Seals

Axon Records has two mechanisms for clearing information from a person's record:

  • Sealing: Hiding information
  • Expunging: Permanently deleting information

When sealing or expunging, you can hide/delete entire incidents or parts of the incident, such as PII, arrests, or charges. You can also seal or expunge standalone reports other than incident reports, such as Field Interviews, Citations, etc.

Both sealing and expunging can only be performed as mandated by a court order. Seals can be lifted (temporarily made visible) or removed entirely, but expunged information is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

If information instead needs to be hidden from general Axon Records users, rather than being cleared from a person's record, the restriction functionality should be used.

When a seal is applied to an incident, a non-incident report, or sections of a report, the sealed information is hidden from general users. Seals do not delete the data and can be lifted or removed at any time by a highly authorized individual under a court order.

Users must have specific privileges to apply, lift, and remove seals. All actions related to seals are tracked in the audit log.

Sealed incidents and reports still appear in Search results, but banners appear indicating that they have been sealed. When portions of an incident or report are sealed, an orange banner appears at the top of the incident profile or report, notifying users that portions of the incident are sealed.
The image shows two areas where information has been sealed: an incident profile and a Field Interview report. At the top of both images, a warning bar states that some information has been sealed.

When an entire incident or report is sealed, users can only see the Incident or Report ID. Users with the appropriate privileges see the option to lift the seal.
The image shows two screenshots indicating that an incident and a report have been sealed. The first image displays the incident number with a red Sealed label. The second image shows the report number with the message This report is sealed. Both images provide the option to lift the seal.

Apply seal

Seals can be applied to incidents or standalone reports, such as Field Interviews. An incident can only be sealed once all reports in the incident are finalized. Similarly, a standalone report must also be finalized before it can be sealed.

To apply a new seal:

  1. Open the incident profile or report and select More Actions > Manage Seals.
    • If a standalone report is linked to an incident, the Manage Seals option does NOT appear in the report's More Actions menu. The report can instead be sealed from the incident profile.
      The image shows two layered screenshots. The top image is an incident profile. At the top, basic details about the incident are displayed. The More Actions dropdown is expanded, highlighting the Manage Seals option. The bottom image shows a Field Interview Report. The More Actions dropdown is expanded, highlighting the Manage Seals option.
  2. Select New Seal.
    The image shows the Manage Seals pane. It indicates that there are no existing seals on the incident. A highlighted New Seal button is available for adding a seal, and a Done button is located at the bottom right.
  3. Use the checkboxes to select information to include in the seal (entire incident/document, people, vehicles, property ,etc.).
    • The options include all people, vehicles, evidence files, property items, etc. that have been added to all the reports associated with the incident.
    • If you select a person, you can specify whether you want to seal all information about the person, personally identifying information (PII), arrest information, or specific charges. PII includes a person's identity, aliases, identifying documents, and contact information.
  4. Enter a Court Order number.
  5. Select Next.
    The image shows the Seal Incident window, where the user is selecting the scope of information to be sealed. Several options are listed, including the entire incident, individuals, vehicles, properties, and evidence attachments. The Person field is expanded, with the option to seal the entire person or specific information, such as personally identifying information or various arrests. A court order number field is also available at the top. The user can proceed to the next step by clicking the Next button at the bottom right.
  6. Redact the narratives associated with the incident to remove all content related to the information you are sealing. The original narrative will be preserved and can be viewed if the seal is lifted or removed.
    • If the incident contains multiple narratives, switch between them using the large blue and white buttons.
    • Select Redact Narrative to use the Redact Text tool to quickly redact text in bulk.
    • When sealing an entire incident, this step does not appear because the entire incident, including all narrative text, will be sealed in its entirety.
  7. Select Review when you are finished redacting the narratives.
    The image shows the Review Narratives section of the Sealing process. On the left, a list of narratives is displayed, and one is selected for review. The selected narrative is displayed in the main section, where the user can redact portions using the provided toolbar. The highlighted Redact Narrative button allows for bulk redaction, and a Review button at the bottom right allows the user to proceed to the next step. The Back button is also available for returning to the previous step.
  8. Review the information that will be sealed, as indicated by the Seal Status column. Select Apply Seal to place the seal. If you need to make changes, select Back.
    The image shows the Review Seals interface, listing entities related to the incident, including people, vehicles, property, and narratives. The Seal Status column indicates whether each entity will be sealed or not sealed. At the bottom, there are options to go back or apply the seals using the Apply Seal button.

Redact Text tool

When sealing portions of an incident or report, you can quickly redact text that appears multiple times throughout a narrative (e.g., the name of a person). To open the tool, select Redact Narrative.

When the tool opens, the text of the original narrative displays on the left, and the text of the redacted narrative displays on the right. The tool automatically suggests words that may need to be redacted. These words are highlighted in purple on the left, and the suggested text to replace these words is highlighted in green on the right.

