What Do The California Rules Of Court Have To Say About Redaction?

In modern-day law enforcement, with the huge influx of digital evidence and data flowing around back and forth from countless ingestion points and organizations, redaction has become a necessity – something no law enforcer can deny.

Several compliance requirements also demand for video, audio, document and image redaction for the presentation and distribution of evidence files in any public setting, such as mainstream media, or the court.

California Redaction Rules, as specified in Rule 8.83 Section (d) Clause 2 and Rule 1.201 Section (a) of the 2022 California Rules of Court, strictly indicate that redaction may be performed on all evidence that contains any form of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) before presentation to the court, except in certain specified circumstances.

This blog will further explore the matters surrounding redaction, in light of what is specified in California Redaction Rules, and end with our proposed solution for the redaction of digital evidence.

Privacy Is One Of The Biggest Concerns Of The World

The privacy of personal user data has been a constantly rising and ongoing concern in this rapidly digitizing world. There are elements that fall into the category of PII that users are often concerned about when distributing across the internet. This is due to the reason that in the digital age, this critical data can be used to impersonate individuals.

According to a survey in April 2019, 72% of 1,002 internet users showed their biggest concern to be identity theft and fraud.

In a publication, the business law firm Buchalter specified that critical data is always at risk of being targeted by information “vultures” - people such as identity thieves, web marketers, and individuals of similar interests who wish to capitalize on the critical information of participants in a lawsuit.

For this reason and several others, the court of California in particular, and Federal courts in general have made notable changes to their rules of filing and emphasized implementing redaction to protect PII information of involved individuals from uncontrolled public distribution.

Redaction Is A Necessity – Compliance Requirements

As of 2016, California Rules of Court added their update clause regarding redaction for the security of PII information. However, the CRoC are not the only ones imposing the requirement to perform redaction on digital evidence.

GDPR, HIPAA, CJIS, FEDRAMP, CCPA, GLBA, California State Bill 748 (SB-748) and others impose compliance requirements regarding digital evidence data, which include the implementation of redaction, to protect PII data and the privacy and anonymity of citizens, such as minors and bystanders.

Read More: HIPAA Redaction Rules

Read More: GDPR Redaction Rules

No Redaction – Serious Penalties

Source: Investopedia

If redaction, where needed in digital evidence files, is absent or not done correctly, the court can press serious penalties in the form of cost consequences. There is a long history of failed redactions and the aftermath of their presentation.

VIDIZMO – What We Can Offer You!

Recognized and mentioned in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Digital Evidence Management Solutions for Law Enforcement 2020 Vendor Assessment report, VIDIZMO is the provider of video management systems for enterprises and law enforcement organizations.

Our Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) is the ultimate solution for handling all your digital evidence needs. From transcription, translation, storage to maintenance of chain of custody, separate portals and access restrictions, and even redaction – we got it all!

• Our redaction software powered by AI allows you to perform redaction manually and automatically.
• We also provide redaction through on-demand face detection, so you can upload evidence videos or audio and have the faces present in it automatically detected, for performing redaction soon afterwards, without having to dedicate extra resources for it.
• Our redaction tool is available as a standalone product as well. It is bundled as an add-on feature for both our DEMS and EnterpriseTube Video Content Management System.
• Simple to use, the redact tool allows you to select what objects to redact through the tool, while showing you a preview of it. In automatic terms, it will automatically redact through face recognition and other AI algorithms and then allow you to add custom redactions or remove the selected redactions.
• Redaction results provided are accurate, as the AI allows for VIDIZMO’s redaction tool to track moving objects in a video.
• Our redaction tool allows you to meet all compliance requirements of redaction necessary for evidence sharing and presentation in court.

To learn more about redaction, visit our website or contact our team to set up a demo.

Or Read Our Detailed Guide on Redaction