As technology evolves and pushes towards an app-driven environment across the industry, Tracker’s SAFE software meets the current and future needs of evidence managers through our mobile application. 

Most of the tasks related to daily operations can be performed on the mobile app. Pushing capabilities and functionality once reserved for the office are now available to officers gathering evidence in the field, evidence managers inventorying their storage facilities, and Police Chiefs working remotely. 

Gone forever are the days when people were tethered to their desks, manually entering or managing evidence. Using the mobile app, you and the people involved in each case can view evidence movement, assign and update tasks, add new data and notes, and create reports… all in real time, no matter where you are.  

Available on iOS and Android platforms, the mobile app combines the functionality of barcode scanning, signature capture, and image uploading with real-time system access from anywhere in the world. Additional features include – but aren’t limited to – submitting evidence, scanning barcodes, tracking movements, doing audits and inventories, running discrepancy reports, automating disposition, and so much more!

In addition to inventory control, managing evidence requires a system capable of producing an unbreakable chain of custody: Providing documentation of evidence movement and transfer, facilitating communication between investigators and property room personnel, and ensuring that evidence is available for pre-approved labs, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, automating the disposal approval process, and digitizing accountability functions like audits, inventories, and discrepancy reports. All of which Tracker’s SAFE Software is designed to do. 

SAFE users appreciate the convenience and functionality the mobile app offers. In this webinar, we demo its functionality including adding cases, scanning barcodes, performing transactions, running discrepancy reports, and more!

The Benefits of Using Mobile

For Officers and Investigators 

Officers and investigators are witnesses too. In the field, they are bearing witness to the evidence that was left behind at a crime scene. Using the mobile app in the field, they can begin to log evidence before they ever touch it. This can include uploading photographs, documenting observations, and cataloging physical and digital evidence. This real-time approach contributes to accurate recordings of the exact time, location, and conditions during discovery. 

For Evidence Custodians

A mobile app can save time and space for evidence custodians. We all know that using pen and paper evidence logs is an archaic way to manage evidence. Only slightly better than that is using an RMS to try and manage evidence. 

Saving Time 

Manual paper processes and inefficient technology systems can rob your agency of one irreplaceable resource: Time. Quality evidence management systems leverage technology as a force multiplier to decrease wasted time, effort, and redundancy. Effective management software can automate intake, data entry, barcode label creation, movement tracking, accountability, and disposition efforts. Each of which yields quantifiable time savings for your agency.

Saving Space

Industry wide, between 50% and 80% of evidence stored by law enforcement is eligible for disposition. Without effective disposition measures in place, the volume of physical evidence stored by your agency can quickly outgrow available storage space. An effective evidence management system can help your agency maximize storage efficiency by creating auto-disposition tasks that are sent directly to case officers. 

For example, Tracker Product’s software automatically sends the submitting officer a retention review request to approve the disposal of the item, if appropriate, or request to keep the item for a specified period of time before the next review. This consistent review process systematically identifies unnecessary evidence in a timely manner, which means only pertinent evidence is warehoused.

For Police Executives

Police executives need to know what is going on ALL the time. Should someone in a leadership role be asked about the status of any case that their PD is responsible for, the answers can be found on their cell phone. The entire chain of custody is stored in Tracker’s SAFE app: Date of submission, evidence transfers, lab results, current location, the assigned Police Officer, and notes from approved team members. 

When meeting with city officials about the need for a new facility, for example, police executives may be asked: How many items their PD currently has in storage, how much room is left in their evidence unit, how many items were taken in and disposed of in the last year, and how do those figures compare to the previous year?

All of that data is available on their mobile device, and the information is only a couple of clicks away. Not only that, police executives can create comprehensive, visual reports of the data, and send them directly to the city official’s email address. All in real-time!

“What if you have a quality evidence management system, but the software provider doesn’t offer a mobile app;

are you saving as much time and creating as much space as possible?” 

Additional Benefits of Using Tracker’s SAFE Mobile App

Whether approved users are working from the field, their home, the lab, the courtroom, or while on vacation they can…

• Work from anywhere and on any internet-connected device
• Submit evidence in real time, thereby eliminating inaccuracies and distortions 
• Create information-rich barcode labels, allowing users to easily tag and scan evidence
• Print labels, review cases, read messages, add new information, search the history, adjust their settings, allocate tasks, and more
• Document evidence movement and transfer
• Generate data and send reports in real-time
• Release items through the system
• Transfer items digitally, capture signatures, and add attachments
• Facilitate communication between investigators and property room personnel
• Block access and privileges for unapproved case officers, investigators, lab technicians, and prosecutors or defense attorneys
• Automate the disposal approval process 
• Conduct accountability processes like audits and inventories 
• Retrieve, view, and assess physical and digital data simultaneously
• Send alerts surrounding significant developments in cases 
• Automate upcoming review dates so you and your officers don’t miss disposal deadlines
• Create automated charts and graphs to give visual representations of data
• Use that data to ask for MUCH needed resources
• Save your organization time and money.

Another great feature of the software is that nothing in a case’s history can be altered, overwritten, or deleted. Yes, new information can be added, but in the spirit of complete transparency, none of the histories can be removed. 

This is even true when mistakes are made. Was evidence misplaced? Document it, talk about it, then solve the core problem, so it doesn’t happen again in the future. 

Tracker Products and The Evidence Management Institute want to contribute to your ongoing education through a series of FREE online evidence management training classes. Watch and comment on the Tracker Products webinars here. Check out The Evidence Show! And to get in on the discussion, with nearly 800 evidence custodians – join the Evidence Management Community Forum on Facebook. 

***NEW – FREE! In-Person, Two-Day Evidence Management Certification Training Classes

 

Tracker Products’ SAFE evidence management software users appreciate the convenience and functionality the SAFE mobile app offers.  In this webinar, we demo its functionality including adding cases, scanning barcodes, performing transactions, running discrepancy reports and more!