Art Hively joined the U.S. Army shortly after graduating from high school in 1973. After four years serving the country, he continued that service in the California Army National Guard for an additional ten years. The last six years of his military career he spent in the U.S. Army Reserve, retiring in 1996 with the rank of major. In 1981 he was hired by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy sheriff.

He spent almost 25 years with that organization retiring in 2005 with the rank of sergeant. Between 1996 and his retirement he contributed to the organization in the area of high technology. Initially assisting the organization in moving from a paper report writing system to a digital report writing system. He learned computer programming to assist in this endeavor. During this time, he also wrote numerous computer programs for different divisions in the organization. The last year with the Sheriff’s Office he was assigned to the local high technology crimes task force in San Jose. The REACT task force is one of the five sister high technology crimes task forces in the State of California. During this year he began his training in computer forensics. In 2006, Art continued his service in the law enforcement community by joining the Ceres Police Department (Central Valley of California).

From the start, due to his experience with high technology crimes investigations and computer forensics, he became the organization’s representative member in the Sacramento Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. His duties with the police department over the twelve years there ranged from patrol officer, high school resource officer and detective.

As a detective, besides being the organization’s high-tech detective, he also was responsible for crimes against children (physical and sexual abuse), adult sexual assaults, and major crimes against persons (assault with a deadly weapon, homicide, etc.). Between 2010 and his retirement in 2018 he led or participated in approximately 100 investigations involving the aforementioned case types. A number of these investigations were prosecuted in the U.S. District Court in Fresno, Eastern District of California. Since 2005, Art has participated in more than 1,000 hours of training in topics related to high technology crimes investigations, with a focus on digital forensics. He has earned the following certifications in the area of digital forensics:

• Guidance Software’s EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) – December 2011
• AccessData’s Certified Examiner (ACE) – February 2012
• Cellebrite Certified Mobile Examiner (CCME) – July 2015
• Cellebrite Certified Physical Examiner (CCPA) – July 2015
• Cellebrite Certified Logical Operator (CCO/CCLO) – July 2015
• International Society of Forensic Computer Examiners Certified Computer Examiner (CCE) – 2019

Art has been married to his wife for more than 40 years and they have two adult children and four grandchildren. They live in Copperopolis, CA.