The world is grappling with environmental challenges that require everyone, from individual households to businesses and government operations, to prioritize resource conservation. Digital evidence management solutions (DEMS) that enable digital transformation and reduce reliance on physical travel and media to collect, manage and share digital evidence, are just one powerful example of how technology is helping police departments and justice organizations operate more sustainably. Below are five use cases highlighting how digital transformation can contribute to a more sustainable policing and criminal justice future.
1. Promotes Remote Access and Collaboration
Police officers can spend hundreds or thousands of hours annually driving to crime scenes to physically collect video for investigations. Digital evidence management systems enable remote collection of CCTV and other video from businesses and homes, eliminating the need to physically travel to the scene of a crime to manually collect evidence. DEMS also enables remote, secure access to case files and digital evidence, so police colleagues can easily collaborate on cases, even if they are not in the same organization or location. Whether it involves routine casework, court proceedings or inter-agency collaboration, the ability to collaborate virtually and collect evidence without traveling to the scene of a crime can have a huge impact by reducing carbon pollution (a byproduct of transportation).
2. Reduces Physical Media and Paper Usage
Traditional evidence management involves copying digital evidence onto DVDs, CDs, hard drives and USBs, or managing evidence in paper files and folders. The shift to DEMS drastically reduces the need for paper, cutting down on the waste and the carbon pollution associated with paper production and disposal. Additionally, digital records can be stored in the secure cloud and shared electronically, eliminating the need to make physical copies of evidence on media, and the need to transport evidence around by mail or cart, which can be costly and wasteful.
3. Cloud Server Consolidation Reduces Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions
Physical evidence storage requires a climate-controlled space, energy, and resources to maintain. With DEMS, digital evidence files are stored in the secure cloud, using consolidated servers and virtualized hardware to maximize computing and energy efficiency. As fewer servers are needed, physical space requirements, energy consumption and carbon emissions are reduced too.
4. Supports Efficient Resource Allocation
With DEMS, the time and labor allocated to manually handling physical evidence can be redirected toward more critical tasks, improving operational efficiency and reducing the environmental impact inherent in redundant activities. For example, a firearms incident requires access to available CCTV video quickly. NICE’s DEMS solution, NICE Investigate, removes the need to dispatch an officer to a location to retrieve CCTV video. An officer can simply send out an electronic request and the footage can be securely uploaded remotely. This means police resources can be redirected to policing work, instead of relegated to driving around to collect video. In addition to streamlining investigations and reducing transportation costs, the act of digitally transforming how evidence is collected also reduces carbon emissions.
5. Improves Data Security and Reduces Waste
Physical evidence management is prone to loss, damage or misplacement, often leading to the need for duplicates or additional resources to rectify these issues. Digital evidence management systems enhance security through encryption, secure access controls, and audit trails, ensuring that evidence is not tampered with or lost. This reduces security risks associated with mishandled evidence and ensures more sustainable use of resources.
Another key environmental benefit of DEMS is that it reduces carbon emissions associated with vendor’s resources having to travel and work on-site to support the deployment of the technology, and any associated training and maintenance. With DEMS, all of these tasks can be managed remotely.
Case Study: Greener Justice in Action
A very large police agency for a UK transportation agency currently uses the NICE Investigate digital evidence management solution (DEMS) to request and receive CCTV from registered Train Operating Companies (TOC’s), eliminating the need for evidence to be sent through the mail, or for officers to travel by car or rail to copy and collect evidence at train stations. This ability to do this work remotely, in lieu of traveling from location to location, reduces carbon emissions.
Obtaining emergency calls for investigations can be handled remotely as well. Instead of traveling to an emergency communication center to obtain copies of audio recordings, officers can request that recorded emergency calls be uploaded directly into NICE Investigate.
The police force is also using NICE Investigate to crowdsource evidence from citizens who may have witnessed a crime on the rail line remotely. Using the NICE Investigate public portal, officers can post an appeal to social media advising citizens to upload any photos or videos through the portal. With one click, citizens can upload evidence through a secure webpage link, which eliminates the need for officers to travel to collect evidence, thereby saving time and reducing carbon emissions.
With Digital Evidence Management, Sustainable Policing and Criminal Justice is Attainable
While government agencies often implement DEMS for the efficiencies of digital transformation, DEMS can also help agencies achieve sustainability.
By reducing reliance on physical resources, minimizing waste, and promoting efficient practices, digital evidence management systems can help law enforcement and criminal justice agencies operate in an environmentally responsible manner. And as this technology continues to evolve with the power of AI, DEMS will no doubt play an even greater role in achieving ‘greener’ criminal justice in the years ahead.