Cryptographic chain-of-custody, AI-powered analysis, and automated redaction - from crime scene to courtroom. Mathematical proof your evidence has not been tampered with.
Every day, cases are dismissed, guilty defendants walk free, and innocent people remain imprisoned because digital evidence was lost, corrupted, or ruled inadmissible.
These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of systems designed for paper files trying to handle digital evidence.
The digital evidence management market has evolved into siloed specializations, each addressing fragments of the evidence lifecycle while leaving critical gaps.
Focus exclusively on video, requiring agencies to maintain separate systems for documents, photos, audio, mobile device extractions, and physical evidence tracking.
Storage costs consume 80% of program budgets, creating predictable annual budget crises as footage accumulates.
Excel at extracting data from devices but provide no chain-of-custody verification after extraction.
Security disclosures have demonstrated that forensic reports can be modified without detectable changes.
Serve legal proceedings but were not designed for criminal investigations.
Lack CJIS-ready controls, no investigative workflow support, and price tags that exclude small agencies.
Visualize relationships and patterns but require manual data import and offer no real-time collaboration.
Run on desktop architectures that cannot support distributed investigation teams.
Evidence moves between systems through file exports, thumb drives, and email attachments. Each transfer creates chain-of-custody gaps that defense attorneys can exploit.
Real incidents that demonstrate why traditional approaches cannot protect evidence integrity
Grand jury investigation found that corruption had tainted 58 felony cases. Auditors discovered 40% of evidence bags and one-third of firearms were improperly documented.
No integrity verification; manual chain-of-custody documentation easily falsified or neglected.
Department recommended 'immediately abolished' and was subsequently disbanded. Tainted cases remained compromised with no path to recovery.
Cryptographic verification prevents undocumented access; immutable audit trail catches anomalies in real-time before cases reach court.
Evidence Room Manager pleaded guilty to stealing drugs from the evidence room over multiple years.
No integrity verification; manual chain-of-custody documentation easily falsified with no automated alerts.
Audit cost $175,000; 27 guns unaccounted for; 397 missing oxycodone tablets. Drug trafficking defendant facing 225 months received probation instead.
SHA-256 hashing detects any evidence tampering; automated alerts on custody anomalies trigger immediate investigation.
Internal investigation revealed deputies failed to turn in evidence at shift end more than 70% of the time.
No automated tracking of evidence submission timelines; manual processes easily bypassed under workload pressure.
Evidence waited days to months for submission. Drugs, cash, photos, and videos languished in patrol cars creating chain-of-custody gaps.
Real-time processing pipeline with automated alerts; evidence tracked from moment of creation with time-based escalation.
Michael Morton spent 25 years imprisoned for his wife's murder - a crime committed by someone else entirely.
Prosecutor Ken Anderson deliberately withheld: son's statement that 'a monster' killed his mother while 'daddy was not home'; neighbor reports; credit card evidence; DNA evidence.
First Texas prosecutor jailed for misconduct in wrongful conviction. Real killer murdered another woman while Morton sat in prison.
Brady material AI detection flags potentially exculpatory evidence; complete disclosure audit trail prevents suppression by making all evidence visible.
Signal security researchers demonstrated Cellebrite tools had arbitrary code execution vulnerabilities with ancient library versions containing 100+ unpatched CVEs.
Missing standard exploit mitigations; no integrity verification of forensic tool itself; reliance on tool vendor security.
Defense attorneys worldwide can now challenge any Cellebrite extraction as potentially compromised. Reports can be modified undetectably.
Evidence receives cryptographic fingerprint at ingestion independent of extraction tool; immutable Merkle tree verification does not depend on tool integrity.
Virginia documented four-year turnaround times; UK found 25,000+ devices waiting with 18-month waits to begin examination.
Digital evidence volumes grew exponentially while forensic resources remained flat; no automated triage or prioritization.
Cases stalled while evidence sat in queues. Statutes of limitations ran. Crimes went unsolved while suspects remained free.
