Weber County to buy Magnet/GrayKey license to speed digital forensics, commissioners told

Sheriff Ryan Arban urged the commission to fund an annual license for Magnet Forensics/GrayKey so Weber County can run advanced digital extractions and AI‑assisted evidence review locally. Arban said the regional RCFL backlog can be lengthy and that local capacity would speed investigations and prosecutions.

Sergeant Stewart described operational benefits and his recent caseload: he said the county already has much of the necessary equipment and that the software license would enable parallel processing of multiple phones instead of one‑at‑a‑time extraction. "I had 167 phone examinations ... over a 2‑year period," Stewart said, and he told commissioners that the examiner workload encompassed more than 100,000 gigabytes of data in those cases. He and staff said the Magnet license (GrayKey capability) uses AI tools to prioritize relevant data and would cut examiner review time significantly.

Staff presented a cost estimate of roughly $42,000–$45,000 annually for licensing; commissioners discussed starting with a county‑only 'soft start' to measure workload and to consider a fee structure if outside agencies later request use. Commissioners asked about storage and server costs; staff said those are part of the long‑term budget conversation and that initial funding would be handled in the current budget cycle with a purchase order.

Commissioner Gage Froerer said he would place the purchase in the procurement process next week: "I'll put it in. It'll probably show up next Tuesday as a purchase order," he said. The board gave unanimous informal support to proceed with the license and asked staff to present detailed line items in the next budget presentation.

Next steps: Staff will submit a purchase order/presentation to proceed with the annual license, provide a detailed budget breakdown to the commission, and begin a county‑only pilot while evaluating fee options for external agencies.