The New South Wales police are using an exhibits forensics information and miscellaneous property system (EFIMS) designed to store evidence electronically for easy access by officers. This evidence data, such as seized drugs, may be used to assist in criminal convictions.
The application, developed by Melbourne company Hardcat, will be used to track evidence and information gathered in investigations from the crime scene to the arrest and then store it in the evidence room. The NSW Police also plan to use EFIMS to manage investigations and assign a case to an officer or detective.
According to Hardcat director Rodney Dalton, the EFIMS would replace paper evidence logs and reduce the amount of time officers have to spend maintaining logs as the information only needs to be entered in the system once.
“This system will enable New South Wales Police to know the exact whereabouts and history of any piece of evidence gathered by officers in the state,” Dalton said in a statement.
In addition, officers and prosecutors could use EFIMS to better manage the integrity of crime scene evidence such as delicate DNA samples.
The EFIMS system has been integrated with the NSW Police’s mainframe-based computerised operational policing system (COPS), an operational database used to record victim, offender and incident information.
The NSW Police was contacted for comment by Computerworld Australia but declined as enhancements to EFIMS were not fully developed and installed.
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