Minnesota Courts Select ImageSoft to Provide Technology for Digital Evidence Management

April 14th, 2022

The Minnesota Judicial Branch, through a competitive procurement process, selected ImageSoft, a software development and digital transformation firm, to implement a cloud-based Digital Evidence Management (DEM) solution, Vault, across the state court system. Scott Bade, CEO and Visionary, made the announcement.

Due to the rapid expansion in size, quantity, and complexity of evidence including body and dash-cam footage, high-resolution images, audio and video (security, CCTV, and cellphone) files, scanned documents, and recording, data management has become exceedingly complex and difficult to administer.

ImageSoft’s Vault provides a web-based portal built on the Microsoft Azure Government Cloud for storing and managing digital audio and video files that are encrypted and securely stored for authorized users to access from anywhere. Leveraging the Microsoft cloud makes the system easy to deploy and manage and provides state-of-the-art security to prevent unauthorized access, which allows customers to comply with industry standards such as FIPS, CJIS, and FedRamp.

According to Bade, “Many court systems have struggled with the management and storage of digital information. Video evidence can create very large files, which are difficult to manage on a local system. Leveraging a cloud-based solution solves this problem by providing virtually unlimited storage and processing capacity at an affordable cost.”

The new Vault solution allows:

• Law enforcement to upload and organize evidence files.
• Court clerks to approve and manage evidence from their own network.
• Judges to instantly pull up exhibits and make comments/notes as needed within the platform.
• Court staff to present evidence in a courtroom or to a jury.
• Attorneys to upload and manage their evidence files and create virtual notes for their team.

The Minnesota Judicial Branch selected ImageSoft’s DEM for its user-friendly, easy-to-implement solution that will accommodate most modern evidence formats. The chain-of-custody tracking and other security features available through Vault will also provide an audit trail and an internal reporting system required for sensitive criminal case data.