[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 95 (Friday, May 15, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29486-29487]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-10416]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Office of Justice Programs

[OJP (NIJ) Docket No. 1778]


Physical and Digital Management Software Products Market Survey

AGENCY: National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Justice 
Programs, Justice.

ACTION: Notice of request for information.

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SUMMARY: The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is soliciting 
information for use in an upcoming Criminal Justice Testing and 
Evaluation Consortium (CJTEC) report tentatively titled, ``A Landscape 
Report of Physical and Digital Management Software Products.'' The 
report will identify software and web-based technologies that are 
commercially available to manage physical evidence and/or digital 
evidence, such as photos or videos. This document will assist law 
enforcement agencies in making informed decisions for purchasing and 
implementing software systems to manage and track physical evidence 
and/or digital evidence.

DATES: Emailed responses must be received (and mailed responses 
postmarked) by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 29, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Responses to this request may be submitted electronically by 
email to Emily Vernon at [email protected] with the subject 
line ``Physical and Digital Management Software Technologies Federal 
Register Response.'' Responses may also be sent by mail to the 
following address: Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation Consortium 
(CJTEC), ATTN: Emily Vernon, Physical and Digital Management Software 
Technologies Federal Register Response, RTI International, P.O. Box 
12194, 3040 E Cornwallis Road, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For more information on this market 
survey, please contact Rebecca Shute (CJTEC) by telephone at 724-544-
4129 or [email protected]. For more information on the NIJ CJTEC, visit 
https://nij.ojp.gov/funding/awards/2018-75-cx-k003 and view the 
description, or contact Steven Schuetz (NIJ) by telephone at 202-514-
7663 or at [email protected]. Please note that these are not 
toll-free telephone numbers.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Information sought: Specific product and company information for 
software products that help law enforcement manage evidence in their 
property and evidence rooms and/or digital evidence. An independent 
response should be submitted for each product that respondents would 
like CJTEC to consider in their landscape report. NIJ encourages 
respondents to provide information in common file formats, such as 
Microsoft Word, pdf, or plain text. Each response should include 
contact information.
    Usage: Information provided in response to this request may be 
published in a landscape study on physical and digital evidence 
management software products.
    Information categories: Comments are invited with regard to the 
market survey, including which categories of information are 
appropriate for comparison, as well as promotional material (e.g., 
slick sheet) and print-quality photographs of the technology. At a 
minimum, CJTEC intends to include the following categories of 
information for each technology that may be of use to law enforcement 
officials:

1. Vendor Information

    a. Full name of company
    b. Contact information of technical contact for software 
products
    c. Website URL
    d. Years the company has been in business
    e. Number and types of customers served (e.g., municipal, 
county, or state agencies)
    f. Picture or photograph of software product(s)
    g. Vendor logo
    h. Description of product(s) (300 words or less)

2. Product Information

a. Software Offering(s):
    i. Please describe your suite of software products, including 
but not limited to: PEMS, laboratory information management systems, 
digital evidence management systems, sexual assault kit tracking, 
etc.
    ii. Is your PEMS a module of an existing system or a standalone 
software?
    iii. Do you have a digital evidence management system (DEMS) 
software offering?
    iv. Is your DEMS software offering a module of an existing 
system or a standalone system?
b. Technical Specifications of Evidence Management Offering
    i. What are the key differentiators of your software compared to 
competitors' products?
    ii. How does your software manage evidence disposition? What is 
the evidence disposition protocol?
    iii. Does your software have a query functionality to search and 
categorize evidence?
    iv. Does your software have a dashboard function? If so, please 
describe functionalities.

[[Page 29487]]

    v. Can your software integrate with other information management 
systems (i.e. integration with Record Management System (RMS) or 
Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS))? Please list 
relevant systems and methods of integration (e.g., APIs)
    vi. What features are customizable? (Customizability refers to 
changing the software programming, which may be done by the vendor 
or an in-house IT professional.)
    vii. What features are configurable? (Configurability refers to 
changing fields within the setup of the system without changing the 
programming, which is done by the end user.)
    viii. What data transfer capabilities does your software offer?
    ix. Is there an upper limit to the amount of data (e.g., 
information about discrete pieces of evidence) that can be stored in 
this program? If so, please describe these parameters.
    x. Setup of system
    1. What is the base model and functionalities offered by the 
company?
    2. What additional modules are available for purchase?
    xi. What kind of mobile capabilities does your program have 
(e.g., mobile scanner or uploading capabilities).
    xii. What access control measures does your product provide 
between users of the system?
    xiii. What kind of audit trail capabilities does your product 
offer?
c. Technical Specifications of PEMS Offering
    i. What barcode scanners are compatible with your product?
    ii. What complementary hardware accessories are available with 
this software? Please note all available hardware accessories, and 
whether they come standard or at additional cost.
d. Technical Specifications of DEMS Offering
    i. What types of files can be uploaded and stored on the DEMS 
product or module?
    ii. What data and metadata are stored in the DEMS?
    iii. What editing or enhancement capabilities does the software 
have?
    iv. Are original files preserved when content is edited (e.g., 
cropped photos)
    v. Does the product ensure authenticity of the content?
    vi. Are there photo comparison capabilities offered by the 
software?
    vii. Can users download content to physical hard copies (e.g., 
external drives)?
    viii. Does your software offer digital signature capabilities?
e. Operating Information
    i. Operating system required for use
    ii. Type of application (e.g., web-based or desktop application)
    iii. Does your software have a cloud-based application?
    iv. Servers and other IT requirements
    v. Technical support offered
    vi. Training offered
    vii. Frequency of software updates
    viii. Last known software release date
    ix. Other systems required for use (e.g., hardware requirements 
or supporting software packages)
f. Financial Information (check all that apply for your software and 
provide estimate costs if applicable. Please indicate what the cost 
model--e.g., per user, bulk pricing). Please note that we will not 
share specific pricing, but allow users to roughly compare across 
pricing ranges.

i.                              [ballot] Base software cost (___ USD)
ii.                             [ballot] Up-front license cost (___ USD)
iii.                            [ballot] Per-user license cost (___ USD)
iv.                             [ballot] Additional module costs
                                (___ USD)
v.                              [ballot] Maintenance costs (___USD)
vi.                             [ballot] IT/Troubleshooting costs
                                (___USD)
                                [ballot] Training costs (___USD)
 

3. Use Cases

a. Approximate number of products sold to law enforcement (if 
available)
b. Names and contact information (phone and email) for end users who 
have implemented the product in casework (if available)

David B. Muhlhausen,
Director, National Institute of Justice.
[FR Doc. 2020-10416 Filed 5-14-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-20-P