Cyber Crimes Unit (CCU)
The St. Joseph County Cyber Crimes Unit (CCU) is a division of the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office. Since partnering with the University of Notre Dame, the CCU has been located on the Notre Dame Campus in Hammes Mowbray Hall. The unit consists of two full-time co-directors and 20 student investigators. CCU has the responsibility for conducting digital forensic examinations for nearly 75 agencies in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan.
Since partnering with Notre Dame, the CCU has dramatically reduced case backlogs and turnaround times despite an increase of over 400% in annual forensics examination.
| Year | Cases | Devices | Turnaround | Backlog Cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 129 | 150 | 14 days | 30 |
| 2017 | 208 | 309 | 4 days | 10 |
| 2018 | 221 | 291 | 3 days | 0 |
| 2019 | 302 | 527 | 3 days | 0 |
| 2020 | 376 | 749 | 3 days | 0 |
| 2021 | 357 | 780 | 3 days | 0 |
Students interested in being considered for the Student Investigator program with the Cyber Crimes Unit can obtain more information, including the application process, from the Digital Forensics Internship page through the Idzik Computing and Digital Technologies Minor.