Hoboken, N.J., October 19, 2020 – NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) today announced that Lancashire Constabulary has chosen to deploy its cloud-based NICE Investigate Digital Evidence Management solution (DEMS). Lancashire Constabulary will roll out NICE Investigate to more than 3,600 officers, in partnership with the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS), to digitally transform processes around the collection, analysis and sharing of digital evidence, ultimately enabling it to investigate and prosecute cases faster and more efficiently.
Carl Drinkwater, a Project Manager with the James Harvard Consultancy assigned to the DEMS project on behalf of Lancashire Constabulary, stated, “As part of a business-change approach to transforming how digital evidence is managed, Lancashire Constabulary undertook an exhaustive end-to-end exercise of mapping out the journey of digital evidence from its front-line officers to investigators to the CPS for different types of offenses, such as domestic violence, assault, theft and so on. This gave us a clear understanding of where there were inefficiencies and opportunities to use NICE Investigate to save time, money and speed up investigations. Ultimately, NICE Investigate is going to improve outcomes for Lancashire Constabulary, the CPS and the communities they serve.”
According to Drinkwater, process improvements equate to cost savings as well. Investigators currently spend the majority of their workday manually copying CCTV and body-worn video used in investigations onto CDs, which then need to be physically labeled, categorized and shelved. With NICE Investigate this process will be completely automated as video is automatically pulled into digital case folders. “We expect a 70 percent cost-savings from this process change alone,” said Drinkwater. “Additionally, because evidence will be stored digitally in the cloud, we also anticipate a 75 percent reduction in the cost of physical media.”
Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE, stated, “Lancashire Constabulary’s business-change approach to digital transformation is a direction that all police forces should emulate. By focusing on specific process improvements that can be achieved through digital transformation, forces can achieve substantial, tangible outcomes.”
Leading up to its force-wide rollout of the full version of NICE Investigate anticipated for later this year, Lancashire Constabulary will continue to rely on NICE Investigate Xpress. Lancashire deployed NICE Investigate Xpress earlier this year at the start of the pandemic, to help keep officers safe from COVID-19. Offered free to police forces through 2020, NICE Investigate Xpress transforms processes around collecting, analyzing and sharing digital evidence, that would ordinarily require in-person contact or physical touch.
“The support from NICE during the pandemic has been invaluable,” said Drinkwater. “NICE Investigate Xpress has helped us put safeguards in place to better protect officers, force staff and CPS stakeholders by removing the physical touch from digital evidence. Lancashire has been able to share all needed case evidence digitally, securely and remotely.”
NICE Investigate is a one-stop solution for transforming manual processes around the collection, management, analysis and sharing of all types of digital evidence. NICE Investigate is currently being used by 15 police forces in the U.K., additional police departments in the U.S., and more than 50,000 investigators and police officers around the world. NICE is also offering a version of its cloud-based NICE Investigate, NICE Investigate Xpress, to police forces free-of-charge for the duration of 2020, typically deployed in less than 48 hours.
To learn more about the NICE Investigate Digital Evidence Management solution and NICE Investigate Xpress:
- Visit the NICE website by clicking here.
- Email [email protected] for more information.
About Lancashire Constabulary
Founded in 1839, Lancashire Constabulary is a UK police force covering a county spanning 1,189 square miles. It is split into three divisions, West, South and East, with its Headquarters based in Hutton, Preston. Serving a population of nearly 1.5 million are 2,900 Police Officers and 2,500 Police staff – of which 290 are PCSOs and 460 Special Constabulary Officers, Police Cadets and community volunteers.
About NICE
NICE (Nasdaq: NICE) is the world’s leading provider of both cloud and on-premises enterprise software solutions that empower organizations to make smarter decisions based on advanced analytics of structured and unstructured data. NICE helps organizations of all sizes deliver better customer service, ensure compliance, combat fraud and safeguard citizens. Over 25,000 organizations in more than 150 countries, including over 85 of the Fortune 100 companies, are using NICE solutions. www.nice.com
