Device-based Evidence Group assignment

Axon Evidence supports two ways to assign an Evidence Group to new evidence at upload time. By default, evidence inherits the Evidence Group from the user who recorded it.

With device-based Group access enabled, evidence inherits the Evidence Group from the Group of the recording device at the time of upload, instead of the recording user's Evidence group. This helps route evidence based on where it was captured.

This option is designed for organizations that manage evidence by physical location, such as multi-site retailers, corrections facilities, and large multi-location organizations.

This feature must be enabled for your organization by an Axon representative.

Background: what is an Evidence Group?

An Evidence Group is a Group attached to a piece of evidence at upload time. It determines which other users can access that evidence through role permissions. Each piece of evidence has one Evidence Group at a time, and each user can be assigned to one Evidence Group at a time.

Evidence Group is the foundation of Group-based evidence access in Axon Evidence:

• A role with an Evidence Management scope of Their Groups' lets the user act on any evidence whose Evidence Group is a Group the user belongs to, in addition to evidence they recorded themselves.

• A role with a scope of Only Their Own restricts the user to evidence they recorded or that's been shared with them.

• A role with a scope of Any Evidence removes the Group constraint and grants access to all unrestricted evidence.

The Evidence Group is mutable. An administrator with the Edit Evidence Group permission can reassign a piece of evidence to a different Group at any time.

Note: Group membership and Evidence Group are different attributes. Group membership says which Groups a user is part of. The Evidence Group on a piece of evidence says which Group the evidence belongs to. Membership is what grants access to a Group's evidence through Their Groups' permissions.

Compare assignment methods

All organizations have Evidence Group by default. Group access can be enabled for your organization by contacting your Axon representative,

A	Evidence inherits Evidence Group from a user	Evidence inherits Evidence Group from the device
Source of the Evidence Group	The recording user's Evidence Group attribute	The recording device's Group
Set at	Upload time	Upload time
If the source has no Group	Evidence has no Evidence Group	Evidence has no Evidence Group
Who it's built for	Organizations where evidence ownership follows the person (units, assignments, teams)	Organizations where evidence ownership follows the location (stores, sites, precincts, facilities)
User's Evidence Group attribute	Used on every upload	Ignored on every upload
Recording user on the evidence record	Always preserved	Always preserved
Editable after upload	Yes, with the Edit Evidence Group permission	Yes, with the Edit Evidence Group permission

Evidence inherits Evidence Group from a user

Each user has an Evidence Group attribute on their profile. Every piece of evidence that user uploads inherits that Group automatically. If a user moves between teams, you update their Evidence Group, and from then on their new uploads route to the new Group. Evidence they recorded before the move stays with their previous Evidence Group.

This model is a good fit when evidence ownership follows people, for example, when a detective's evidence should follow them between unit assignments.

Evidence inherits Evidence Group from the device

Each device can be assigned to one Group or no Group. The device's Group represents the physical location or site where it operates. When a user records evidence on that device, the upload inherits the device's Group as its Evidence Group. The recording user's Evidence Group is ignored.

Key rules:

• New evidence inherits the Evidence Group from the device at the moment of upload.

• If the capturing device isn't assigned to a Group, the evidence is uploaded with no Evidence Group.

• The recording user is still preserved on the evidence record for traceability and performance review.

• If you move a device to a different Group later, only new uploads from that device follow the new Group. Evidence already in the system isn't reassigned.

Why use device-based Evidence Group assignment

Group access is built for organizations whose access boundaries are physical, not personal. Switching to it lets you:

• Keep evidence visible only to the location where it was captured. Evidence stays scoped to the site that owns the camera, regardless of who happened to be wearing it that shift.

• Give local supervisors automatic access to evidence from their site. A store manager added to the store's Group sees every video captured at that store, with no need to keep user-to-store assignments in sync.

• Reduce the admin work of tracking who is assigned where. You don't have to update each user's Evidence Group when staff move between sites for a shift, a transfer, or temporary coverage. The cameras stay at the location. The access stays with the location.

• Stay aligned with how shared-device fleets actually operate. When multiple users sign out the same device across days or shifts, the device's location is a more stable indicator of who should see the evidence than the recording user's current assignment.

Enable device-based Evidence Group assignment

Group access is an internal setting and isn't a self-serve toggle in the admin console. To request it for your organization, contact your Axon representative. The change applies to your whole organization at once.

Before Group access is turned on, do the following:

1. Every device that records evidence must be assigned to the Group that represents its physical location.

2. Every user who needs access at each location must be a member of that location's Group.

3. The roles you use have Their Groups' scopes set on the Evidence Management permissions you want to gate by location.

Transition to device-based Evidence Group assignment

When you transition from Evidence Groups to Group access, plan ahead for the following:

• Existing evidence keeps its current Evidence Group. Evidence already uploaded isn't reassigned. If you need to correct historical evidence, use the Edit Evidence Group permission to update each piece manually.

• Only new uploads use the device-based logic. From the moment the change takes effect, every new piece of evidence is stamped with its capturing device's Group instead of the recording user's Evidence Group.

• Unassigned devices produce evidence with no Evidence Group. Any device that isn't in a Group uploads evidence that no Group-scoped supervisor can access through Their Groups' permissions. Only the recording user and admins with the Any Evidence scope can access it.

• The user's Evidence Group attribute stops affecting new uploads. You can leave the value on user profiles. It has no effect while the new logic is on, but it would become meaningful again if you ever switched back.

• Role permissions continue to work as before. Roles set to Their Groups', Only Their Own, or Any Evidence behave the same way. The only change is in how the Evidence Group is selected at upload time.

• Supervisor access patterns shift from people to places. A supervisor who saw evidence captured by everyone in their unit now sees evidence captured by devices in their Group. Review your device-to-Group assignments and Group memberships before requesting the change.