4 Reasons to Consider CentralSquare DEMS to Manage Your Agency’s Digital Evidence

Technology such as body-worn cameras, dashboard videos and social media clips continue to prove how prevalent digital evidence is to public safety. In recent years, there’s been an increase in citizen engagement and video evidence. When citizens see an incident taking place, the natural response is to take pictures or record video – all of which becomes evidence.

As technology transforms, public safety agencies must evolve. Outdated technology won’t cut it.

As you consider your processes for managing digital evidence, there are key factors to take into account.

CentralSquare’s Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) has functionalities that will take your agency’s operations to the next level.

1. Digital Evidence Management That Is Accessible

Among the many challenges facing digital evidence management is the ability to easily search for and access data. CentralSquare’s DEMS solution prioritizes the functionality of accessibility.

A Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) provides a centralized location to securely manage all sources of digital evidence from internally owned cameras to third-party cameras, body-worn and dashboard camera systems, and even cellphone footage. The system is case-based, meaning once the information is entered into your records management system (RMS), DEMS creates a case with all the relevant files.

This case becomes an easy-to-use, searchable database through keywords, case tags, case numbers, or CAD incident numbers. You can also apply specific filters including category, date and time, case status, case associations, file associations and device assignment.

As your agency works to handle increasing amounts of digital evidence, you need a system that helps you keep track of your digital evidence, and that allows you to efficiently organize your data configured to the way you work.

Accessibility is also about having the information wherever and whenever you need it. Our mobile solution allows officers to upload media through the mobile right on the scene – keeping them in the community where they are needed the most.

In public safety, seconds make the difference. The accessibility, ease-of-use and configurability of CentralSquare’s DEMS solution create a simpler process for your investigators to find and retrieve evidence, saving you valuable time.

2. Citizen Evidence Sharing

In today’s society, almost all citizens have smart devices that allow them to capture images and record video and audio. Combined with the ability to share media through text, voicemail, chat and email, agencies are handling a vast amount of digital evidence.

Dealing with emergency incidents and life-or-death situations, you don’t have the time to manually go through emails and save thousands of attachments. This method of evidence sharing and storage can result in diminishing the quality of digital files. There are also risks of cybersecurity threats.

Through a file request functionality, you can allow citizens to securely and anonymously upload files through a public portal without giving them access to sensitive case files. This request creates a link and a QR code that you can share with your community through your agency’s social media pages or your public-facing website, and even through printed flyers and posters.

Our advanced DEMS solution seamlessly manages and organizes the digital evidence that citizens provide, allowing your officers to focus on other priority tasks.

3. Security in Evidence Sharing

Security is a top priority when managing and sharing digital evidence. Although a number of individuals may need access to case files, everyone does not require the same level of access to all information.

One of the fundamental, but key functionalities of our software is the ability to grant specific permissions to internal and external users alike. Users can be invited to the case directly and assigned permission to identify their level of access and to ensure governance of the data.

Users can be invited to view all files, or limited information through an email invitation. This allows the ability to authenticate and track user activity. Additionally, files are overlayed with an agency watermark to prevent unauthorized use of images or recordings of the files.

The DEMS solution allows you to see who is accessing what files, when the files were accessed and from where. The ability to track the chain of custody of digital evidence helps your agency to maintain integrity, accountability and transparency.

4. Comprehensive Review Tools for Investigators

As evidence comes into a case, it’s not just enough to have access and be able to find it, you also need to the ability to review it.

The need to review a collection of multimedia files often comes with very different proprietary file formats; and often, downloading the required video player is not an option due to IT and security policies and licensing issues. CentralSquare DEMS solves this problem by providing a variety of video codecs directly in the software.

The AI video redaction tool is also helpful for reviewing files when camera footage needs to be sent to a third party. The built-in video editor creates a copy of the footage so that the original evidence is not modified in any way.

The facial redaction tool intuitively picks up an individual’s face and allows an unlimited number of facial masks, without having to do the process manually frame by frame. The automated process speeds up the redacting process and reduces the need for intensive training on the software, increasing staff efficiency.

The Future of Digital Management Evidence

As the public safety industry continues to modernize, the goal is that all agencies have integrated technology for law enforcement and first responders to utilize in the most effective way possible. Responders should have all the information available to provide coordinated and well-informed emergency response services to citizens.

It is crucial to take inventory of your agency’s operations and ask two important questions:

1. Does your agency currently have a digital evidence management solution in place?
2. If yes, do you have a solution that integrates with your records management system?

Want to learn more about digital evidence management? Watch our webinar on how to manage your agency’s digital evidence to see how our solution fits your agency’s needs.