NICE has announced E-Request, a new cloud-based tool within the Evidencentral platform to enable timely disclosure of 911 audio evidence. E-Request is an application designed for emergency communications centers (ECCs) to receive and process 911 audio evidence requests, and to share incident information with law enforcement, district attorneys, and other stakeholders.
Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE, stated, “Handling 911 evidence requests is a time-consuming, but essential, function of every 911 center. E-Request automates the end-to-end request and delivery workflow between 911 centers and key stakeholders to accelerate request fulfillment, improve transparency, ensure timely disclosure, and streamline case preparation and discovery. Currently, one of the world’s pre-eminent 911 centers, which handles tens of thousands of requests annually, is successfully leveraging E-Request’s automation and workflow engine to fulfill 911 evidence requests faster, more uniformly, and efficiently, via an auditable, secure, end-to-end digital process.”
The functionality of E-Request –
The E-Request form is used by prosecutors and other requestors. ECC personnel need do nothing else but enter the response’s Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) incident number, where all audio and CAD incident data will be correlated and combined, ready for sharing. E-Request’s secure browser-based portal automatically notifies prosecutors when evidence is ready for download. Detectives can now directly access 911 audio during investigations with E-Request, resulting in greater efficiencies for them. Moreover, officers dispatched to an incident can access and listen to 911 calls using the E-Request mobile app.
E-Request, the latest addition to NICE’s Evidencentral cloud-based platform which helps in the digital transformation of the end-to-end criminal justice process, includes the following benefits:
- 911 Emergency Call Center: E-Request can eliminate backlogs, improve productivity, and free up time and resources at the ECC. With one system, redaction, as well as audio transcription, can be completed. The use of E-Request also eliminates duplicate request forms, downloads, and copies to discs, handling of physical media, and the sending of attachments via e-mail. The system also ensures transparency and accountability, providing complete tracking of the chain of custody, and audit trails that show when evidence requests are received, completed, sent, received, and opened. Requests, backlogs, and bottlenecks are seen in the dashboards.
- Other Stakeholders and Prosecutors: As prosecutors strive to meet more stringent discovery timelines, E-Request standardizes and streamlines the process for handling requests, receiving, and sharing audio files. In addition, the process is also speeded up by eliminating physical media. The status of requests is always updated for prosecutors. Through a streamlined, digital process, attorneys, journalists, and citizens may request audio reproductions.
- Law Enforcement: As detectives begin an investigation, e-Request enables trusted users, such as police officers, to access 911 audio directly. A second feature of the E-Request app is the ability to listen to 911 calls so officials can effectively respond to an incident.
