Paperless case management options are gaining traction with police departments as a means of cutting costs, and improving how cases are handled. The move is part of a broader public safety opportunity set currently before government vendors. Some of the bigger, more established vendors like General Dynamics and LexisNexis have gone all in on acquisitions that will be joined together in order to provide a full suite of public safety offerings to state and local governments around the country. There are also civic startups in the space, taking a specialist approach and relying on new technologies that define the startup scene.
SceneDoc is one such player. The company provides online and mobile case reporting solutions for local police departments. The application is designed to take the place of the clipboards police departments have been carrying around for decades.
“Some police departments can have over 50 forms that they use to respond to incidents,” explains Todd Oakes, Vice President, SceneDoc in an interview with CivSource. “We can take those forms and digitize them so that the information entered through the software at the time of the incident matches exactly what those forms say.”
The application also allows law enforcement to take pictures and audio at the scene and add that to the case file. In addition, date/time and GPS location are automatically placed in the app’s photo log to eliminate any potential errors, and all data is stored and transported using FIPS 140-2 certified Advanced Encryption Standards (AES-256). User audit trails are also available to ensure chain of custody.
On the back-end, the SceneDoc Secure Cloud Server enables supervisors, command and other authorized personnel to access information in near real-time from any internet connected device. Privilege levels within the secure cloud portal can be configured to meet each organization’s specific needs and hierarchy.
Users can also share single devices by using their own login. If a case includes multiple jurisdictions, police departments can use their licensing to make files available as appropriate.
“Each user gets their own sandbox. We are also CJIS compliant, and within that SceneDoc employees do not have access to user data,” Oakes explains. “Users can opt into a support function, but we want to make sure we’ve provided the maximum security available.”
So far, the application has been adopted by both police departments and some federal agencies including the EPA. SceneDoc has also partnered with public safety vendors including Motorola Solutions to deliver its technology. The company’s partnership with Vievu allows the platform to capture video from police body cameras.
Going forward, Oakes says, future versions may include additional features like fingerprinting, based on user feedback.