AI-powered triage surfaces critical materials in minutes; automated classification eliminates manual review bottleneck.
Built from the ground up to address the documented failures that plague existing systems. Integrity verification, automated analysis, and court admissibility as foundational requirements.
Every piece of evidence receives a SHA-256 cryptographic fingerprint at ingestion and is recorded in an immutable Merkle tree ledger with RFC-3161 timestamping.
Mathematical proof - not just documentation - that evidence has not been altered. Defense attorneys can verify independently. Courts can rely on mathematical certainty.
Automated classification identifies critical materials immediately upon ingestion. POLE entity extraction organizes evidence by investigative relevance.
Pattern recognition flags suspicious transactions. Cross-case correlation surfaces connections manual review would miss. Investigators focus on analysis rather than data management.
Evidence flows seamlessly from ingestion through analysis, review, redaction, disclosure, and court presentation - all within a single system.
No exports to incompatible formats. No thumb drive transfers. No chain-of-custody gaps between systems. Documentation trail demonstrates unbroken integrity from crime scene to courtroom.
Automated malware scanning protects agency infrastructure from compromised evidence. Current security libraries with continuous updates.
Standard exploit mitigations address vulnerabilities documented in forensic tool disclosures. Evidence cannot become an attack vector.
See how cryptographic hashing creates tamper-proof evidence verification
Each capability addresses a documented gap in current solutions
Any evidence, any source, one system
Accepts and processes images, videos, documents, audio files, mobile device extractions, disk images, and complex data formats with automatic format detection and metadata extraction.
Current systems force agencies to maintain separate platforms for different evidence types. A single murder investigation might involve body camera footage, mobile extractions, surveillance video, documents, and social media captures.
Evidence upload initiates parallel processing: hash computation for integrity verification, malware scanning for infrastructure protection, AI analysis for metadata extraction and classification, thumbnail generation for visual review.
Body camera platforms handle video only. Forensic tools handle extractions only. Document systems handle files only. Only Argus unifies all evidence types.
When executing a search warrant yielding multiple devices, investigators upload complete disk images and extractions directly. Automated scanning protects the network while AI analysis extracts key documents and communications.
Mathematical proof, not documentation
Every piece of evidence receives a unique SHA-256 cryptographic fingerprint recorded in an immutable Merkle tree ledger with RFC-3161 timestamping from a trusted Time Stamping Authority.
Traditional chain-of-custody relies on documentation that can be falsified, lost, or incomplete. Mathematical verification eliminates these vulnerabilities. A cryptographic hash either matches or it does not.
At ingestion, SHA-256 hashing computes a unique 256-bit fingerprint. This hash is recorded in a Merkle tree where each node cryptographically depends on its children. Any modification produces a completely different hash.
Axon provides access logs but logs do not prove evidence was not modified. Cellebrite reports can be altered undetectably. Only Argus provides mathematical proof of integrity.
In an officer-involved shooting investigation, body camera footage is uploaded. Defense attorneys can independently verify months later that the footage has not been altered. Mathematical certainty that withstands rigorous legal challenge.
Critical evidence surfaces in minutes, not months
Automatically categorizes documents using advanced machine learning, extracting POLE entities (Person, Object, Location, Event) and organizing evidence by investigative relevance.
Document review consumes 73% of litigation spend - $42.1 billion annually. Forensic labs have backlogs stretching to four years. AI-powered classification helps address this challenge.
Machine learning models analyze document content, structure, and metadata. The system classifies document types, extracts named entities, identifies relationships. Brady material detection flags potentially exculpatory evidence.
Relativity's aiR focuses on contract analysis for civil litigation. Axon's Draft One generates reports, not analysis. Traditional systems require manual review of every file.
In complex fraud investigation, transaction extraction automatically identifies and categorizes financial movements. AI flags suspicious patterns - structuring transactions, round-dollar transfers. Investigators review flagged materials first.
