What the work leaves behind — and why I still fight for it
Authored by Holly Kennedy
Originally published in the December 2025 issue of Magnet Unlocked. Want to be the first to see new content? Sign up for our monthly newsletter, Magnet Unlocked.
The same impulse that kept me running cases late into the evening as a digital forensics examiner is the one that now drives me to help agencies articulate their needs, justify investments in automation, and demonstrate the outcomes that funding can unlock.
The goal is always about examiner impact. I want to help free teams from spending precious hours on the routine tasks that technology can handle so that human expertise is focused where it counts.
This is where grant funding becomes not just helpful, but essential. When I shifted into grant writing at Magnet Forensics, it wasn’t a departure from examiner work, it was a continuation of it.
My background in digital forensics
Early in my career, I saw firsthand how pivotal digital evidence had become. A single device could make or break an investigation, delays could cost opportunities, and the people who carried the workload bore a particular strain that few outside the lab ever see.
When a digital forensics position opened up at my agency, most investigators hesitated. I understood their hesitation. But I also understood the importance of the work, so I stepped into it.
Roughly half my cases became child exploitation investigations, with the rest spread across violent crimes, felony property cases, and missing persons. Missing persons were the ones that stayed with me, the cases where shaving hours off our turnaround times could mean a family didn’t spend another night wondering if their loved one was safe.
Automation nodes, triage workflows, hash-based categorization, Griffeye classification — those weren’t just technical conveniences. They were the difference between “too late” and “just in time.”
Modern tools mediate the worst of the content, ICAC work carries a weight that technology can partially lighten. The emotional toll is real and continuous. You’re aware that these images reflect real children whose trauma has been recorded and recirculated.
You learn quickly that you must hold tightly to the meaning of the work; you are part of the effort to disrupt harm, to identify offenders, to intervene in cycles that thrive on secrecy. Without that grounding, the psychological strain grows roots.
The difficulties in hiring and retention
That context informed everything I learned about how programs survive or fail.
Agencies everywhere, from rural departments where a single examiner handles everything to major metro labs processing hundreds of devices a month, are struggling with untenable backlogs and shrinking resources.
Retention is difficult.
Recruiting new examiners is even harder.
And leadership often can’t open new positions because they’re fighting just to maintain current staffing levels.
Working in the current grant landscape
If all of that wasn’t enough, the grant landscape right now is unstable.
Federal programs have been postponed or cancelled. Some awarded funds have been reduced. Agencies that expected decisions months ago are still waiting due to delays. It’s discouraging and for departments barely keeping their lab alive, it can feel existential.
But spring funding cycles are approaching. Justice Assistance Grants (JAG), Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)-related programs, multi-disciplinary grants, and specialized law-enforcement opportunities are expected to reopen.
Agencies that begin preparing now will be positioned to move quickly when applications drop. That preparation looks like building relationships with your city’s grants office, collaborating with community partners, and identifying measurable outcomes that tie your digital investigations needs to broader public-safety goals.
Share your vision for a modern lab and how it can benefit society
Many modern grant programs want integrated solutions, collaborations with advocacy groups, mental-health services, schools, or courts, not just standalone law-enforcement projects.
Here is my advice: don’t limit your vision to survival.
Think about the project that would genuinely transform your lab. Think about how technology could reduce turnaround times, how automation could expand capacity without adding headcount, how faster evidence processing could change outcomes in missing persons or violent-crime investigations.
That’s the story funders want to hear, and it’s the story your community deserves.
We’re here to help
Ask for help. Ask your internal grant experts. Ask your regional partners. Ask the people in your orbit who understand the process. And yes—ask me! Because the work you’re doing is too important to be constrained by a budget cycle or a cancelled RFP.
I may no longer be processing devices myself, but every proposal I write, every agency I support, is part of the same mission, giving examiners the tools, time, and capacity to do the work that changes lives. The meaning is still there. The impact is still there. And the hope, despite everything, is still there too.
If your agency is looking for help applying for grants, check out the Magnet Forensics Grant Assistance Program and fill out the form to get in touch.