The Police Department is seeking to implement a comprehensive Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS), which will be used for the collection, preservation and association of digital evidence related to criminal cases, from the beginning of the investigation through final submission to municipal, county, state, or federal prosecutors. It is undeniable that advances in technology have impacted law enforcement significantly since the turn of the 21st century. This is especially true with regard to digital evidence, which has now taken center stage in practically every criminal case. Long gone are the days when a police officer responded to the scene of an incident, collected handwritten statements, and had CSI document the scene with still images and fingerprint powder. It is now exceedingly rare for any police investigation to be conducted absent at least the video recordings produced by responding officers (e.g., in-car systems, body worn cameras, covert equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles, interview rooms, and detention facilities) along with those available from video surveillance systems at crime scenes (business security systems, Ring doorbell cameras, etc.). For major cases, there will almost always be additional digital evidence collected, to include cell phone data (suspects, victims, and witnesses); call detail records obtained from wireless services providers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.); social media historical logs (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram); personal computer information downloads; and even vehicle on-board computer data extractions. Not only have these items of digital evidence become essential for successful case clearance; citizens, especially juries, have come to expect (and even require) that they be collected and presented during trials. It has become difficult to imagine a contemporary criminal trial taking place without the presentation of any video recording or other digital evidence.
Future exponential growth of this data is practically guaranteed as Next Generation 911 systems are implemented, crowd-sourced video partnerships become commonplace, and endless other opportunities are created for gathering digital evidence that is needed by our first responders and detectives. As the trend continues, we simply must have systems in place for the secure preservation and management of this critical evidence, which is essential for continued compliance with legal mandates, investigation of criminal cases, successful prosecution of offenders, and protection of our city against frivolous claims of employee impropriety. Digital evidence is currently being stored by the police department across a number of disparate systems and locations, including multiple network servers, cloud-storage solutions, external hard drives, flash drives, and DVD or Blu-Ray media discs. This disorganization of evidence is highly inefficient and places our department at risk of non-compliance with state and federal laws that require full disclosure of all evidence related to a criminal case. With a comprehensive digital evidence management system in place, we will be able to better collect, safeguard, access, and manage our evidence. We hope to also develop processes for electronic filing of cases with the district attorney's office, federal courts, municipal court, and other prosecutorial agencies, resulting in even greater operational efficiency. It is also possible that our partnership with the community we serve will be strengthened through implementation of an online portal for safe acceptance of digital evidence necessary for the follow-up investigation of criminal offenses.
In response to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS), the Evaluation Committee reviewed and evaluated eight (8) companies and shortlisted four (4), which included presentations of shortlisted vendors. In view of this, the determination was made to award to Quetel Corporation in the amount of $284,164. The initial term is for $66,164 and includes training, implementation, hardware, licensing fees, and software. Ongoing support for years 2-5 is $54,500 annually. The City will also incur an estimated cost of $150,000 over five years for storage for a total 5 year amount of $434,164. .
The police department expects to benefit greatly from implementation of a DEMS solution and recommends we proceed with the procurement. Failure to support this effort will diminish the Police Department’s ability to most effectively fulfill its mission.