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Legislature sets salary for digital forensic investigator after discussion on local capacity and evidence admissibility
Summary
The Audit & Control Committee approved placing a digital forensic investigator position at Grade 25, moving an IT employee into the role to support local law enforcement and the district attorney's office with digital evidence extraction and authentication.
The Audit & Control Committee approved a resolution to set the salary for a newly classified county position, digital forensic investigator, at Grade 25. The district attorney’s office and county IT officials described the role’s responsibilities and why the county needs an in‑house capability rather than relying on outside vendors.
Jason Schmidt, Chautauqua County District Attorney, told the committee the employee, previously assigned to the sheriff’s office as an IT specialist, had been reclassified after performing data-extraction and evidence-enhancement work. Schmidt said having a local digital forensic investigator speeds investigations, allows on-scene extraction of electronic evidence, and aids authentication of enhanced video and other digital material for court.
"Once we have that enhancement," Schmidt said, "what we've encountered ... is what's the admissibility of that evidence once you start to change the metadata in order to enhance video by filling in pixels and so forth. That's something the criminal justice system is grappling with across the country." He added that having local expertise helps authenticate evidence so it can be admitted before a jury.
Sam Zafuto, deputy director of finance, said the salary change will add roughly $4,000 annually to the employee’s compensation at current step placement and that the change was already reflected in tentative 2026 budgeting. County Chief Information Officer John D'Angelo said IT will backfill the vacated IT role and has promoted or reassigned staff to cover operational gaps.
Committee members discussed whether the county was adding positions overall or merely moving existing staff. Officials said the action results in an additional full-time equivalent for the district attorney’s office (budgeted in subsequent years) while IT will promote or reassign staff to cover the backfill, and some long-term savings may come as older duties are automated.
The committee approved the salary-setting resolution; members voiced support for building local capacity to handle increasingly common digital evidence in criminal cases.
Sources: Jason Schmidt, Chautauqua County District Attorney; Sam Zafuto, Deputy Director of Finance; John D'Angelo, Chief Information Officer; Audit & Control Committee proceedings.
