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Officers trace movements and events through vehicle infotainment and crash data, detective says
Summary
Detective Wayne Jones says modern vehicles contain multiple computer systems (infotainment, crash data, call logs) that provide location and event breadcrumbs useful to investigations; he cites cases where video and vehicle data cleared or identified drivers.
Detective Wayne Jones told the Roll Call Room that modern vehicles store records investigators can use to reconstruct movement and actions related to crimes and collisions.
Jones said vehicles can contain crash data, infotainment logs, paired phone call histories, door and seatbelt events, and even continuous external and interior camera footage on advanced models. "Vehicle crashes is one area that there could be data," he said, adding that these systems can show where a vehicle has been and, in some cases, exonerate or implicate drivers.
He referenced partnerships with other jurisdictions and private data sources (he mentioned Uber and license‑plate reader systems) in a trafficking case where investigators traced a suspect across state lines and later secured federal charges. Jones also referenced the Kohberger investigation as an example where gaps in a phone's data (periods when a phone appeared to be turned off) became a central investigatory question.
