Managing Digital Evidence - Interpol World 2019

FotoWare recently exhibited at Interpol World 2019, an international trade exhibition and conference for law enforcement, security, and other industries, focused on the well-being of society. Over three extremely insightful days, our team learned how police forces from all seven continents manage their workflows, and connected with technology partners to ensure that we always offer the most innovative solutions. 

Interpol World is a global co-creation opportunity that engages the public and the private sector in a dialogue to foster collaboration for a safer world. There were 52 speakers from 19 different counties and 8,000 public security professionals and commercial buyers from around the world.

We were also there to share the way FotoWare helps solve crimes and give guidelines to people looking into building digital workflows. Our Product Marketing Manager, Radmila Milenkovich, presented at the Theater Session a workflow scenario that focused on how evidence goes from the camera to court, which is summarized below.

CAPTURE

Effective data entry and ingesting from various sources are key to the investigation process. Today, we can capture files from CCTV, forensics, or even the public, and with 5G being rolled out over the next few years, it will become a catalyst for the growth in digital evidence in many countries. Already, data is being gathered from bio-metrics, wearables, IoT, GIS, and even social media. It is no longer just documents, photos, and videos that serve as digital evidence.

Successful investigations rely on an investigator's ability to connect the dots between many different types of digital evidence. With Digital Evidence Management, one can implement multiple input formats using one content ID. That will ensure that the asset maintains a standard size and quality while providing content management and workflow features.

TRANSFER

With the explosion of different sources and file formats, intelligence institutions need to ensure that evidence is trans-coded and transferred automatically. Statistics show that, on average, downloads of data take law enforcement 6 to 8 months to review, according to Cellebrite, 2018. This is far too long, and we need to ensure that the technology is capable of transferring evidence automatically.

To work more efficiently,  we need to ensure police officers can work with evidence on multiple platforms. When different divisions and departments can collaborate quickly and seamlessly, then cases can be closed faster. We need to implement tools and techniques to ensure that officers spend time investigating only the relevant and quality case evidence. With the growing amount of data, some evidence could qualify as additional, unnecessary noise.

When trans-coding happens automatically, police districts are enabling a huge potential of crowd-sourcing evidence from citizens. There are over 3 billion camera-equipped cellphones around the world and citizens are overwhelmingly willing to help. Research says that 95% of citizens would share videos or photos if it was convenient to do so.

MANAGE

With Digital Evidence Management, after the files have been transferred they can be previewed and tagged with metadata and case information. This enables police officers to: 

1. Cross-reference different versions of an image, or refer to other cases 

2. Retrieve historical data to enhance current open cases 

3. Analyse gathered data by detecting patterns or events 

4. Annotate images by adding comments and analysis directly on an image. This can be done specifically on objects that are part of the image, making forensics collaborations easier.

SHARE

Different court bodies require the submission of evidence in various methods. With Digital Evidence Management, you can either prepare the evidence for print in just one click or share it as a collection with a preview link.

5 Things to Remember when Improving Your Workflows

Here's our checklist with top tips for what you need to consider when building your digital evidence workflow:

1. Collect data from any source 

2. Don't bind yourself to hardware

3. Involve other departments and institutions

4. Make sure the video is playable 

5. Ensure Single Sign-On for all your investigators 

Learn more about how Digital Evidence Management can help your organization with our      free e-book:

For police and law enforcement
7 Common Challenges & Solutions

Learn about how police forces handle an ever-growing abundance of digital evidence © ForoWare 2021