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Pitt County Sheriff’s Office
Pitt County, NC, United States
Officers increase conviction rates using Sympodium product |
In 2002, incidents of domestic violence led to 73 murders in North Carolina. Preventing domestic homicide is the ultimate goal of the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office domestic violence unit, but these cases are difficult to prosecute. Victims of abuse are often not cooperative in court, and law enforcement officers are left to argue the case without sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. When Pitt County was awarded a grant to provide technology to obtain and present physical evidence, they chose the Sympodium ID250 interactive pen display to help manage evidence and increase the number of guilty verdicts.
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"I really believe that police officers want to do a great job, but you have to empower them to do a great job… You can do that through technology."
– Sergeant John Guard
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Working the digital beat
With less than one officer for every thousand residents, the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office has to make efficient use of its manpower. “We try to do more with less and work more efficiently. That’s how the SMART Sympodium ID250 interactive pen display comes into play,” says Sergeant John Guard, head of the domestic violence prevention unit. “I really believe that police officers want to do a great job, but you have to empower them to do a great job. You can do that through technology.”
One of the goals of the technology upgrade program was to increase conviction rates through the use of evidence-based technologies. After years of using Kodak Instamatic cameras to document crime scenes, Pitt County officers started using digital cameras to reduce film costs and allow more officers to take pictures at crime scenes. Officers now come to court with an entire case file on a single CD-ROM, which includes crime-scene photographs, 911 calls, witness narratives and video evidence.
Paperless courtroom
Pitt County has integrated Sympodium ID250 interactive pen displays into a control station for the district attorney, and in the witness stand of a specialized domestic violence court. The officer, victim or witness can use the pen on the ID250’s touch-sensitive screen to write in digital ink over images of evidence, and focus attention to areas of importance to the case. The district attorney uses the ID250 as a control station to instantly send these images to flat-panel displays placed in front of the judge and the defense attorney. Annotations and edits to the evidence can be saved as additions to the digital images and added to the case file in the event it is needed at a later appeal.
Promising results
As a result of this new system, Pitt County has improved the efficiency in its courtroom, which handles more than 80 cases each week, and increased the number of guilty pleas entered by defendants. “A lot of people are visual learners, and that includes officers, judges and district attorneys,” says Guard. “If we can win these cases at a misdemeanor and lower level, we will prevent the evolution of violence and hopefully save lives.”