Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Announces Implementation of State-of-the-Art Digital Evidence Management System
CHICAGO - Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced today the implementation of a digital, state-of-the-art, centralized platform to streamline the collection, dissemination, and use of evidence to improve how criminal cases are handled. Through the NICE Investigate System, a software platform designed for prosecutors and law enforcement, the office’s Felony Trial Division and each of the five suburban district courthouses will be able to digitally store, manage and analyze criminal investigation evidence from a central platform easing the administrative burden of maintaining evidence.
“Each year, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) reviews more than 30,000 felony cases, and with the standard use of video to solve crimes, the volume of digital evidence associated with these cases is staggering,” said State’s Attorney Foxx. “The NICE Investigate platform will allow our office to modernize how we store and organize case evidence, using the most secure and innovative technology that will address the time it takes to get from charging a crime to trial and receiving justice for victims.”
NICE Investigate allows law enforcement, businesses, and witnesses to directly store and share audio, video, and documents from different sources, including mobile devices, social media, and CCTV cameras. The current collection processes are largely manual, requiring countless staff hours to catalog, review, and ensure disclosure during a trial. The NICE platform will streamline digital evidence handling and sharing with law enforcement and defense attorneys.
“The spread of cameras to almost every pocket, street corner, law enforcement uniform, home, and places we couldn’t even imagine ten years ago is an evidentiary blessing and a major administrative burden,” said Chief Technology and Data Officer Matthew Saniie. “Implementing the NICE Investigate System will allow us to manage better the ever-increasing amount of digital evidence we receive, build stronger cases, reduce the administrative burden on prosecutors, and deliver justice to victims and their families.”
NICE Investigate is designed to meet the highest standards of data protection, security, and compliance, including the Criminal Justice Information Services and General Data Protection Regulation requirements. The platform is currently used by major prosecutorial offices such as Nassau County (Long Island), Pierce County, WA (Tacoma), Alameda County, CA (Oakland) and Dekalb County, GA (Atlanta).
The NICE platform is part of State’s Attorney Foxx’s commitment to ensuring prosecutorial integrity in criminal cases, addressing the increased use and volume of digital evidence while also speeding up the time it takes to take cases from charging to trial, especially post-COVID shutdowns.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office (CCSAO) is the nation’s second-largest prosecutor’s office and is led by Cook County’s first Black woman State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. Foxx brings her vision to this office to fairly administer justice in the pursuit of thriving, healthy, and safe communities for every person who steps foot in Cook County, no matter their race, income, or zip code. Foxx has been recognized as one of the most progressive prosecutors through her forward-thinking, innovative strategies to intercept the cycles of violence and crime and bring change to a criminal justice system rooted in systemic racism. Follow @SAKimFoxx on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and @CookCountySAO on Twitter and Facebook.
NICE Public Safety & Justice
With over 3,000 customers and 30 years of experience, NICE helps all types of public safety and criminal justice agencies, from emergency communications and law enforcement to prosecutors and courts, digitally transform how they manage digital evidence and data from beginning to end, to get to the truth faster. NICE’s Evidencentral platform features an ecosystem of integrated technologies that bring data together to give a single view of the truth, enabling public safety and justice agencies to do what they do better – whether it’s responding to incidents, investigating, and building cases, or prosecuting crimes. With comprehensive digital transformation solutions that can be deployed across entire counties and states, NICE also helps everyone work better together, so justice flows more smoothly, from incident to court. https://www.nicepublicsafety.com