Drowning in Paperwork? How Digital Evidence Management Saves Time for Law Enforcement

If you ask any police officer today why he or she joined law enforcement, you will almost certainly never hear “to sit behind a desk” or “to fill out paperwork.” Nonetheless, despite all our advances, the amount of paperwork for even a relatively small case can be staggering.

To illustrate, consider a $500 stolen‑goods robbery case. Responding officers must collect the evidence, process it, interview and arrest the suspects, and prepare for the court case. Without a robust and adequate digital evidence management system, officers end up hand‑writing the same evidence information on multiple forms such as property sheets, evidence logs, tags, and chain of custody records for each piece of evidence they find. Evidence room personnel then have to duplicate much of that work when entering data into department databases and logbooks.

Officers also collect statements from victims, suspects, owners, and witnesses, which are later logged into the evidence management systems or entered into a records management system. Law enforcement officers or crime-scene technicians gather digital evidence such as photos from the crime scene, images for fingerprints, footprints and tire prints, and video recordings capturing the scene as it looks at the time of the crime. They also retrieve video files from store surveillance and street cameras. Police cars often have dashcams, and officers may wear bodycams, all of which generate digital files that must be preserved.

If the agency does not have a paperless evidence management system capable of handling all these formats, things can get complicated. Officers must copy all the digital evidence from the case to CDs/DVDs at the scene or back in the officer before it can be submitted. Additional copies of the paperwork and discs are needed for the evidence room, investigators, and prosecutors, wasting even more of the officers and evidence custodian’s time. When items are returned to their owners or evidence is disposed of, additional paperwork multiplies the burden and tends to waste more valuable time that can be spent working on the case.

Additionally, remember that handling evidence doesn’t end when it’s collected. When files are shared with prosecutors, courts or released under public‑records laws, sensitive information such as faces, license plates, notepads, screens, names, emails, date of births, and more must be redacted in accordance to the local and state laws. An integrated AI redaction solution like CaseGuard Studio automates the process of redacting confidential and sensitive information from videos, audio, documents, and images while automatically generating chain of custody, audit‑trail and exemption reports for each redaction.

All of these steps underscore the need for a modern, secure and digital evidence management system adequate for law enforcement agencies. It should eliminate handwritten forms and CD/DVD duplication, save officers time and resources, reduce paperwork, and be available to all personnel involved in a case, including courts and prosecutors. It also must support a secure, full chain of custody for both digital and physical evidence.

If your agency lacks a comprehensive system, or if your current digital evidence management system isn’t meeting your needs, consider adopting a unified solution that handle all evidence types in one place.