in the field quickly and securely identify evidence on a wide variety of digital devices, including Windows, Linux, and Macintosh computers, and cell phones. The system also reads memory cards.

"The amount of stored digital evidence is estimated to double every 18 to 24 months, and the evidence collected from these devices in all forms of investigation," says Troy West, vice president and general manager for Dell Public Sector EMEA. "This solution enables forensics teams to conduct on-scene triage to help mitigate the need to handle items that have no relevance to the investigation."

Although the Mobile Digital Forensics solution is very sophisticated, it doesn't require a high level of computer expertise to use it. "A forensic specialist could easily set it up to be used by officers in the field," says Dell's Chris Townsend.

The Mobile Digital Forensics solution is write-protected so that officers can maintain the chain of evidence. "The ports do not allow the user to inject any additional information," says Townsend.

Dell's new field forensic system is now being used by the Plant City (Fla.) Police Department. "We have found the Spektor Forensic product to be very easy and to perform better than expected," says Plant City detective John McDowell. "I used the product on a smart phone and was able to obtain all of the information I needed including e-mails, text messages, phone calls, and pictures. I was very happy to find a single product that would extract that much information from a phone."

VIDEO: Dell's Digital Forensics Solution