Challenges in Leveraging Digital Data During Investigations Digital data has become an integral aspect of modern investigations, with vast quantities of communications records, images, videos, documents, digital forensics and social media routinely needing to be gathered and analyzed to obtain evidence and uncover clues and insights. When asked what they find more challenging when it comes to working with digital data during investigations – 33% of the respondents say that generating intelligence and insights from digital data is most challenging, 20% say that gathering court-admissible evidence is most challenging, 46% say that both are equally challenging, and only 1% say that they don’t find either challenging (Figure 7). When further examining those respondents who struggle with generating intelligence and insights out of digital data, in relation to their ability to successfully resolve investigations (seen earlier in Figure 4) – we observe that the share of organizations reporting that extracting intelligence and insights is the most challenging aspect for them climbs to 48% (Figure 8). In other words, the ability to generate insights is a critical factor for investigation success. There is a clear link between the difficulties law enforcement agencies face in generating intelligence and insights from digital data, and their inability to successfully resolve investigations. Challenges with Digital Data During Investigations Difficulty in Generating Intelligence and Insights from Digital Data in Relation to Ability to Successfully Resolve Investigations Figure 7 Figure 8 46% 28% 32% 31% 48% 33% 20% 1% Generating intelligence and insights out of digital data Both are equally challenging Gathering court-admissible evidence from digital data None of the above Always Often Sometimes Rarely or never 1% | 2025 Law Enforcement Outlook 13