NICE News Special Edition

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ASK THE EXPERT: NYPD'S SGT. CLAUDE ARMSTRONG ON EVIDENCE HANDLING, AUDIO REPRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

In this month's issue of NICE News Special Edition, Sergeant Claude Armstrong, the commanding officer of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) Tape and Records Unit, talks about his agency's experience in handling requests for evidence and audio reproductions. Sergeant Armstrong is co-chair of the PS NUG (NICE Systems Public Safety User Group) and recently hosted a NUG teleconference on this very subject.

NICE News: Sergeant Armstrong, can you give us a little background on your operation, the system you are using, and the volume and types of requests that your unit handles?

Sergeant Armstrong: The NYPD PSAC (Public Safety Answering Center) consists of two sites (a primary and a backup site). We have over 1,200 civilian supervisors, operators and dispatchers who handle more than 12 million 9-1-1 calls a year. All of our emergency calls and radio transmissions are captured on a 10,000-channel NICE recording system and retained for 180 days. Our system provides 26 terabytes of on-line storage capacity on RAID-5 and is equipped with Scenario Replay software which helps us fulfill the high volume of requests we get for audio recordings in an efficient manner.

On average, the NYPD Tape and Records Unit handles about 40,000 to 45,000 requests for records, and generates about 30,000 audio reproductions each year. We generally get two types of requests. There are internal requests that come from the detective squad, the investigations unit, fire or EMS, or requests from other agencies. But the majority of requests, about 70%, come from County District Attorneys (DAs) here in New York City. I have a staff of 47 people, including 25 tape technicians whose primary responsibility is to do audio reproductions. Our unit operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in three shifts to keep up with the immense volume of subpoenas and requests.

NICE News: Can you describe the process by which these requests are handled?

Sergeant Armstrong: First of all, we require a subpoena or a request in lieu of subpoena from the DAs for audio reproductions or for any other record requests. When we receive the request, we log it into our Tape Management System and then search our Computer Aided Dispatch and NICE systems for the CAD record and the associated voice recordings. The recordings are then reproduced and we send them through a secure encrypted link right out to the DAs. We have a direct email link to all five New York City counties, and our email delivery system enables us to send the DAs an email with an embedded link to the recording. When they click on the link, it takes them to the secure web site where the recordings are located.

NICE News: Are you concerned that recordings distributed in this way could be tampered with or altered?

Sergeant Armstrong: No, we have a special encryption program that we use that was designed by an outside vendor that converts the .wav files to MP3 files and then encrypts those files. Only the DAs have the public keys required to decrypt the files.

NICE News: What about internal requests? How do you handle those?

Sergeant Armstrong: For internal requests, or requests from outside agencies, it's basically the same process. The request needs to be made by a supervisor on the supervisor's letterhead, accompanied by our standard form that's usually faxed or hand delivered. The one difference is we don't fulfill these requests by email. Our internal network bandwidth doesn't support high amounts of data, so we reproduce these audio recordings onto CDs that can't be rewritten or altered.

Each CD is customized with the NYPD logo silk-screened onto it, and the technician who reproduces the CD with the audio recordings initials the CD. If the case goes to court, then the technician can be brought to testify that it is the original copy he or she made. Also embedded on each CD is a text file that contains information about the audio reproduction, such as: the technician's name, the requester's name, the date and time of the request, and details on the specific recordings contained on the CD.

The CDs must be picked up in person, and when the investigator or messenger comes in, they must sign the CD, and also sign off on a standard carbon form that is essentially a receipt noting the requester's name, the job number, etc. We keep a copy of that receipt for our own records along with all the original paperwork.

NICE News: What about requests from private attorneys or citizens?

Sergeant Armstrong: We handle requests from the private sector too, but those go through the district attorney's office before they're released to the private attorney. We also handle requests for audio recordings from private civilians through the Freedom of Information Act.

NICE News: I hear that more and more agencies are considering charging for services such as audio reproduction, to recoup the costs of providing such services. Does the NYPD Tape and Records Unit charge for these services?

Sergeant Armstrong: No, we do not charge for audio reproduction but we do charge a nominal processing fee for subpoenas, for non criminal cases or private attorneys. I did learn, however, on our recent Nice User Group call that there are other agencies that are billing either for time or materials in reproducing audio recordings.

NICE News: What benefits or improvements have you seen in terms of processing all of these requests, since migrating to your NICE system?

Sergeant Armstrong: With our old legacy recording system, we had a backlog of 5,000 to 6,000 requests. Because it was a digital audio tape-based system, and we reproduced our audio recordings onto cassette tapes, everything had to be done in real-time. If a transmission was an hour long, it took the technician at least two hours to reproduce it. It would take an hour for the technician to listen to it prior to reproducing it, and then another hour to actually re-record it to cassette. Now we can do all of that in a matter of minutes and burn it to a CD. Our NICE system has virtually eliminated our backlog.

NICE News: Are you pleased with your current process for handling requests for audio recordings? What improvements would you like to make in the future?

Sergeant Armstrong: We're pretty solid with our audio recording reproduction and delivery process, especially for our DAs. But we're still a little bogged down on the intake side. What we're looking to do next is to set up a front-end delivery system that enables the DAs to send subpoenas to us electronically, and then have those requests automatically captured, logged and queued. Our unit will then be able to take jobs right off the queue, complete the reproductions, and deliver the audio recordings. Currently, we're in the very early stages of a pilot project for this system, and it seems to be working pretty well.

MEET SERGEANT CLAUDE ARMSTRONG, NYPD

Sergeant Claude Armstrong is the commanding officer of the Tape and Records Unit of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest police department serving the largest city in the United States. He began his career with the NYPD over 20 years ago as a patrol officer, working six years in patrol units (including the elite Street Crime Unit in Brooklyn), and worked his way up through the ranks to Sergeant. With over 14 years' experience in 9-1-1 communications (operations and management), Sgt. Armstrong spearheaded the implementation of a large-scale system for the NYPD that captures more than 12 million 9-1-1 calls each year. Sgt. Armstrong is the NYPD's designated liaison to the New York City Criminal Justice Coordinator's Office and co-chair of the PS NUG user group. He is also currently serving as a member of Emergency Communication Transformation Project Committee which is working to merge the communications networks of the New York City police, fire and EMS departments.