The Eau Claire Police Department has big plans to deal with the growing problem of child pornography, Internet crime and the growing task of collecting digital evidence. The deputy chief says the department hopes to have a regional computer forensic lab within a year.

Right now, in Eau Claire there's just one full-time detective working on digital forensics. That detective says what started out as a part-time job, now plays a part in most police cases.

Tuesday afternoon, Detective Paul Becker searched for child pornography on a bit-by-bit copy of a hard-drive seized for evidence. His is the only equipment capable of doing the search in the department and it takes specialized training to know how to use it.

"The biggest thing is to expedite the process so we can move along," Becker says.

Becker says being able to do the work in Eau Claire keeps the department from adding to the back-logged state crime lab and sometimes waiting a long time for results. And, while child pornography cases fill the majority of time, he says officers are also bringing in technological evidence on more cases than ever before.

"If we're seizing it, if we're taking it in on a case by case basis, it becomes a matter of finding some time to try and process it," Becker says.

That’s why the department is in the process of buying $21,000 worth of equipment to get other work-stations up and running.

"As there are more and more devices that can contain digital evidence, there's more and more opportunity for digital evidence to be collected from those devices,” Deputy Chief Eric Larsen Larsen says.

He says cell phones, computers, digital cameras and even video game units can help officers determine if a suspect was where he or she said they were when a crime happens. He says Becker helps with an array of criminal investigations from white collar and ID thefts to homicides.

As for child pornography, Larsen says a lot of people might not realize how much is out there. Right now, he says the department processes about one case a month; he says that’s about all it can handle.

"A lot of what we do is a response to changes in society. When I started in police work, child pornography was hardly ever an issue and now we have to have a person specially trained who's working full time to deal mostly with that problem," says Larsen.

"It certainly gives you satisfaction to know that you are putting together investigations and cases that eventually lead to the arrest and prosecution of individuals who quite likely are offending on children or at least have the propensity to do that type of a crime,” Becker says. “Any time that you can effectively get between that or stop that, I think that's a successful day.”

Larsen says the hope is to also get other departments to pay a fee to have equal access to a shared regional lab to deal with both a growing problem and shrinking budgets. He says the Eau Claire Police Department is already in talks with the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Department and Altoona Police Department share the lab.

Larsen says a state grant and money the department got after helping the IRS in an investigation will cover the $21,000 cost.