Magnet Forensics, a developer of digital investigation solutions used by more than 4,000 enterprises and public safety agencies in over 100 countries, today announced that the Metro Nashville Police Department is using Magnet AUTOMATE to keep its digital investigations running 24/7/365 without human intervention.
With Magnet AUTOMATE, a solution that uses automation to orchestrate the recovery and processing of digital evidence, the Metro Nashville Police Department’s forensics unit completely eliminated a months-long violent crimes case backlog in days. Due to its success in violent crimes cases, the Metro Nashville Police Department is now deploying Magnet AUTOMATE within a second unit to investigate the fentanyl overdose epidemic.
“Public safety in Nashville dictates that we must continue to deploy cutting edge technology to help us advance investigations and identify dangerous criminals as part of our precision policing model,” said Metro Nashville Police Department Chief John Drake. “We are committed to a full-service forensics laboratory, specialized detectives to staff it, and the acquisition of evolving state-of-the-art software to hold accountable shooting suspects, sex offenders, armed robbers, and other violent individuals.
Over the past few years, digital evidence has played an increasingly pivotal role in police investigations. At the Metro Nashville Police Department, the average case taken on by its violent crimes investigators involves the analysis of three devices recovered from victims, witnesses and suspects. Some cases, however, can involve more than 20 smartphones, computers and other electronics, the unit’s investigators said. This volume of devices — and the complexity of the evidence found on them — is overwhelming digital investigators and leading to significant delays in investigations.
In its first week of use, Magnet AUTOMATE helped the Metro Nashville Police Department’s violent crimes unit process evidence in 116 cases. This task would’ve normally required six months of work, the unit’s investigators said. The newfound efficiency brought on by Magnet AUTOMATE has allowed the unit to accelerate its digital investigations and get evidence into the hands of detectives faster than it ever could.
“Magnet AUTOMATE is one of the most important pieces of software ever created for law enforcement,” said Metro Nashville Police Department Det. Chad Gish, who has been performing digital investigations for the agency over the past 18 years. “The Metro Nashville Police Department wanted to use Magnet AUTOMATE to completely diminish and dismantle our backlog and we were successful in doing that in less than a week. We count on our detectives to review a lot of their data and with Magnet AUTOMATE, we’re getting this data out to them in hours and days, instead of weeks and months.”
Public safety agencies like the Metro Nashville Police Department are using Magnet AUTOMATE to streamline their digital investigations. The solution is interoperable with other investigative tools and uses them to synchronize the repetitive tasks involved in recovering and processing digital evidence. Magnet AUTOMATE can simultaneously work on multiple cases and when one is complete, it automatically proceeds to the next one. As a result, agencies are able to keep investigations running during evenings, weekends and holidays, turning hours of downtime into productive uptime.
“Digital evidence is critical to modern investigations and should not be a liability to the pursuit of justice,” said Jad Saliba, founder and chief technology officer at Magnet Forensics. “The Metro Nashville Police Department’s successful adoption of Magnet AUTOMATE serves as a beacon for all agencies looking to eliminate case backlogs and get critical digital evidence into the hands of investigators in a timely fashion.”
With Magnet AUTOMATE, the Metro Nashville Police Department has been able to:
- Completely eliminate a months-long device backlog that was weighing on its ability to deliver justice
- Process evidence on nearly 525 devices — 19TB worth of data — in five months
- Get digital evidence into the hands of detectives in an average of 24 hours instead of multiple weeks
- Improve officer wellness and limit the need for officers to return to the office on nights and weekends to advance evidence processing, in addition to allowing for more time to investigate crimes
For more information on Magnet AUTOMATE, visit magnetforensics.com and register to attend a fireside chat at the Magnet Virtual Summit with Gish and Saliba.
