New digital evidence system for Scotland's courts

A £33m system to manage evidence digitally is be rolled out across Scottish courts.

American manufacturers Axon say it is the first time police, lawyers and the courts will have access to a single unified database.

It is hoped the initiative will reduce the number of witnesses having to attend court and free up police time.

Dundee began a pilot of the Digital Evidence Sharing Capability service (Desc) in January.

It is expected to run for around six months, with a plan to start rolling the system out across the country by the end of the year.

Members of the public and businesses will be able to submit evidence, such as CCTV footage and photographs, by email when sent a link by a police officer.

This will eventually be expanded to include documents and recordings of police interviews.

Justice Secretary Keith Brown said the new digital system pilot had already been involved in hundreds of cases.

He said: "This is a significant milestone in our overhaul of how evidence is managed through Scotland's justice system.

"From crime scene to courtroom, Desc will allow victims and others involved in criminal cases to move on with their lives sooner and free up officers' time to focus more on frontline policing.

"No other country in the world has invested in a digital evidence solution which serves each part of the criminal justice system equally."

Axon Enterprise CEO and founder Rick Smith said the new system would cut costs and waiting times.

The company has previously worked on several digital evidence gathering systems worldwide.

"I was just in a major American sheriff's office who told me they cut their total officer's time by 20% that was just spent moving around CDs and thumb drives," said Mr Smith.

He told BBC Scotland that the collaboration between the courts, government and police to establish the new system was the first of it kind.

"What Scotland has done at the national level is bring all of those players together to solve this in an integrated way," he said.

"We're now seeing cases move in hours instead of weeks and months."

Assistant Chief Constable Wendy Middleton, who is in charge of the criminal justice services division of Police Scotland, said the current system could be "laborious and clunky".

"This is going to make the criminal justice system a lot smoother right across the partnership," she said.

Asked about the slow roll out of body cameras to police officers in Scotland, she said a business case was being prepared.

Financial constraints have meant armed response police have been prioritised for the equipment, which is used far more extensively by police forces in England and Wales.