Hours instead of days for privacy protection
AI-powered detection and redaction of personally identifiable information, faces, license plates, social security numbers, and other sensitive data with complete audit trails.
Manual redaction reviewing video frame-by-frame can take days for a single incident. NYPD documented $36,000 for 190 hours processing a single FOIA request.
Computer vision models identify faces, license plates, and sensitive content. OCR detects text-based PII. The system presents detected items for one-click approval. Audit logs document every redaction decision.
Axon redaction requires Pro-tier at $468/user/year and operates only on Axon-captured video. Forensic tools provide no redaction. Only Argus combines AI detection across all evidence types.
Prior to trial disclosure, surveillance footage is uploaded. The system automatically identifies all faces and license plates. Prosecutors approve redactions with single clicks. Days of frame-by-frame review completes in hours.
Instant playback without downloads
Video evidence uploads directly to Cloudflare's global streaming network for instant playback, automatic thumbnails, adaptive bitrate streaming, and detailed analytics.
Video files are large - a single shift can exceed 10GB. Traditional systems require downloading entire files before viewing. Storage costs dominate evidence management budgets.
Upon upload, video is processed by Cloudflare Stream for adaptive bitrate encoding. Content becomes immediately streamable worldwide. Time-limited sharing links enable secure external access without creating copies.
Axon Evidence requires proprietary players. Traditional systems require file downloads. File sharing creates copies that complicate chain of custody.
Officer-involved shooting investigation involves multiple body camera feeds. Instead of downloading gigabytes, investigators stream directly. Discovery access via time-limited links rather than DVDs. Every view logged.
Connections that manual review would miss
Automatically identifies documents, images, communications that appear across multiple cases. AI-powered similarity detection flags connections enabling serial offender identification.
Traditional case-focused systems keep investigations siloed. Investigators do not know what evidence exists in other cases. Serial offenders continue while patterns go undetected.
AI analysis extracts features from evidence: visual signatures, text patterns, entity references. The system continuously compares new evidence against the existing corpus, flagging matches.
Mobile forensic tools correlate within single device extractions. E-discovery correlates within single matters. Traditional evidence systems provide no correlation capabilities.
Burglary investigation uploads surveillance footage. Correlation engine finds the same vehicle in footage from three other burglaries over six months. Isolated incidents become serial offender investigation.
Patterns human reviewers would miss
Automated extraction and analysis of financial transactions from banking records, receipts, and invoices. AI identifies patterns and flags suspicious activity.
Financial investigations drown in paper. Complex fraud cases involve years of statements and millions of transactions. Manual review is impossible within reasonable timeframes.
Document ingestion triggers OCR and financial classification. The system extracts transaction data into structured formats. AI identifies structuring, layering, round-dollar amounts, timing patterns.
E-discovery provides document review but not financial analysis. Forensic accounting requires manual extraction. Spreadsheets cannot scale to large volumes.
Public corruption investigation secures years of bank records. The system extracts all transactions, identifies payments between subject and contractors, flags round-dollar amounts consistent with kickbacks.
Minutes to analysis, not months in backlog
Evidence processing begins immediately upon upload with parallel malware scanning, hash computation, AI analysis, and metadata extraction. High-priority tagging for expedited processing.
Traditional workflows involve significant delays. Physical evidence waits for submission. Digital evidence waits for examiner availability. These delays impede investigations.
Upload triggers immediate parallel processing streams: SHA-256 hash computation, malware scanning, AI classification, thumbnail generation, format validation. Priority tagging routes urgent evidence.
Forensic labs have backlogs extending to four years. Evidence rooms process in batch. Traditional systems require manual triggering of analysis.
Active kidnapping investigation secures suspect phone and laptop. Instead of waiting days for forensic availability, disk images upload immediately. Within minutes investigators access communications and location data.
Cloud-native architecture designed for unlimited scale and the highest security standards
Built on Cloudflare Workers delivering sub-50 millisecond response times worldwide. The same edge network that powers the world's fastest websites now powers evidence management.