Suggestions are based on the seal scope selected at the beginning of the Apply seal workflow. For example, if you select a person from the list, suggestions in the Redact Text tool automatically include all person names that appear in the narrative.
The image shows the Redact Text interface, displaying the original text on the left and the redacted text on the right. Personal information such as names, dates, and locations has been replaced with generic placeholders like Person1, Date Time1, and Address1 in the redacted version. Below, a table lists the original text alongside the redacted version for each entity, categorized as Person. Options to edit or delete the redacted entries are available. Pagination controls are shown to navigate through multiple pages, and buttons for canceling or saving the redaction are located at the bottom.

The table below the text summarizes each suggestion:

  • Original text: The text that appears in the original narrative
  • Redacted text: The text that will appear to users who view the sealed narrative
  • Entity category: The type of text. Options include:
    • Address
    • Age
    • Bank Account Number
    • Date Time
    • Drivers License Number
    • Email
    • Individual Taxpayer Identification
    • Officer
    • Organization
    • Person
    • Phone Number
    • Social Security Number
    • Subject
    • Witness

Select the pencil icon to edit the suggestion or the trash can icon to remove it.

To create a new redaction item, select Add New.
The image shows the section of the Redact Text interface where original text is paired with its redacted version. The table lists three entries under Original Text, Redacted Text, and Entity Category. Each entry includes options to edit or delete the redaction. At the top right of the table, there is an option to add a new entry, labeled Add New. Pagination controls at the bottom allow navigation between pages of entries.

After completing all redactions, select Save Redaction at the bottom of the screen to return to the Apply seal workflow.

Lift seal

To temporarily view sealed information, you can lift a seal, which requires a court order number. When you lift a seal, you can only view the sealed information while you remain on the screen that contains the information. If you refresh the page or navigate away then return to the page, you will again need to lift the seal to view the information.

Lifting a seal only reveals information to the user who lifts the seal; it is not visible to other users, even if they are currently viewing that same incident or report. To lift a seal:

  1. Open the incident or report and select Lift Seal.
  2. Enter a Court Order number and reason for lifting the seal then select Lift Seal.
    The image shows several layered screenshots. Two of them show the orange banner that appears at the top of an incident profile and report. The banner indicates that some information has been sealed, with an option to lift the seal. The third image shows a dialog box for lifting the seal, asking for the court order number and the reason for lifting the seal, with a button to lift the seal.

The orange banner at the top of the screen indicates that you are viewing the contents of a sealed document. If the seal covered a property item, vehicle, or an entire person, a red eye icon displays beside sealed information. (Partially sealed people do not display this icon.)

If you navigate away or refresh the page, the seal is re-applied and you will again need to lift it in order to view the sealed information.
The image shows two screenshots of an incident and a report. Both have an orange banner at the top of their respective screens indicating that the user is viewing the contents of a sealed document. In each image a person is marked as having been sealed with a red lock icon.

Remove seal

Removing a seal permanently makes previously sealed information visible to all users (unless the seal is later re-applied).

To remove a seal:

  1. Follow the steps outlined in the previous section to first lift the seal.
  2. Select Actions > Manage Seals.
    The image shows two layered screenshots. The top image is an incident profile with an orange banner that indicates the incident has been sealed. The More Actions dropdown is expanded, highlighting the Manage Seals option. The bottom image shows a Field Interview Report with an orange banner that indicates the incident has been sealed. The More Actions dropdown is expanded, highlighting the Manage Seals option.
  3. Select Remove Seal on the seal you wish to remove.
  4. Enter a Court Order number and reason for removing the seal.
  5. Select Remove Seal.
    The image shows the Manage Seals interface. The current seal is displayed with details such as the scope (which includes a person and a vehicle), the court order number, the seal date, and the person who applied the seal. A highlighted Remove Seal button allows the user to remove the seal. On the right, the Remove Seal dialog box is shown, where the user can enter the court order number and provide a reason for removing the seal. A button at the bottom allows the removal of the seal once the required information is entered.
  6. The orange banner disappears from the top of the screen, and all information associated with the incident will again be visible to all users.

Audit log

Seal-related events appear in the audit log for users, reports, and incidents. (If a case has been created for the incident, seal events appear in the incident audit log, as opposed to the case audit log.)

The following events appear in the log:

  • Seal Document
  • Seal Partial Incident
  • Seal Incident
  • Lift Seal
  • View Seal Summary
  • Remove Seal

Each event includes the following information:

  • User who took the action
  • Date and time the action was taken
  • Report or Incident ID
  • Court Order Number
  • For Lift and Remove activities: Reason for lifting or removing the seal

For more information about accessing audit logs, see Audit Log Tool.