University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) handles every incident on its 420-acre campus, as quickly as possible. Campus police know that when cases are closed faster, the more than 40,000 students, faculty, and staff stay focused on what’s most important—achieving academic excellence.
Business Challenge
Offering a safe and vibrant campus is key in preparing next-generation leaders. That’s why the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) handles every incident on its 420-acre campus, as quickly as possible. Campus police know that when cases are closed faster, the more than 40,000 students, faculty, and staff stay focused on what’s most important—achieving academic excellence.
The Many Steps in Handling Digital Evidence
Managing and sharing digital evidence is time consuming. When an incident happens at UTA, case details are added to the Records Management System (RMS). The assigned investigator must then create a file folder with the case number and can begin compiling digital evidence.
In the past, it was a step-by-step process. The investigator offloaded recordings from the video surveillance and in-car systems. He also collected pictures from students’ smartphones, captured screenshots from social media platforms, and saved external video or audio clips onto USB drives. Each file was then uploaded into the folder.
When the District Attorney or the Office of Public Records required evidence, the investigator converted files to the required formats and uploaded them to secured sharing sites. To maintain proper chain of custody, only the assigned investigator managed tasks from start to finish.
Accumulating all this evidence eventually led to storage concerns. The University was efficiently managing video surveillance and intrusion detection systems within the
Genetec Security Center platform, and had plans to keep adding more cameras.
Max Kidd, Associate Director of Technology for the UTA Police Department, explained, “In some cases, we keep evidence indefinitely. Over time, that evidence builds up, and the need for more storage becomes increasingly difficult to manage and afford.”
It was an easy decision—UTA was ready to try
Genetec Clearance, collaborative investigation management. The cloud-based solution could save investigators time by enabling collaboration and reduce onsite storage for long-term evidence.
Less Time Spent on Managing Digital Evidence
Today, Genetec Clearance is doing what it promised— helping UTA streamline evidence and investigation management. According to Kidd, “Our team is saving 25% of time handling evidence, and that frees them up to do other tasks during investigations.”
University public safety officers and police officers can now help investigators compile evidence. They search for video recordings in the Security Center platform and quickly add it to the case file in the new system. Specific privileges are assigned to various users, so that lead investigators always remain in control. The system also provides audit trails, ensuring that the proper chain of custody is upheld.
“We like having the option of giving certain people “view only” rights or setting user permissions. It’s also much easier to track who is viewing, downloading or editing evidence. If we ever need it, the detailed log is visible in the case file,” said Kidd.
The solution’s automatic file format conversion helps UTA save even more time. “Outside agencies often want us to upload evidence to external sites in a specific format. Genetec Clearance automatically converts those files for us now, making all versions easily accessible and traceable in the case file,” explained Kidd.
Evidence That’s Secure and Easy to Find
Searching for stored evidence has also been simplified. Every case can be tagged with keywords. This can include words that describe the nature of the case such as “theft”, “DWI”, or any relevant tags such as “blue shirt” or “library”. These keywords help officers quickly locate files without having to remember the case number.
Knowing the cloud-based case management system is secure offers extra peace-of-mind. According to Kidd, “Genetec Clearance keeps the evidence clean. It’s not tied to our entire department’s file storage, so there are fewer worries of file corruption or ransomware.”
Moving Forward with Genetec Clearance
After realizing many benefits, UTA is now ready to fully transition to Genetec Clearance. With this move, they are hoping to free up about 75% of their total storage capacity which is currently allocated to long-term archives. In the future, the team wants to integrate more systems with Genetec Clearance and facilitate collaboration with outside agencies to save even more time.
“Genetec Clearance is an investigation management solution that keeps evolving to make processes more efficient, and our tasks easier. And soon, we’ll no longer have to micromanage storage. This means our team can focus on what matters most– creating a safe and vibrant campus at UTA,” concluded Kidd.