You carefully investigated a murder, recorded all of the relevant interviews, and sent the case to the prosecutor’s office. Now what?
How about the loss of all recorded evidence? Not only can it happen, it actually may have happened to the Milwaukee Police Department.
Fox News in Wisconsin reported that hundreds of Milwaukee criminal cases were compromised this winter when a video system malfunctioned. The city has acknowledged that numerous interviews and confessions of suspects remain unavailable while the city awaits the results of an outside vendor’s attempts at data recovery. (iRecord was not the provider of Milwaukee’s recording system.)
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that interviews of a suspect in the fatal shooting of a toddler are among the data sent for recovery. Although government officials are downplaying the significance of the hardware malfunction, several internal police department memos said the recording system suffered a “catastrophic failure,” the Journal Sentinel reported.
The incident provides a solid reminder that law enforcement agencies need reliable back-up of their evidence and interview recordings. As you review technology for your agency consider their references and what resiliency their design offers.
In addition to “One Touch” recording controls that are simple and user-friendly, iRecord offers centralized video storage that allows digital video interrogations to be stored in its central repository. Recorded evidence also is stored on smaller, more reliable optical media rather than bulky audio or video tapes, ensuring a complete and accurate recording of excellent quality.