Magnet Forensics is proud to announce Magnet SHIELD, an innovative new solution that empowers frontline police officers and investigators to easily capture and report on digital evidence from consenting victims and witnesses in the field.Since digital evidence is now a pervasive part of every investigation, it’s becoming impossible for agencies to solely rely on their tech crime unit to keep up with requests from the field. Police officers are now faced with the challenge of asking victims and witnesses to turn over their phones for weeks, and sometimes even months at a time. Or, officers are stuck waiting hours for their busy tech crime unit to arrive at the scene. Police agencies need a new way for non-technical officers to quickly acquire, report on, and share digital evidence at the scene of the crime.
Bryan Larkin, Chief of Police for the Waterloo Regional Police Service, said 88 per cent of the officers who took part in the pilot reported that SHIELD simplified report writing and saved between 30 to 60 minutes per call. “SHIELD helps our officers spend more time building trust in the community and allows our officers to take a more victim-centric approach to policing,” said Chief Larkin.
“We know that many victims and witnesses to crimes want to assist the police, so we want to do our part to make it easy for them to cooperate and share critical digital evidence that will help keep communities safe. With Magnet SHIELD, we’re proud to introduce a solution that removes barriers to capturing and sharing digital evidence.” says Jad Saliba, CTO, Magnet Forensics. “We understand how important this evidence can be to an investigation and want to ensure that it’s never left behind.”
Magnet SHIELD is available as a turnkey solution that leverages the mobility, battery life, HD camera and familiarity of the Microsoft Surface Go tablet, or as a software-only solution available on any computer or tablet powered by Windows 10 – including existing mobile data terminals in police cruisers. Data integrity is maintained due to trusted Windows 10 security and IT Controls. After capturing the evidence, SHIELD automatically produces a standardized evidence report that can be shared with Crown attorneys. Evidence from SHIELD can easily be stored in an existing Digital Evidence Management system or other systems like an RMS.
In the coming months Magnet Forensics will be offering a secure, cloud-based evidence repository that makes it even easier for investigators to preserve digital evidence and instantly share reports with Crown attorneys. “We’re proud to build solutions that increase public safety and help modernize policing for the digital era” says, Adam Belsher, CEO, Magnet Forensics.
Magnet SHIELD is currently available to agencies in Canada, with a global availability in the near future. Visit magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-shield/ for more information.