Search

You can search for notes from either the mobile app or a computer. The available filters are different depending on the experience you use.

Search on mobile

To open Notes Search on mobile, select the magnifying glass icon in the top corner of the screen. In the Notes tab, enter a search term in one of the fields or use the filters and select the blue Search button. (Search is not available if you are offline.)

To search for shift details instead of notes, select Shift, enter a search term in one of the fields or use the filters and select the blue Search button.

From the list of search results, select the filter icon in the top corner of the screen to add additional filters to narrow down the list of search results or select a result to view the note or shift details.

Search on a computer

To search for notes on the computer, select the magnifying glass in the main navigation menu. To run a search, enter names, keywords, or IDs (partial or full) in the top search box. If you enter multiple words, the search results will include all of the words you entered. (i.e., Entering more words decreases the number of search results and entering fewer words increases the number of results.) If you enter a date in the search box, the system will only search for that date in text-based fields. To search by date, instead use a date filter field.

Search results are sorted into three categories: Notes, People, and Files. Each category displays up to three search results. Use the Sorted by menu to change the order in which search results are listed. Select a search result to open the note or profile. Select View all to see all results for that category. To narrow your search to a specific category, select one of the search tabs below the search box. These search tab pages include additional filter fields specific to that category.

Search results

The top portion of each search result shows basic information about the item. The fields displayed on search results vary depending on the category (note, person, etc.). Contact your Axon representative to customize the information displayed in search results.

If the top search box or a free text filter field was used to perform the search, search results also include a Matched on section that indicates why that item appears in the search result list. The terms entered in the search box or text filter appear in purple highlighting on the search results beside the fields in which they were found. If a search term appears multiple times in the search result, select See more matches to view all the fields containing the term.

Select the white area on a search result to open the profile or note for that item. Return to your search results by selecting Go back.

If you instead select blue hyperlink text in the bottom gray area on a search result, that profile opens, as opposed to the profile for the search result. Select the X to close the report and return to your search results. On all search results, these hyperlinks will open a report. When viewing Report search results, you can also select hyperlinks that open person and vehicle profiles if those items are associated with that report.

Search results you have already opened have a gray background. Results you have not yet opened have a white background. This visual quickly tells you which results you have already viewed.

Notes search

To narrow your search to show just Notes (and not people), select the Notes filter button below the search box or select View all notes below the Note category search results. A new page loads and displays the full results list for that category along with a set of filter fields you can use to further refine the results. Select All to return to your initial search and the search results for all categories.

Notes search filters include:

• Date created
• Officers
• Note type

People search

To narrow your search to show just People (and not notes), select the People filter button below the search box or select View all people below the Note category search results. A new page loads and displays the full results list for that category along with a set of filter fields you can use to further refine the results. Select All to return to your initial search and the search results for all categories.

Use the options in the Result settings section at the top of the Filters list to refine which kinds of results are displayed:

• Include similar results: When this setting is turned on, search results include:
  • Phonetic (“sounds like”) results: Search for John includes results for Jon
  • Stemmed results: Searching for walking includes results for walk and walked
  • Results with one letter difference: Searching for Tim includes results for Jim
  • Fields other than name, alias, ID and Date of Birth
• Include old profile versions: When this setting is turned on, Search also looks at older versions of people profiles.
  • If a person’s name has been updated 5 times, results include all old versions of the profile that contain old names, including the latest version with the person’s current name.

Use the Sorted by drop-down menu to set the order in which search results are shown:

• Relevance: This is the default sort order.
• Last Updated (Newest to Oldest)
• Last Updated (Oldest to Newest)
• Last Name, First Name (A to Z)
• Last Name, First Name (Z to A)

Open the Actions menu to export your search results to a CSV file. This file includes ALL search results. In other words, if you selected any checkboxes beside any search results, the export will include all search results and not just those that have been selected.

Files

The Files tab shows documents that have been uploaded to Axon Evidence. When you enter a search term or terms in the top search box, the text of all uploaded documents is searched, and results containing that word are displayed. This includes documents that were created from Axon Records reports, documents attached to Axon Records reports, as well as any other documents that have been uploaded to Axon Evidence.

Instead of opening each document to look for names, addresses, or keywords, you can use the top search box to search across all documents and select a search result to open that file's Evidence details page in Axon Evidence. The search bar on the Document tab is auto-filled with the search term(s) you entered in Axon Records and the list of matching results where that term(s) was found in the document is displayed.

Document text search is available with a Pro license. It only applies to documents uploaded after this feature is enabled for your organization. For most organizations, this will be enabled the last week of March 2026. Customers may request a one-time backfill priced based on document volume by contacting an Axon representative.

Your search results in Axon Records are restricted to the documents you have permission to view. For example, if you have the Axon Evidence permission to view Confidential Evidence, documents categorized as Confidential Evidence will appear in your search results. See User access to evidence and user permissions for more information.

How it works

Axon Evidence extracts readable text from supported documents when they are uploaded. That text becomes searchable across evidence you have permission to access.

You can search text in:

• PDF (.pdf) files
• Word (.docx) files

Document text search works on:

• Digitally created documents
• Scanned documents with readable typed text

For best results, documents should contain:

• Clear, legible typed text
• Text that is at least 8-point font size
• Pages that are not blurry, distorted, or affected by heavy bleed-through

See Search text in documents for more information about using document text search in Axon Evidence.

Profiles

A note's profile includes all information associated with the note, including the contents of the original note and any supplements that have been created for it. The profile also displays any people, vehicles, and files that have been added to the note and its supplements.

The layout of a note profile is different depending on whether you view it on mobile or on a computer.

Mobile notes

On mobile, the order in which information on a note profile is presented varies depending on whether you are opening the original note or one of its supplement notes.

If you open an original note that contains supplements, the contents of the original note, along with any people, vehicles, and files added to the note appear at the top. Any supplements that were created after the note was finalized appear at the bottom. Select View note to view all content in the supplement notes. If the latest supplement is still in progress, you can instead select Write note to view and continue working on it.

When you open a supplement note on mobile, the sections for the supplement appear at the top of the screen, and the original note, plus any other supplements appear at the bottom. Select View note to view all content in the original note or any of the supplement notes.

Select More actions [...] to view or update shift details for the note.

Computer notes

On a computer, the contents of all notes, including the original note and any supplements are complied into a single view. The sections on this profile include:

1. Basic note information: Author, date updated, and an Actions menu with options:
   • Create supplement: This option can't be selected if the note's latest supplement is in progress. Scroll down to the Notes Reports section to open the supplement.
   • Print note
   • Prepare note for sharing
   • Manage restrictions
2. Notes: Displays the contents of the original note, followed by any supplements that have been created.
3. Names: Displays any people that were added to the original note or its supplements.
4. Note reports: Displays the Note IDs for the original note and each supplement. Select a Note ID to open the note and view or edit it (if it hasn't yet been finalized).