Tips for effectively storing, processing and sharing digital content
As access to information continues to grow, law enforcement agencies are finding they must expand their digital evidence management to include more than just body-worn camera footage. While video, audio and image files tend to make up the bulk of digital content, the types of multimedia files are expanding, which puts digital evidence management at risk of becoming an overwhelming undertaking.
Move it to the Cloud
While the cloud is an excellent option, replicating multiple systems in the cloud can make it difficult to take full advantage of economies of scale and potential savings. Managing too many disparate systems with equally disparate workflows also results in a lack of operational continuity. These different systems typically require their own expertise and staff training, making it more challenging for personnel to collect, process, and package evidence for an upcoming case.
So, what can law enforcement agencies do to more effectively manage the growing flood of digital evidence? Here are a few key considerations:
- Avoid storage silos
Along with body-worn camera footage, law enforcement agencies today are receiving data from a host of sources: citizens’ smartphones, fixed surveillance video, social media content, and crime scene documentation to name a few. Witness accounts and statements have also begun transitioning from physical to digital evidence. With so much information to collect and store, moving data to the cloud is a logical next step. Not only does the cloud provide the scalability needed to support vast amounts of data but it can also reduce IT maintenance and troubleshooting requirements, eliminating the need to monitor and update multiple systems internally. However, law enforcement agencies are only really able to reap these scale and cost savings benefits if content is consolidated into a single repository. Simply replicating existing systems in a cloud environment results in the same siloed storage approach—with each system maintaining an additive cost. By looking at digital evidence holistically, agencies can take full advantage of economies of scale to reduce long-term storage costs and more affordably meet their needs. - Keep single incident evidence together
The ability to effectively access and package specific files for case prosecution is another challenge that comes with the rapid growth of digital evidence. It can be an incredibly inefficient process regardless of where data is stored. As digital evidence evolves, agencies that use a central repository for all types of digital evidence receive important benefits not only tied to cost; it makes it easy to pull disparate content into a single incident evidence package. Valuable points of integration include a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) and records management system (RMS), but can go even further with radio system integration and other systems too. This can create a unified incident view, allowing for all relevant digital evidence tied to a single event to be easily found, processed and packaged for judicial partners – saving valuable time and resources that are also becoming a growing concern. - Think holistically While video, audio, and image files are all an important part of case closure, as mentioned above, other data must also be taken into consideration. Centralizing the management of all data along with digital evidence can not only be beneficial for continued cost savings and organization, but also for analyzing it together for more intelligence-led decision making. For example: imagine if an anonymous tip with a picture of a suspicious loiterer was sent in. What if, based on that tip, facial recognition technology could tie the image of the person to a piece of digital evidence attached to an existing record already in your system. This record could give you the suspicious person’s name and any prior offenses they may have. The image, analysis, and digital evidence tied to a record, stored and processed together can facilitate a quicker understanding of the potential threat and in this case avoid a possible incident from occurring.
Find out more about digital evidence management here.
