Freedom of Choice
An Open Platform Approach to Digital Evidence Management
In today's security landscape, we are witnessing a fundamental transformation in how organizations manage digital evidence. Law enforcement agencies, campus security teams, and large facility operators face increasingly complex challenges with expanding video data, tightening budget constraints and inflexible systems that limit innovation.
What we need is not just better technology, but a complete rethinking of the digital evidence management approach.
Breaking Free from Constraints
Public safety agencies and security departments have been locked in a cycle of escalating costs when deploying digital evidence management (DEM) systems. Many organizations are paying multiples of what is necessary due to proprietary ecosystems that restrict storage options and create unnecessary workflow complexities.
Milestone Systems recently introduced XProtect Evidence Manager (XEM), representing a pivotal shift in how organizations handle digital evidence. This solution seamlessly integrates with the XProtect video management system, delivering enterprise-class evidence management capabilities built on the freedom principles of an open platform. This is not just an incremental improvement; it is a disruptive force, challenging industry norms that no longer serve organizations' best interests.
Workflow efficiency stands as a critical consideration. The most effective systems should streamline the process of building and managing cases, allowing operators to work more intuitively. Our solution draws on deep insights into real-world operational challenges, creating a superior workflow experience that dramatically reduces the time and effort needed to manage cases.
Evidence sharing represents another crucial aspect where the DEM landscape needs a transformation. XEM eliminates hidden costs by offering truly license-free evidence sharing. When evidence needs to be shared with district attorneys, defense lawyers, or other stakeholders, we have eliminated the complexity entirely. No additional licenses, no complex software installation for recipients, just simple, seamless sharing that streamlines the judicial process.
Storage flexibility has emerged as a game-changing factor in evidence management. Organizations deserve the freedom to archive to whatever storage platforms make sense for their needs, whether on-prem, in the cloud or through hybrid approaches. The ability to choose between AWS, Azure, Thinkon, Wasabi, or other platforms puts organizations back in control of their budget and their data strategy.
This comprehensive open platform approach, combining workflow efficiency, license-free sharing and storage flexibility, represents a fundamental shift in the evidence management landscape. Cloud providers like AWS have recognized the tremendous potential of this approach, seeing opportunities to support organizations seeking liberation from traditional, restrictive evidence management models.
When organizations take control of their workflow and storage decisions, they gain not just immediate cost benefits but long-term strategic advantages. Their evidence management system becomes an integrated part of their broader technology ecosystem rather than an isolated silo.
Transforming Public Safety and Beyond
While developed with public safety applications in mind, our approach to evidence management extends far beyond police departments. Any organization handling incidents that might become cases requiring evidence management will benefit from this open approach, including airports, casinos, university campuses, corporate facilities, stadiums and more.
Consider large facilities where security incidents, liability claims, or safety concerns regularly occur. Each situation generates diverse forms of evidence captured from security video cameras to smartphone photos, access control logs, and audio recordings. XEM can ingest all these data types, even from third-party systems, creating comprehensive case files that streamline investigation and resolution processes.
The approach to integrated devices like body-worn cameras also represents an important consideration. Some evidence management systems lock organizations into annual device leases at significant cost, while others offer the freedom to purchase devices outright. This choice delivers substantial cost savings while maintaining seamless integration with evidence management workflows.
Another innovation worth noting involves preview capabilities for archived evidence. Before rehydrating data from deep storage, a process that typically incurs costs, users can preview content to ensure relevance. This feature delivers real savings over time, especially for organizations maintaining extensive archives.
A Disruptive Force in Evidence Management
By challenging entrenched market dynamics and introducing genuine freedom of choice, we're fundamentally disrupting how the industry approaches digital evidence. XEM works seamlessly with XProtect video management software out of the box and integrates with analytics platforms like BriefCam, which enables users to review hours of video evidence in minutes. Planned integrations with access control systems such as Lenel S2 and Genea will further expand the ecosystem, giving organizations unprecedented freedom to build solutions tailored to their exact needs.
And, of course, the financial implications are just as significant. Organizations adopting open platform approaches to evidence management often discover cost reductions of up to 70 percent compared to proprietary alternatives. These savings come not just from initial purchase prices but from the long-term efficiencies gained through storage flexibility, license-free sharing, and reduced dependency on single-vendor ecosystems.
This transformation in evidence management represents a philosophical shift toward greater openness and user control. By emphasizing freedom and choice, we're helping redefine how organizations think about managing digital evidence over its entire lifecycle.
This article originally appeared in the July / August 2025 issue of Security Today.