By Joe Barr
Originally published in September, 1996

HTCU 1. High Tech Crime Unit. A specialized law enforcement unit of the Austin Police Department. Cops with computers, who know how to use them.

Austin is one of only two cities in the country with a specialized high-tech (computer crime) unit. The other is San Jose, deep in the heart of the Silicon Valley. The six person unit, seven counting its supervisor, Senior Sergeant Darrell Gambrell, is about intelligence work: undercover dweebs on the prowl for geek goons and cyber-thieves. As Sergeant Gambrell explained it, if someone breaks into your home and steals your computer, burglary will handle it. But if someone drives off with a truckload of Pentiums or SIMMs or hard drives, his unit does.

I spent nearly an hour with Sergeant Gambrell in the interview for this story, and it has changed my perception about computer police- work considerably. I admit to holding a less than positive view prior to the visit. My thinking has been colored a lot by the way the Secret Service handled the Steve Jackson Games case here in Austin, with the subsequent bad press they were given. I'm happy to report I found no trace at all of the arrogance or stupidity of those involved in that caper. Instead I found an intelligent, thoughtful, experienced career policeman at the head of much needed specialized investigation unit.

The rise of the high-tech industry in Austin was the impetus for the unit's creation in February, 1995. Prior to its formation, high- tech crime was generally split between the narcotics and ROP (the repeat offenders program). Frustration was often the result when a major computer manufacturer had problems with internal theft or break-ins. Officers were assigned who knew no more about computers than I do about police work. This frustration led to the formation of an association made up of eight high-tech firms with operations in the Austin area. That body in turn has donated time, hardware, and money to help fund the specialized unit.

Today, Austin boasts the only force in the country with two Forensic Computer Examiners on its staff. The name alone was enough to impress me, but I had to admit to the good sergeant I hadn't a clue what it was about. He explained that they are experts in reconstructing computer crime: puzzling out what has happened on a computer to juggle books, alter account balances, or otherwise put money, goods, or services into the wrong hands. That sort of specialized knowledge speaks to how far police work has come in computer crime the past few years.

A typical case, if there is such a thing, handled by the High-Tech unit, would go something like this. A computer maker reports shortages of parts or systems. First, accounting records are double checked to make sure it's not a bookkeeping error. Then manufacturing/receiving/inventory records are checked in the same way. Once certain that a crime has been/ is being committed, undercover work begins. A new employee starts in the warehouse, for example. Or maybe a new regular begins to appear at the watering hole where everyone gathers at the end of the shift, asking about good buys on whatever has been missing.

There is no guarantee, though, that the missing chips would be disposed of in the Austin area. There is a worldwide web of high-tech trade in stolen goods. A thousand Pentiums might be taken in Austin, traded to someone in New York City, and sold to a clonemaker in Moscow. The 'borderless' nature of many of these crimes means that the unit spends considerable time working with other local, state, federal, and international police agencies. More than once, however, stolen goods have shown up in Austin area retail stores. Having the name of your business associated with a major heist takes years to undo, so most reputable retailers are extra careful these days about who they are buying from.

Austin's High-Tech crime unit deals in hardware, software, and electronic break-ins and pilfering. They aren't looking for dirty pictures on BBS's or the net. The caseload is high and there aren't enough officers in the unit to keep up as it is. Pornography online is not ignored, it is just handled by the vice unit instead. At this writing, they are investigating crimes with a total loss value of over ten million dollars. In their short lifetime they have already solved several major crimes. One in the past few months involved half-a-million dollars worth of chips.

Sergeant Gambrell says people who know him to be a country boy say he is riding his tractor on the information superhighway. He does project an unassuming, low-keyed, self-deprecating (in terms of knowledge about computers, at least) image. I'm sure he wouldn't refer to himself as a dweeb, for example. He retires after a 30 year career in December, and he has other things in mind to fill his hours than sitting at a computer.

It's really such a small world these days. Six months ago I was doing temp work at a state agency on the floor above his office. On Fridays, when we could wear jeans and t-shirts to work, I almost always wore my black NARC t-shirt that I got at HoHoCon a couple of years ago. I told him this story at the beginning of the hour, and how I realized after a couple of weeks, that there were real narcs getting in and out of the elevator with me and looking at me real funny when they saw my shirt.

He told me that they had been at HoHoCon, too. He said the reason they can't find hotel space to have it in Austin any longer is that someone broke into the hotel's computer system at the last one and altered the records to show lower rates, or the rooms already paid for, or simply erased the record of the stay. I hadn't known that.

I told him that the story I wrote about HoHoCon had been republished in issue 46 of phrack, the famous underground zine. When I added that I hadn't seen a new issue in quite awhile and wasn't sure if it was still being published, he said "Yes, issue 48 just came out." Strange that this tractor riding cowboy knows more about the current status of phrack than I do.

I'm not sure when it dawned on me that I had been slicked by this simple country boy that heads the unit. Maybe while I was driving home or going over my notes. Maybe as I write this story. But the truth of the matter is that he let me hold onto my views of the bumpkin computer cop as long as I wanted, and only upon reflection did I realize how far off the mark that impression was. The Austin High-Tech crime unit is mostly about intelligence work, undercover spy stuff. In December, it (and the whole city of Austin) are losing one hell of an officer.