My family reached a huge milestone this past week – my son graduated high school and, for the very first time, my wife and I were able to experience the pride and excitement of graduation season as beaming parents.
For those of you who have already been there and done that (maybe even more than once!), you’ll laugh at my first-time grad dad persona: to my son’s dismay, I was decked out with my regular camera, video camera and cell phone. In the moment, all were absolutely necessary: some photos and video I wanted to immediately text out to family and friends, the better quality pictures are reserved for grad party invites and “thank you” cards, and the video clips will be worked into a short keepsake video.
But, of course, hindsight is always 20/20. After spending hours this weekend going over all this footage, I’ll admit it was a bit overkill. I’ve made a mental note of this for my daughter’s graduation in a few years, although I’m sure that level-headedness will, again, go out the window in lieu of my excitement.
Working in the justice system, I know you’re not a stranger to the overwhelm of varying digital evidence – not only are you working with numerous file types and sizes of photos and video, but also audio recordings, such as 9-1-1 calls, and documents, like medical examiner’s reports. And unlike casual graduation files, you cannot simply text these out or email an mp3 file over to the Judge to watch in court – your sharing process needs to be secured and traceable if the integrity of the file is to be upheld in a hearing, and also easy enough to replay in the courtroom without the risk of proprietary players failing you and citizens.
And with the rise of the virtual court and the increasingly remote world, secure file exchange and easy playback from everyone’s various devices is actually a very key, but also very fragile, concept – it’s more vulnerable than ever before.
This is why now, more than ever, I’m pleading with my friends of the justice system to take a look at incoming federal grants and budget for a digital evidence management (DEM) system. Seriously – as embarrassing as I was to my son at graduation, I’m 10x that geeked out and embarrassing over DEM. Not only does it make sense for our digital, remotely connected world, but it’s a crisis-resistant tool that will protect you from any future uncertainties while transforming your day-to-day evidence management, exchange and playback into the intuitive, streamlined process it should have always been.
Whether you’re just embarking on DEM research or have just been briefing yourself here and there, our digital evidence management webpage is sure to add to your understanding of what DEM is at its core, and what’s competitive to today’s standards. Something I really hope you’ll take a look at is our 5-step, intuitive upload process. Our developers could not have made bypassing proprietary players or exchanging files any easier – it’s one of my personal favorite features.
If you’re interested in seeing our DEM program all put together, and a demonstration of that 5-step upload process I mentioned above, I would also recommend our new DEM executive briefing series. Accommodating to your schedule, it’s offered once per week and is entirely free to you – the only risk is losing out on ungated access to today’s thought leadership on one of the most valuable tools in moving forward with hybrid aspects of virtually accessible justice. You can be looped into our executive briefing series here, or by jumping below to the “industry news” section to learn more.
Yes, digital evidence management is certainly exciting and a game-changer for the justice space as we navigate being on the cusp of a future with more increased access to justice. But, as the summer sunshine rolls in and brings with it re-openings, graduations, weddings, vacations and more, let’s not be afraid to max out our smartphones, cameras and digital storage with freeze-framed memories – sorting and sharing our good times together is something I think we’re all willing to spend a little more time on this year.
Take care,
Vince
The Day We Realized Evidence Management was a Problem – and How We’re Solving It
In today’s mobile world, where smartphones, tablets and laptops empower us to receive, review and respond to urgent case matters from anywhere, that evidence needs to be held to an equally accessible, secure and robust standard.
Digital evidence management (also known as DEM) solves for the challenge above, which is coupled with the Courts growing volume of digital content and many of their pandemic-induced backlog of cases. And in breaking down the barriers to storing, securing, managing and exchanging digital assets, courts simultaneously optimize case turnaround to achieve record timing.
ODR Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow – Diagnosing the Heart Problems of Justice
If you tuned in for part three of our ODR podcast series “ODR Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Asking (And Answering) the Hard Questions with the NCSC,” you know that we could talk for days with NCSC CIO Paul Embley and Consultant Diana Graski. So we kept the conversation going and spun off this special edition episode that speaks directly into the heart of justice: is technology really supporting the court, or just speeding up its processes?
We hope you’ll hear Paul and Diana illustrate how “automated insights” have helped Judges spend more quality time with litigants to make better informed, more compassionate decisions.
You’re Invited: Executive Briefings on Digital Evidence Management (DEM)
Incident video, 9-1-1 calls, crime scene images, medical examiner’s reports – today’s digital evidence varies by file type and size, which makes it difficult to manage (let alone replay) in court. Labor intensive proprietary players are hopeless when non-traditional file types, such as cell phone dumps, Zip files, etc., are involved. Also void of a chain of custody to trace the evidence’s whereabouts or interactions, the integrity of manually managed evidence is quickly called into question even before its day in court.
Digital Evidence Management (“DEM”) relieves the court from this heavy burden by providing a single, secure portal that:
- Centralizes all digitized evidence for intuitive store and retrieve
- Normalizes all file types and sizes to be played directly from the user’s dashboard
- Simplifies file sharing with internal and external parties
- Seamlessly integrates with existing business applications, such as your Court’s case management system or Microsoft Office
Explore DEM’s opportunity in your court by joining us for completely free, weekly executive briefings where we open our DEM toolbox to quickly address and solve for the court’s most common digital evidence challenges, including a demonstration of our own solution’s easy, 5-step upload process. Sign up is one click away.
What Can We Do For You?
ImageSoft guides courts through the various challenges of becoming a paperless court. Our industry-leading solutions offer a component model methodology to automated workflows, improved speed and efficiency, reduced costs and proper compliance.
ImageSoft is ready to help your court system reap the benefits from digital transformation.