Getting started with Digital Evidence Management for Local PD

Digital Evidence Management for Local PD stores body-worn camera footage, in-car and CCTV video, photos, interviews and other digital evidence in one repository, linked to cases and kept under your retention schedule. It shares evidence with prosecutors, records every access in the chain of custody, and proposes redactions of faces, license plates and other details for a person to review before anything is released. Records staff answer public records requests from the same place, with the reasoning for each redaction kept on file.

What it is for

Local police departments now collect more video than they can manage: body-worn cameras, in-car systems, interview rooms, CCTV from businesses and residents, and phone footage. It sits on separate vendor systems, file shares and discs, linked to cases by hand. Sharing with prosecutors means copying files, retention is hard to apply, and every public records request for video means hours of manual redaction of bystanders, plates and screens. When the defense or a court asks who handled a file, the chain of custody has gaps.

• Evidence is spread across vendor systems, file shares and physical media
• Sharing with prosecutors means copying files with no record of what was sent
• Redacting video for public release is slow and done frame by frame
• Retention schedules and legal holds are tracked by hand

Who uses it

• Evidence and property units in municipal and county police departments and sheriff's offices
• Patrol officers and detectives who collect and use digital evidence
• Records and public information staff who answer public records requests
• Prosecutors' offices that receive evidence for charging and discovery
• Command staff, internal affairs and auditors who oversee evidence handling

Before you start

• Your organization licenses Digital Evidence Management for Local PD from Moraph.
• A Moraph client account in that organization, signed in.
• Access to Digital Evidence Management for Local PD in Moraph Apps, given by an administrator in the Moraph Portal under People and access.
• For setup: the product administrator role.

Steps to get started

1. Sign in at app.moraph.com with your Moraph account.

2. Open Digital Evidence Management for Local PD from the launcher. The first time anyone opens it, its workspace is created from the default described in Workspace reference.

3. Check your role: what you can see and do depends on it. See Roles and permissions.

4. Product administrators: work through Set up Digital Evidence Management for Local PD before your team starts.

5. Everyone else: start with Everyday tasks.

Where to go next

• Set up Digital Evidence Management for Local PD
• Everyday tasks
• Connect your systems
• Security, data and compliance
• Troubleshooting and the support guide
• Product overview on moraph.com