Digital evidence is everywhere for police officers!
In 2020, Holt conducted a survey on how well police officers recognize digital evidence and its seizing procedures on the field
They found out that:
“Not all officers know exactly what to look for. 76% of officers believe that digital evidence could be anywhere on the scene, and 50% believe to seize all electronic devices immediately at the crime scene”.
It can be a long and tedious process for them to seize vast amounts of digital evidence timely.
Proper seizing while protecting digital evidence is also a major concern for police. However, considering the best practices for seizing digital evidence can save them.
Every police officer must know how to properly seize digital evidence and protect its authenticity and integrity for further case proceedings.
Do you want to know some best practices for seizing digital evidence?
Digital evidence could be any piece of information stored on digital devices in the form of images, audio clips, videos, text documents, emails etc.
Whenever an incident happens, police officers are the first responders at the crime site. They are responsible for collecting, seizing, and preserving digital evidence.
Therefore, all police officers must be trained enough to collect and seize digital evidence using correct seizing procedures.
The rapid growth of digital evidence creates significant challenges for them to collect and seize digital evidence within a limited time.
Law enforcement officers, such as patrol officers, detectives, or investigators, have the legal authority to be present at a crime scene and seize all types of evidence, including images, audio, clips, videos, documents, emails, and all the evidence present in hard drives.
The most important concern is to prevent digital devices containing digital evidence from alteration and destruction.
Most electronic devices containing digital evidence are vulnerable to damage during the handling process. The seizing process follows a step-by-step approach.
Identify Potential Digital Evidence:
Law enforcement officers need to recognize potential digital devices that could contain digital evidence, including computers, mobile devices, storage devices, digital cameras, and other electronic devices.Now, the question arises of whether police officers are well-trained to collect and handle digital evidence securely?
Are there any best practices for seizing digital evidence?
Police officers must follow the practices discussed below:
At the crime site, police officers collect digital evidence, and gather digital evidence from various sources such as CCTV footage, captured photographs etc.
While conducting criminal investigations, police officers must collect and protect digital evidence from alteration or deletion.
To keep the evidence safe and secure, try to prevent data manipulation in the electronic device. If the device is off, then it should be kept powered off. Contrary to this, take a picture of the screen quickly.
Photograph all the connected devices along with power cables and document it as well in a police report.
The digital evidence should be transported to a secure system and stored in a controlled environment to prevent any further tampering or destruction.
It is significant to keep track of all the activities performed on digital devices during the process and preserve their integrity and originality to make them admissible in court.
Otherwise, all efforts will be in vain!
The chain of custody reports must be maintained from the time of its collection that shows who has collected, accessed, and handled the data.
This practice helps police officers and prosecutors to prove the authenticity of digital evidence in court.
If you have collected and seized digital evidence, you must be wondering what the next step is?
The next step is very important!
Storage and management of digital evidence!
Most importantly, you need a platform that empowers you to ingest, store, manage, analyze, and share digital evidence within the same system with a chain of custody and tamper detection to maintain the integrity of your evidence.
Do you know any competent software that offers all these features with top-notch security?
Fortunately for you, we have one that fits in perfectly!
VIDIZMO provides IDC MarketScape Recognized Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) that empowers all police forces and other law enforcement agencies to ingest, store, handle, analyze and share massive amounts of digital evidence.
VIDIZMO DEMS helps police forces to improve their work productivity, saves time and enhances efficiency, resulting in more effective criminal investigation procedures.
Have a look at the features provided by VIDIZMO DEMS:
Not only this, VIDIZMO offers much more!
Want to explore more features in detail?
Why don’t you sign up for a free demo?
The proper seizing and handling of digital evidence are crucial for police officers in order to ensure the integrity and authenticity of the evidence for use in legal proceedings. Police officers must be trained in the best practices for collecting and securing digital evidence. Platforms like VIDIZMO DEMS can streamline the entire process and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of criminal investigations.