An Examination of Body-Worn Camera Digital Evidence Management (DEM) Strategies: 2nd edition

Over the last few years, thousands of law enforcement agencies in the United States have adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs), and they have subsequently had to deal with the tremendous amount of digital evidence generated by the technology. Digital evidence management (DEM) is the process by which an agency manages, stores, shares, and integrates the data generated by BWCs and other imaging devices (e.g., dashboard cameras, license plate readers (LPRs), cell phones). Addressing DEM is a critical feature of a successful BWC program.

To explore how agencies handle DEM, Arizona State University (ASU) conducted an online survey of agencies receiving federal funding for BWCs through the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) BWC Policy and Implementation Program (BWCPIP). ASU asked the agencies approximately 30 questions related to DEM, including questions about basic program management, internal use of footage, external sharing of footage, challenges, and future developments. In the first edition of this report published in 2022 (accessible here), ASU presented results from 68 agencies that completed the survey. This second edition of the report includes results from an additional 22 agencies, for a total sample of 90. The primary findings are as follows:

• Most responding agencies routinely monitor the flow of footage into their organization. Most of the agencies regularly track storage use (69 percent), uploads (60 percent), and activations (43 percent). Most responding agencies also have a process to review untagged footage (83 percent).
• More than half of agencies (56 percent) indicated that they have a specific BWC management unit. These units perform all BWC-related tasks, from camera assignments and maintenance to audits and redaction.
• Nearly all agencies use BWC footage to accomplish an internal objective, whether that be investigating uses of force and citizen complaints (99 percent), monitoring BWC use (i.e., activation compliance; 85 percent), or conducting performance evaluations (44 percent). More than one-quarter of agencies (29 percent) examine metadata to inform their BWC program.
• About three-quarters of responding agencies (74 percent) share BWC footage with the public. Among those that do, nearly all have a policy in place to govern that public release process.
• Most agencies also share the footage with external stakeholders, including city and county prosecutors, public defenders, private attorneys, and other law enforcement agencies. Agencies use several methods to share footage, including providing direct access to cloud storage, secure email links, and physical copies (USB devices). Sharing methods vary notably based on who is receiving the footage. Agencies generally reserve direct access to cloud storage for prosecutors (48 percent have provided access to their prosecutors).
• The primary DEM-related challenges are associated with costs, staffing, and resources (28 percent); storage and infrastructure (19 percent); and video redaction (13 percent). Agencies also identified these same issues as areas for future development. Most of the identified future developments were internally focused (i.e., things that the departments themselves can or should do to address challenges). Very few responding agencies mentioned future developments involving the vendors or others outside their agency.

Read the entire report here.