NICE announced that the District Attorney's Office for the Augusta Judicial Circuit in Georgia will leverage NICE Justice, an AI-powered digital evidence management system that is part of the Evidencentral platform. The DA's Office aspires to improve evidence handling efficiency and shorten case processing times, ensuring that crime victims receive justice more quickly.
“Digital evidence is growing at an exponential rate and managing that evidence is key to prosecuting crimes effectively. With NICE Justice, prosecutors and office staff can offer the highest level of support to victims in the community by allocating their time and talents to building, preparing and prosecuting cases, instead of performing the rote work involved in managing digital evidence,” said Chris Wooten, Executive Vice President, NICE.
The cloud-based NICE Justice technology transforms the way district attorneys and their staff receive, handle, interact with, and exchange digital evidence. By removing the need for physical media like disks and drives, as well as streamlining processes through a single system, attorneys and staff can devote more time to case preparation. The platform's AI and automation technologies enable object detection, automated case assembly, audio and video transcription and translation, optical character recognition (OCR), data analytics, and evidence correlation, all of which improve overall efficiency.
The Augusta Judicial Circuit DA's Office represents the citizens of Georgia in felony proceedings throughout Burke and Richmond Counties. By deploying NICE Justice, the office hopes to cut case durations by nine to twelve months.
“Slow justice is no justice. Our mission is to deliver true, fair and efficient justice for victims of crime. Our investment in NICE Justice will automate processes around intaking and managing digital evidence, so our office can focus on prosecuting serious felonies and protecting victims,” said Jared Williams, District Attorney.
The NICE Justice portal, which allows law enforcement agencies in the circuit to easily submit digital evidence, is a critical component of the rollout. This method avoids the time-consuming human tasks of tracking, downloading, copying, and uploading evidence from physical media. The software will automatically filter uploaded material into the appropriate digital case folders, and attorneys will receive quick notifications when new evidence comes.
The Augusta District Attorney's Office obtains digital evidence from a variety of agencies, including the Richmond County Sheriff's Office, the Burke County Sheriff's Office, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and eight other law enforcement agencies.
NICE has recently partnered with case management software firm Karpel Solutions to digitally transform the criminal justice process for prosecutors.
