Have you ever taken a moment to consider the possibility of using AI technology to assist you on a case? Would you be comfortable allowing AI to take on the task of writing your report? Or would you trust AI enough to take its advice when acting as an expert witness?

Have you ever taken a screenshot of a text message or social media post for one of your cases? You may want to rethink how you collect digital evidence. Forbes’s Lars Daniel takes a deep dive into the validity of digital evidence in his article Can Screenshots Of Text Messages Be Used As Digital Evidence In Court?

Bureau of Land Management Special Agents search the country for the Axe Body Spray Arsonist.  The arsonist is believed to have started fires using ignited axe body spray.  Special Agents are attempting to link the suspect through DNA found at the fire scene.  WMBF News article Affidavit: Authorities request DNA to connect Surfside Beach man to California wildfire arson by Kristin Nelson dives deeper into the story.  Make sure to check out the attached Federal Application for Search Warrant and Affidavit attached to the story. 

A Long Island New York volunteer firefighter arrested and charged with arson.  The New York times, in the article Firefighter Charged With Arson Said He Put Lit Cotton Balls Under Car, reports the suspect used cotton balls to ignite vehicles and brush. 

Are arson fires on the rise in California? Is climate change making the fires worse? The Heatmap.news article The Fire Condition We Can’t Control For by journalist Jeva Lange dives into arson fires in California.  She interviewed SWAIT Contributor Ed Nordskog for the article. 

Last year, Google started taking steps to kill the geofence warrant (article link) making it harder to utilize data collected by Google for investigations. In the linked Forbes article, Locations Service Off?  You can Still Be Tracked, by Lars Daniel, Daniels discusses how our cell phones track our every move. 

Learn how this technology can be leveraged for arson investigations by joining us for SWAIT Reno 2025.  Jeff Bennett with the FBI Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST) will be presenting how the FBI can help analyze cellular data for your investigations.

The Marin Independent Journal article Rogues’ Gallery of California Fire Starters: Drunks, Arsonists, Firefighters - Even a Country Star - Linked to Blazes, by Ethan Baron, profiles several of California’s prolific arsonists.

While most news articles on arsonists tend to be light on details, some can provide useful nuggets of information. As an arson investigator, researching arsonists helps bolster our knowledge and confirms or dispels information we have learned throughout our careers. Here at SWAIT, we, from time to time, will analyze specific articles for useful insights and behavior analysis. Checkout our other posts on our Newsletter page.

The following roundup of articles appeared in news outlets over this past summer.

Chile arrests two for starting devastating wildfires. If the information in the article is accurate then there are some good learning points here.

Forbes article on Google’s attempts to eliminate the geofence warrant.

Discover Magazine article on wildland fire investigation.