More than 1.7 million pieces of digital evidence shared with police through community portal

More than 11,000 business locations globally are now registered with the NICE Evidencentral platform that is designed to streamline evidence collection.

The community portal makes it easy for citizens and businesses to submit digital evidence, including CCTV video and videos and photos captured on smartphones.

North Wales Police, one of the UK forces that has deployed NICE Investigate, part of the company’s Evidencentral platform, to digitally transform work processes around evidence collection and sharing, says it has enabled officers to “review vital evidence faster”.

Superintendent Jason Devonport explained: “We’ve transitioned our processes from officers travelling to collect digital evidence on a disc or USB to being able to do all of this online.

“As well as eliminating unnecessary risks around handling media and travelling to various locations, this also means our officers are able to review vital evidence faster.”

Additionally, physical media and paper folders have been replaced by digital evidence and digital case folders.

Investigators can create a community appeal for any active investigation in seconds and provide a secure link for the public to upload evidence. They simply click on a secure link to submit their videos, photos and tips.

The electronic process also retains valuable metadata, including time/date and location, and content is automatically virus-checked before it’s uploaded to NICE Investigate’s secure cloud.

Investigators are alerted each time new case evidence appears, so they can immediately review and act on it.

Local businesses can also register their cameras via the public portal. When an incident occurs, the North Wales’ investigators can instantly visualise where cameras are located, and request footage from area businesses.

“Knowing where all of the nearby cameras are located helps us obtain vital footage so we can identify perpetrators faster, without requiring our officers to physically canvas the area on foot,” added Supt Devonport. “We simply send an email with a link directing the business contact to our secure NICE Investigate public portal where they can upload their CCTV footage. It’s automatically transcoded so the officer can review it straight away.”

NICE says the evidence collected through its software has supported “hundreds of thousands of cases and significantly reduced the time required to secure evidence from businesses and citizens”.

This is helping law enforcement and criminal justice agencies around the world reduce crime and achieve cost-savings and efficiency gains through digital transformation of the end-to-end criminal justice process, it said, adding: “NICE Investigate automatically pulls digital evidence from integrated systems into electronic case folders to jump-start case building.

“Investigators can also share digital case files with justice partners electronically.”

Allan Graham, criminal justice operational manager for digital, physical and body-worn video evidence at Leicestershire Police, said, “The ability to request evidence from the public is fantastic.

“Officers have really taken to it so that we didn’t have to persuade them to do it. It saves them time and effort, and they get more evidence. And the public likes the system as well.”

Chris Wooten, executive vice-president at NICE, said: “With today’s proliferation of technologies creating ever-growing amounts of digital evidence, including video from CCTV cameras to cell phones, police departments need a better way to collect and manage data to speed the delivery of justice.

“Through the Evidencentral platform, NICE Investigate automates evidence collection and streamlines the investigative process for police departments, so they can better engage citizens and businesses in crimefighting, build trust and transparency, and get to the truth faster.”