Cloudflare R2 object storage provides unlimited capacity without egress fees. PostgreSQL stores metadata with full ACID compliance. Hot storage for active investigations, archival tiers for closed cases.
All evidence encrypted at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.3. SHA-256 hashing with Merkle tree verification. Integration with VirusTotal for real-time malware intelligence.
See how Argus accelerates real investigation scenarios
Case 1 of 4
Search warrant yields laptop, phones, drives, and cloud accounts in kidnapping investigation with ongoing victim risk.
Evidence waits days to weeks for forensic examiner availability in lab backlog
Officers create evidence records with scene documentation before transport
Each device type requires different tools and workflows
System automatically scans for malware, computes hashes, begins AI analysis
Investigators cannot begin until forensic processing completes
Within 30 minutes, investigators access extracted communications, documents, media
Cross-device correlation requires manual comparison after separate processing
AI correlation identifies common contacts and locations across all devices
Fundamental capabilities that current solutions cannot match
SHA-256 hashing and Merkle tree verification with RFC-3161 timestamping provides mathematical proof of evidence integrity.
Why it matters: Defense challenges to evidence authenticity fail against cryptographic verification; unlike access logs, mathematical proofs cannot be falsified.
Addresses Cellebrite/Signal vulnerability disclosure showing forensic tools cannot verify their own integrity.
Single system handles evidence from ingestion through court presentation across all evidence types.
Why it matters: Eliminates chain-of-custody gaps when evidence transfers between systems; reduces training burden and integration complexity.
Replaces fragmented landscape of body camera, forensic, e-discovery, and evidence room systems.
Automated classification, entity extraction, pattern detection, and cross-case correlation.
Why it matters: Transforms months of manual document review into days; surfaces critical evidence immediately instead of in backlog sequence.
Addresses forensic lab backlog crisis (4+ year waits documented); reduces document review costs (73% of litigation spend).
Cloudflare Workers deployment delivers sub-50ms response times worldwide.
Why it matters: Distributed investigation teams, multi-agency task forces, and remote attorneys access evidence instantly regardless of location.
Replaces desktop-based tools with cloud-native architecture designed for modern distributed work.
AI detection of PII, faces, plates with complete documentation of redaction decisions.
Why it matters: Transforms weeks of frame-by-frame review into hours; provides defensible record of what was redacted and why.
Addresses FOIA processing burden ($36K/190 hours documented); ensures consistent privacy protection.
Malware scanning, current security libraries, standard exploit mitigations, continuous updates.
Why it matters: Protects infrastructure from compromised evidence; maintains security posture that forensic tools have failed to achieve.
Addresses vulnerabilities documented in Signal/Cellebrite disclosure; prevents evidence from becoming attack vector.
Per-seat licensing with unlimited storage eliminates budget uncertainty.
Why it matters: Agencies can plan budgets without storage cost surprises; storage costs do not dominate program budgets.
Addresses body camera program experience where storage consumed 80% of 5-year costs.
Evidence management handles the most sensitive information. Our architecture implements the controls necessary for your independent certification.
FBI security policy for criminal justice information with 580+ controls corresponding to NIST 800-53. Each tenant is prepared for independent certification.
Built on FedRAMP-authorized Cloudflare infrastructure with security controls mapped to requirements.
Controls implemented for security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality. Each tenant is prepared for independent verification.
International standard for information security management covering risk assessment and control implementation. Controls implemented, ready for independent certification.
European data protection regulation with comprehensive privacy requirements and data subject rights.
A clear path to improving your evidence management capabilities
Full Cloudflare infrastructure for maximum performance and minimal maintenance
Edge nodes with local evidence cache for bandwidth-constrained locations
FedRAMP-aligned deployment for federal requirements
Online certification covering evidence upload, search, review, and collaboration
Certification covering system configuration, user management, and compliance settings
Certification covering AI analysis interpretation, relationship visualization, and reporting