WCPO 9's Sam Harasimowicz covers Clermont County. If you have a story that you'd like Sam to look into or a news tip, email him at sam@wcpo.com.
BATAVIA, Ohio — A backroom inside the Clermont County Sheriff's Office has been transformed into a hub of digital forensics. It's called the Surveillance Analysis and Forensic Evidence Unit, or S.A.F.E. Unit.
Thursday afternoon, Clermont County Sheriff Chris Stratton was joined by Clermont County Prosecutor Mark Tekulve, Clermont County Commissioner David Painter, Congressman Dave Taylor and Clermont County Coroner Dr. Brian Treon to introduce the new unit and its work.
“The whole goal is a shared commitment to public safety," Stratton said.
The unit has worked on 151 cases to date and analyzed more than 340 devices since it began taking cases in November, according to Stratton.
The team is made up of three criminalists who have been brought in within the past few months.
Watch to see how Clermont County's S.A.F.E. unit is solving crimes faster and keeping the public safe:
“We’ve worked on CSAM cases, the child sexual abuse material cases. We’ve done violent crime, homicides, shootings. We’ve worked on property crime," criminalist Joe Ruchti said.
Ruchti walked WCPO through how the software works when investigators search a device.
“We use a host of analytical software to exploit the data inside these digital devices," Ruchti said.
The unit's headquarters is filled with computer screens, hard drives, physical tools and digital scanners.
Before the S.A.F.E. unit came to life, digital devices had to be sent outside of Clermont County for analysis in local criminal investigations, according to Stratton.
The state-of-the-art technology allows the team to solve crimes faster than ever before.
“We’ve solved murders in days, in what normally would have taken months," Ruchti said.
WCPO has covered multiple high-profile cases involving the S.A.F.E. unit's investigations, including when 11 people were indicted in one day, all on various child sex abuse charges.
Another case that the S.A.F.E unit investigated was the death of 19-year-old Jayden Nelson, which led to three people being charged with murder.
Tekulve pointed to that case specifically while speaking about the unit's recent work.
“Within four days of this homicide, we had people in custody, and that is due to the S.A.F.E unit," Tekulve said.
The project was funded through various state and federal grants.
"Those families are going to get justice and the community’s going to be much safer based on how we work and operate here," Ruchti said.
Have a story idea or tip for WCPO 9 Clermont County reporter Sam Harasimowicz? Email him at sam@wcpo.com
