Digital Transformation: For Policing and Criminal Justice

Dr. Steve Watts
Independent Consultant and Academic in Risk, Policing, 
Criminal Justice and Counter Terrorism

As the former Head of CID and Assistant Chief Constable (Specialist Operations) for Hampshire Constabulary in the UK, I have witnessed the significant growth in scale and types of digital evidence police officers are handling daily as part of their investigations.

To enable officers to access vital evidence from CCTV, Body Worn Video, doorbell and dashcam footage, images, emails and more, forces (including my former force) around the world are turning to Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMS). 

DEMS has consistently proven to help officers obtain faster charging and remand decisions, secure early guilty pleas, share evidence (internally, with other forces and throughout the criminal justice system) and ultimately achieve better outcomes for victims of crime. However, streamlining investigations using DEMS is also enabling forces to make better use of their officer and staff resources. In fact, in a recent case study from NICE, Hampshire Constabulary estimates an annual saving of £846k (approximately A$1,619,975) from automated ingestion of digital evidence and case building using the NICE Investigate DEMS. 

The UK was an early adopter of DEMS. The experiences of more than 20 forces in England and Wales currently using NICE Investigate will be invaluable to police forces in Australia and New Zealand as they plan to introduce the system. 

Sound interesting? 

Why not join us at our upcoming Forums. From June 11^th to the 20^th, I will along with NICE and a variety of industry guest speakers host a series of six workshops, which I would like to invite you to attend. 

During these sessions, we will be sharing the DEMS journey of a range of forces and other law enforcement agencies, focusing on the different reasons for deployment, their approach to integrating systems (RMS, BWV, CAD etc), how they overcame challenges and the results they have recorded to date. At the events, we will also hear from senior representatives of Victoria Police, Tasmania Police, Queensland Police Services and the NSW Crime Commission.

Spaces for these events are limited ad going fast, so I encourage you to book your place early. For more details on locations, dates and registration, please visit the website.

From: Dr. Steve Watts, Independent Consultant and Academic in Risk, Policing, Criminal Justice and Counter Terrorism.