Evidence management

The growing use of video evidence in criminal cases is generating millions of hours of video footage that must be archived and managed. In the UK, evidence must be maintained for seven years if there is no conviction and the length of the sentence plus one year and a day if there is.

Previously, video captured on VHS could be cost-effectively warehoused – although this can very quickly lead to severe archiving and retrieval issues. However, the growth of digital recording formats is placing a much larger management and cost burden on police forces.

The need to maintain bit-for-bit copies of the evidence - to ensure no loss of quality and that evidence has not been tampered with - is currently forcing some forces to archive expensive hard disks for every case. Scyron is working with UK police forces to create more effective and affordable digital video evidence storage and management:

• Facilitate the storage of video evidence in a multitude of formats in a single, accessible database
• Store surveillance footage as primary evidence in the native format of its recording device
• Improve the management and interrogation-ability of video evidence by unifying storage and access methods across the force – or beyond
• Allow hard disks to be redeployed to other surveillance operations – rather than archived
• Allow for rapid retrieval and analysis of stored footage as well as allow for the addition of extra intelligence in the future

By creating a single, secure database for video evidence – with clear and easily managed links to other evidence types involved in the trial – forces can dramatically reduce the costs and man power of managing digital evidence.