Evidence integrity is as critical as placing criminals behind bars or doing justice to the innocent. That’s why the chain of custody is important in any criminal case, especially when handling digital evidence. If the integrity of evidence is compromised due to mishandling, data manipulation, or unauthorized access, it can be challenged in court, leading to case dismissal.
According to the bill HB 287 introduced by Rep. Sam Garrison of Clay County:
“Tampering with or fabricating evidence is a second-degree felony in a criminal trial or investigation relating to felonies”
Law enforcement officers and other investigators are responsible for establishing the chain of custody reports and handling digital evidence properly by following rules and regulations concerning the admissibility of evidence in court.
This article explains why the chain of custody is important in a criminal case, how it ensures the authenticity of digital evidence, and the best tool to maintain it throughout legal proceedings.
Before diving deeper into why is the chain of custody important in criminal cases, one needs to understand what a chain of custody is.
Chain of custody is the document of activities performed on digital evidence by tracking its control, transfer, access, analysis, and disposition during criminal cases. By maintaining an accurate and unbroken chain of custody, legal professionals and law enforcement agencies ensure that digital evidence remains untampered and admissible in court.
A well-documented chain of custody report serves as proof that the evidence presented is the same as when it was originally collected. It establishes credibility by answering critical questions: Who handled the evidence? When was it transferred? How was it stored? Was it accessed by unauthorized individuals? These factors are essential in maintaining the integrity of digital evidence in legal proceedings.
Failure to maintain a proper chain of custody can lead to evidence being dismissed or challenged, significantly impacting the outcome of a criminal case. This highlights why the chain of custody is important, particularly in cases where digital evidence plays a crucial role in determining guilt or innocence.
A broken chain of custody occurs when there is a gap, inconsistency, or failure in the documentation of evidence handling. This can happen due to missing records, unauthorized access, improper storage, or procedural errors in transferring digital evidence.
When the chain of custody is broken, the credibility of the evidence is called into question. Defense attorneys can challenge its authenticity, arguing that the evidence may have been tampered with, altered, or even fabricated. As a result, the court may deem the evidence inadmissible, potentially leading to case dismissal or wrongful verdicts.
It is crucial to maintain an unbroken chain of custody report to ensure that evidence is not compromised at any point from the time of collection to its court presentation to ensure the integrity, authenticity, and admissibility of digital evidence in criminal proceedings.
Typically, a chain of custody report must include the following information to maintain a detailed log of activities performed on digital evidence:
There is no need to say that digital evidence is a key element in solving criminal cases. In order to prove the defendant is guilty or not, prosecutors must justify that the evidence presented in the court is as original as collected at the crime scene.
Learn more about: best practices for protecting digital evidence.
If any discrepancies are found due to mishandling of digital evidence, it can be challenged anytime in the court and ruled inadmissible.
Nobody wants that!
Therefore, the chain of custody is more important than digital evidence itself as it proves the integrity of evidence in court. Contrary to that, if at any point the chain of custody is broken or if it has failed to prove that it is original, then the court will declare it inadmissible.
Now, you have a clear idea of why the chain of custody is important in a criminal case. Do you know any specialized software that can collect, store, manage, analyze digital evidence, and maintain the chain of custody?
Don’t worry if nothing comes to your mind, or known software that does not provide such functionality, because we have a solution exactly suited to your needs right here!
VIDIZMO Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) is one of the robust platforms that help to maintain the chain of custody and keep your digital evidence untampered from its collection to case closure.
VIDIZMO maintains the life cycle of evidence through a chain of custody, providing a trail of activities performed on digital evidence in detail, such as allowing access to digital evidence to an officer.
Not only that, VIDIZMO offers a secure, device-friendly IDC-Recognized Digital Evidence Management System that enables agencies to ingest, store, analyze, manage, and share digital evidence within the centralized repository with the highest levels of security layers. Its major features are as follows:
Ingesting digital evidence from multiple sources such as CCTV footage, dashcams, drone cams, body-worn cameras, audio recordings, etc.
Protecting digital evidence with end-to-end encryption at rest and in transit, FIPS-compliant, password protected, etc.
Deploying digital evidence files securely on Commercial/Government Cloud (Azure or AWS), on-premises, or in a hybrid infrastructure.
Providing tamper detection that detects any sort of alteration done in digital evidence since upload through cryptographic hash values.
Sharing digital evidence with another officer with limited access options such as view only, block download, number of views, via expiry link, or creating multiple links for each evidence file.
Assigning specific roles to each authenticated user, Role-Based Access Control with default permissions to access the digital evidence files.
Providing a detailed log of activities performed on each evidence file through a comprehensive chain of custody report.
Detecting and tracking faces, people, license plates, or other custom objects frame by frame in videos.
Redacting sensitive information shown in videos, such as the face of an officer collecting evidence at a crime scene before sharing it in public or presenting it in the courtroom.
Integrating with SSO identity providers for authentication, such as OneLogin, Okta, Azure AD, etc.
Monitoring user activities across the portal and providing notifications to authorized personnel when any activity is performed on digital evidence (Flagging of Evidence).
Feel free to learn more about VIDIZMO DEMS
An unbroken chain of custody ensures that the digital evidence is legitimized and admissible in court, as this plays a crucial role in any trial because the judgment is dependent on it. Thus, a reliable and secure system is very important for the prosecutors as well as the police officers to ensure a seamless process serving justice rightly.
To learn more about our Digital Evidence management system or if you have any queries, feel free to get in touch with us or schedule a meeting with our sales representatives.
or better try it yourself