SPECIAL REPORT Modern Evidence Management
EvidenceOnQ allows departments such as this to track and manage evidence.
Law enforcement agencies are looking for storage after deter- mining that all that digital media is evidence that must be con- trolled and secured the same as physical evidence. They must be able to show that not one pixel has been changed in a digital photo and the ability to store, secure, and manage digital evi- dence is crucial to every agency.
EvidenceOnQ and DigitalOnQ provide agencies with the ability to remotely share evidence with the prosecutor or other agencies by allowing them online access without requiring cop- ies being made and having to be transported. Along with this ability comes the capability of vetting what is to be released and what information should not be released.
This release of information issue is critical in situations involv- ing FOIA requests (Freedom of Information Act) and the sheer volume of information often requested in FOIA situations is a major issue. The search functions of EvidenceOnQ and Digital- OnQ are extremely fl exible and allow for clear searches, such as particular cases, victims, or offi cers. The information can then be further refi ned by being able to search for certain videos and the search parameters can be very broad or ex- tremely narrow. The user-defi ned classifi cations in DigitalOnQ can be used to fi lter information and make sure that certain fi les, such as child sexual abuse photos, are not visible to the wrong party. While cloud storage of digital information is being more widely accepted because security and compliance can be certifi ed, there are complaints of the time it takes to download videos from the cloud, particularly if several must be viewed to get the necessary informa- tion. The primary issue with cloud storage still remains the cost. Hosted cloud storage can often be many times the upfront costs for body cams and other devices and is the leading cost for body cams. Customers need to do their homework before decid- ing on local storage options or cloud storage. FileOnQ utilizes local storage rather than cloud storage in DigitalOnQ for faster access to fi les and lower recurring costs. DigitalOnQ is very easy to use, easy to put information into and retrieve. Adams stated, “These systems don’t exist in a vacuum. There must be written policies that control the release of information, specifying what can and cannot be released and how long cer-
34 LAW and ORDER I June 2015
Guidance Software shows how a Facebook Enscript Screenshot would appear to investigators.
tain types of information should be retained. Policies and pro- cedures should be approved by the prosecutor’s offi ce and meet state and federal guidelines and retention requirements.” All digital information is not equal and the DigitalOnQ app is fl ex- ible enough to separate evidence that might only need retained for a short period from evidence that must be retained forever. Manoj Phillip, FileOnQ Senior Developer, reported, “Local stor- age is better for random or frequent access to large fi les because the fi les will be on the faster local network. The server does not necessarily have to be the latest or very powerful to provide an enormous amount of storage. A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated high-speed subnetwork to present shared pools of stor- age devices to multiple servers. SANs can offer large amounts of local storage without the need for a powerful server.” He mentioned that all the digital storage needs of a law en- forcement facility could be met with reasonable hardware pur- chases and are within the IT capabilities of the staff in most cases, thus not incurring the recurring cloud hosting charges. Adams pointed out that most police departments probably already have offsite backup systems for normal RMS needs. He stated that for police departments to utilize cloud storage, they must be assured the hosting agent has redundancy, disaster re- covery capabilities, and available technical support. If the cloud storage is a general package for the storage needs of a city, including tax and fi nancial records, that package must include adequate security for digital evidence, secure enough to show that nothing has been altered in any way with audit con- trols for the chain of custody. Evidentiary standards are likely going to be higher than general standards. Adams stated that the trend they are seeing is that law en- forcement agencies are coming into the modern age and rec- ognizing that management or mismanagement of evidence can bring down an entire agency, jeopardize criminal cases, and di- minish the reputation of law enforcement agencies. Departments must bring evidence management to the forefront and recognize that there is a need for professional training, best practices and automation. Even some larger departments still have paper-based evidence management
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