The Dixie State University Digital Forensics Crime Lab is a unique enterprise providing oversight to operations, projects, and finances involving DSU Criminal Justice faculty and students interfacing with local, state, regional, and national law enforcement officers and programs to educate traditional Criminal Justice majors and provide a new Criminal Justice focus on high tech crime. The Crime Lab educates consumers, law enforcement, and criminal justice students (future law enforcement officers) on identify theft and computer related crimes. The Digital Forensics Crime Lab includes a cyber crime lab that is used to train DSU students and Utah?s local and statewide law enforcement officers in modern techniques necessary for combating the growing incidences of computer-based crime. They learn how to collect online evidence, dissect and analyze storage disks, keep detailed logs, protect the ?chain of custody? and present expert testimony in court.

The Crime Lab facilitates cooperation between law enforcement and academia that strengthens the region?s and Utah?s crime fighting efforts. The Crime Lab also provides scholarships for top students and coordinates internships with law enforcement agencies targeting Utah computer crime. This real-life hands-on experience provides DSU students with experience for high level private and government jobs upon graduation. The goal is to provide the criminal justice field with focused graduates who have sufficient computer science skills to effectively meet and stay ahead of the threat.