Michael Jenkins, professor and chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice, Cybersecurity and Sociology, called the opportunity a “win/win” for both the university and the DA’s office at a Wednesday press conference.
Jenkins said the internship also will provide students the opportunity to get to know community leaders and become familiar with local opportunities, making it more likely that they will stay in the area.
District Attorney Brian Gallagher said the great majority of cases investigated by his office involve a cellphone, a computer and surveillance cameras.
“What these students are going to be doing is coming to work at our office, assisting our county detectives,” he said. “Students will be extracting data from cellphones, analyzing that data, evaluating that data with detectives and presenting the data to our prosecution team before we proceed to trial.”
Gallagher said three detectives of 17 in his office are solely dedicated to removing and analyzing data from cellphones, including text messages, location information and phone calls made.
“It’s critical information to us, because it’s my job to paint a picture to a jury when a crime is committed as to what happened,” he said. “It’s more critical now than ever because of advances in technology.”
Gallagher said one of the best examples of the importance of tracking cellphone data is the Justin Schuback case. Cellphone data played a crucial role in the investigation and Schuback’s subsequent conviction in the murder of local pizzeria owner Robert Baron.
Cellphone records, including “range to tower” data, were used to track Schuback’s movements on the night of Baron’s disappearance from his Old Forge restaurant in January 2017.
Cellphone technology available in March 2023 led to his arrest.
“That case was predicated on cellphone data,” Gallagher said.
Cellphone data is also invaluable in drug cases, providing information and evidence about how drug deals are facilitated and who is involved.
Gallagher started his career at the district attorney’s office in 2012. Law enforcement officials were able to track cellphone data at the time, but because of advances in technology, it is now possible to glean more extensive data from the phones, he said.
He pointed out the program would come at no cost to taxpayers.
University student Zoe Honney, a cyber crime and homeland security major from Scranton, who plans to pursue a master’s degree in cyber crime investigation and cybersecurity at the university, will be among the first students to participate in the program.
“I am extremely excited to be given an opportunity to be a part of the first round of students to intern as part of the collaboration between the University of Scranton and Lackawanna County,” she said.
She said she was eager to use the skills she learned under the guidance of university professors, working alongside experts from the DA’s office.
Carolyn McNamara Barry, Ph.D., dean of the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, said the program is consistent with the university’s Catholic mission.
Quoting Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, superior general of the Jesuits from 1983 to 2008, she said, “Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering, and engage it constructively.”
©2025 The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pa.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
