NCJ Number
222503
Date Published
April 2008
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article addresses issues specific to maintaining an archive program for digital and multimedia evidence.
Abstract
This article provides guidance to interested criminal justice personnel concerning the best practices appropriate for the storage, preservation, and successful retrieval of digital and multimedia evidence (DME) from an archive environment. Findings show that a suitable archive will allow storage of data for long-term availability and retrieval and seek to familiarize the reader with issues surrounding archived DME, and suggested best practices for establishing and maintaining a formal program to achieve that purpose. The guidance cites the reasons to archive DME, identification of DME to archive, and briefly discusses the considerations for archive creation. These include standard operating procedures; physical plant concerns; security; hardware and software; various types of media used for DME; preservation of DME; and data transmission, management, and compression. The guidance also holds forth on issues concerning archive maintenance where differing or updated versions of hardware and software are involved, to including reverse compatibility and interoperability. In relation to this, conclusions are cited on data migration, media lifespan, and file formats. The article is based on existing practices employed and outlined in Scientific Working Group on Image Technology (SGWIT) documents referenced therein, and makes note of legal or departmental differences which may exist on record retention, purging, and issues which may be discipline-specific. References, notes