LAPD: 2022 Digital Evidence Management and Integration Project

With the continuous increase of footage collected from body worn cameras (BWC) and digital in-car video (DICV) systems, the need for a digital evidence management (DEM) strategy that can keep pace with this growing amount of data is paramount.  While the DEM application currently used is an excellent tool that has served the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) well, what is urgently needed is a strategy that makes the best use of this application to efficiently facilitate the continued sharing of evidence with our partners from the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office while reducing the amount of stored evidence that is no longer required by our retention policy.  This proposal requests funding through Category 3: Digital Evidence Management and Integration Demonstration Projects of the BWC Policy and Implementation Program solicitation (O-BJA-2022-00079-PROD).

The project has two goals:

Goal 1. Establish a comprehensive digital evidence media system that incorporates both BWC and DICV footage for use by law enforcement personnel and prosecutorial agencies.

Goal 2. Implement operational procedures and tracking mechanisms that address digital evidence media with regards to retention and deletion.

The proposal plans to  identify methods which increase sharing and case filing efficiency with partner agencies through data migration into a single data repository, plotting annual Department digital evidence data growth to determine how best to minimize storage cost and maximize storage space by implementing reasonable and legal retention limits for digital evidence and deleting evidence no longer needed, identifying active cases (investigations, claims, lawsuits, etc.) involving digital evidence that must be retained beyond standard retention period, and assessing and modifying Department policy for digital evidence management as needed to reflect any changes in current procedures. 

The LAPD’s Tactical Technology Section has worked closely with Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) BWC training and technical assistance providers (CNA, Arizona State University, and Justice & Security Strategies, Inc.) and LAPD is a pilot site for its multi-agency study of DEM.

The Department will provide BJA with performance measures that include the number of policies and procedures developed, number of videos accessed by Department personnel, number of videos provided to prosecutorial agencies.  Quarterly and semi-annual reports, monthly calls, and participation in webinars, conferences, and workshops are part of the deliverables that will be produced.