Prime Suspects

BACK IN 1995, when Don Howard first joined the Indiana State Police as a road trooper, he didn’t even have a computer in his patrol car. Every time a suspect fled or a robbery was in progress, Howard and his fellow officers had to call the details in to the station. But in the 10 years since he joined the agency’s criminal investigations unit as a detective, crime-fighting technology has advanced exponentially—as has the tech used to commit the felonies. Today, in addition to chasing murderers, thieves, and kidnappers, Howard and his cohorts have to stay ahead of hackers, identity thieves, and online fraudsters. That requires a constant reassessment of policing tools and approaches. “With the state police,” says Howard, “you see changes almost monthly.”

In the spring of 2017, Howard got a call that would test every bit of his accrued skills and those of the Indiana law-enforcement apparatus at large. Online retail giant Amazon contacted the ISP