Committee recommends three DA-office positions now, asks for more data before backing six digital-forensics hires

The Finance, Audit and Budget Committee considered the District Attorney's request to create nine positions in the DA's office as a "critical budget request." District Attorney Sherry Boston told the committee the DA's office has grown from about 157 employees in 2017 to more than 300 now and operates across five locations, increasing demands on operations and technology.

Boston described the nine-position request as three positions for the operations and special projects unit (including a legal office coordinator and IT-support roles) and six positions for the digital forensics unit. "We have 1 employee, who is responsible for all the IT needs of 300 employees," Boston said, describing the immediate need for additional operations and IT capacity.

She also outlined workload in the digital forensics unit, which supports DeKalb County Police Department and smaller municipal and federal partners: "In 2024 ... we extracted 248 phones. We did 14 computer extractions, 41 miscellaneous digital requests ... 429 device search warrants, 261 cell phone search warrants, 150 social media search warrants, 84 Google search warrants, 24 Apple iCloud, a 190 for US Marshals and fugitive warrants," Boston said. She said the unit is on pace to exceed 2024's volumes in 2025.

Boston provided a fiscal impact figure for the nine positions and related costs: $488,131, with the funding start date chosen as Oct. 13. She said equipment costs are included and some equipment is one-time; committee discussion noted pension and other fringe allocations are budgeted at the departmental level and may be trued up in future budgets.

Committee action: Chair Commissioner Ted Terry and Commissioner Shakira Johnson agreed to move the item out of committee with differing levels of immediate support. The committee voted to recommend approval of the three operations/IT positions (legal office coordinator; departmental information-technology specialist; systems analyst senior) and to withhold a recommendation on the six digital-forensics positions until the administration coordinates with the DA to provide additional data on (a) the agencies using the DA's lab, and (b) budgetary impacts to next year's general fund. Commissioner Shakira Johnson moved to recommend approval of the three positions; Chair Terry seconded. The committee recorded the vote as "aye" and the motion carried in committee.

The committee requested the DA and the county administration provide a breakdown of which agencies (DeKalb County Police Department and other municipal and federal partners) use digital-forensics services and an estimate of the portion of demand attributable to each agency, so the board can evaluate service-delivery strategy alignment and funding responsibilities in advance of the Oct. 14 full-board meeting.