The most recent technological explosion has given rise to a boom of information that, while valuable, can be overwhelming. Law enforcement is no exception; in fact, it might represent one of the clearest examples of the phenomenon. Evidence collection and management is probably the aspect of law enforcement that provides the clearest example of this. Smartphones, body-worn cameras, advanced DNA-based collection and analysis methods, advanced and widespread video surveillance, social media and other Internet-based sources, enhanced data mining possibilities from traditional equipment like RMS/CAD systems, and other sources combine to create a veritable avalanche of information.

As a result, it is essential for experts not only to devise new methods for generating new sources of potential evidence, but also to create ways for officers and agencies to more easily manage and organize Big Data.

“Fifty years ago, you were spinning your finger on a telephone or putting 50 cents in a phone booth. [Now there’s] a phone in your pocket,” said Dan Dvorak, a retired police chief and consultant with NICE Ltd, a multinational software company that helps operationalize Big Data. “There’s more power in an iPhone than in the rockets that first sent us to the moon.”¹

More tools are emerging that are geared specifically to helping law enforcement better manage and leverage data that could eventually become important evidence. New tools are also being developed to help collect and manage physical evidence more effectively and efficiently.

Digital Evidence Management

One of the leaders in data management for law enforcement is NICE Investigate. According to company officials, NICE Investigate automates all aspects of digital investigation and the evidence management process.

“It is a solution set that brings in the information. Doing that is a challenge with all this information out there,” Dvorak said. “It helps in exploring the digital information.”

Powered by its DEMS or Digital Investigation and Digital Evidence Management Software solution, NICE Investigate is a cloud-based tool that gathers content from an array of common sources, including CAD and RMS systems, license plate recognition, location software, and social media, as well as video from various sources, including body-worn cameras and closed-circuit TV.

“We like to look at how investigators build their cases,” said Lee Russo, a longtime police chief and consultant with NICE Public Safety. “They usually print out a CAD report or an RMS report, then they log into eight or 10 places per day to look for information. We focused on connecting all those places.”²

NICE Investigate users can investigate and organize the data they collected using a search function, not unlike a common Google search, and a software interface as easy to use as Microsoft Word.

“We have a solution that lays on top of these information sources and helps people understand and act on this information. They can accelerate their ability to resolve cases more successfully,” Dvorak said. “It doesn’t require you to use just our system. It’s the Switzerland of platforms. Whatever system you utilize, we can interface with it. And it’s a very intuitive system.”

NICE Investigate can save an individual investigator up to eight hours per week, officials said. “That’s giving them back bodies,” Russo said. “Every agency is suffering from staffing issues. We need to get everybody working smarter, not harder. We take the information and put it at their fingertips.”

Another solution is Fortify, created by Blue Line Innovations, a Chattanooga, Tennessee, company that develops various products for the law enforcement community. The company was founded as a body-worn camera manufacturer by Mark Hutchison, whose fellow officer, Allen Lipford, was killed in the line of duty in 1991.

Fortify helps users organize data from various sources and inserts it into an easy-to-use and searchable tool. It also allows for secure and easy data sharing among authorized colleagues across the chain of custody. Users can tailor the cloud-based solution to the needs of their individual departments. Information may be stored in the cloud, on site, or by using a hybrid of the two.

“It’s a time- and cost-saving tool,” said Lori Miles, the company’s director of marketing. “You can upload everything in the field from the mobile device and it cuts the officers’ time in half and saves a ton of money. It cuts away the amount of time it takes for officers to go back and log in a case.”³

Physical Evidence Management

The amount of physical data can be just as overwhelming as the digital side. For example, DNA profiling is more sensitive than ever, with infinitesimal amounts of genetic material able to yield a positive identification. The downside is that the testing process is now easier than ever to contaminate.

Sirchie, the well-known Youngsville, North Carolina, supplier of more than 3,000 law enforcement–related products and solutions, had this contamination risk in mind when it devised a new line of investigation tools, DNA Free.

“We used to need 50 milliliters of blood, and now we’re talking about micrograms or even pictograms of DNA material,” said Dyer Bennett, Sirchie’s vice president of product development and training. “We’re getting more and more concerned about contamination because of trace DNA, and that could be as few as 8 to 10 skin cells. It only takes a little bit to contaminate the results.”⁴

Although nothing can technically be entirely free of DNA, Bennett said the special materials were “99.99999 percent” effective in repelling DNA material. Sterilized in ethylene oxide or ETO, which is a common ingredient in the sterilization of medical equipment, Sirchie’s DNA Free products are one-time use.

Many compelling technologies are continuing and advancing when it comes to evidence collection. At Law Enforcement Technologies in Walnut Creek, California, the focus is on surveillance, with smartphone-based solutions being a key focus.

One evidence collection tool allows law enforcement users to create a “spoof” phone number that can be provided or displayed in different ways. The number will cause the investigator’s phone to ring without the investigator providing his or her actual phone number to the caller.

“The officer doesn’t want to give out his phone number,” said LETS Marketing Director Stephanie Ericson. “They can give this out to the public and it makes their phone ring. It protects the officer’s privacy and it saves time because it helps collect evidence.”⁵

“It has a number of applications,” said LETS co-owner Benjamin Fitzgerald.⁶ The phone acts as a self-contained video, audio, and GPS surveillance tool, among other things.

Technology is also shaping other familiar processes associated with day-to-day law enforcement. About a year and a half ago, the Novi, Michigan-based Global Focus Marketing and Distribution (GFMD) introduced NarcGone HD, a new way of destroying drug evidence in a timely fashion. The NarcGone HD process is more efficient than traditional methods and can save hours a week for officers.

“It’s a simple on-site chemical destruction they can do at the time [the evidence is] released from the judge,” said GFMD Vice President Bert Williams. “After release, drugs are often moved from one cabinet to the other. If you’re fortunate enough to have an incineration facility, you drive down and stand there and witness it, then you get certification to assure it was destroyed, then you drive back. That can burn most or an entire shift. And there’s always a chance for diversion.”⁷

Known as “on-demand” chemical destruction, the patented liquid solution uses activated carbon to break down and alter the active compounds found in drugs. But there is an additional step, which occurs when NarcGone binds with the drugs. After that point, the drugs can be released only under temperatures of around 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit.

“After destruction, [the drugs] can be thrown away with routine trash or disposed of through the mail-back program,” Williams said. Quickly and efficiently disposing of evidence is equally as important as collecting and storing it.

While technology continues to drastically evolve, the law enforcement community is constantly working to develop innovative processes and new technologies to manage the increase in data and to improve public safety efficiency. ♦

Notes:

¹Dan Dvorak (consultant, NICE), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.

²Lee Russo (consultant, NICE), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.

³Lori Miles (director of marketing, Blue Line Innovations), telephone interview, July 6, 2018

⁴Dyer Bennett (vice president, product development and marketing, Sirchie), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.

⁵Stephanie Ericson (marketing director, LETS), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.

⁶Benjamin Fitzgerald (co-owner, LETS), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.

⁷Bert Williams (vice president, GFMD), telephone interview, July 10, 2018.