Cabinet and folder overview

Cabinets and folders in Evidence Local are tools for organizing, managing, and applying rules to evidence. Administrators can use cabinets and folders together or independently to control evidence access, set retention policies, and define workflows. Learn more about how to set up cabinets and folders.

Cabinets

Cabinets are the highest level of virtual containers in Evidence Local, used to group and manage folders in a logical hierarchy. Cabinets provide broad management capabilities, allowing you to:

  • Apply access controls, retention policies, and post-retention workflows to multiple folders at once.
  • Enable workflows to transfer files to another cabinet, folder, or location when their retention period ends.
  • Allow access to the cabinet through the "Send To" option, available in the More actions (...) menu on the Evidence page, for quick file transfers.

Using cabinets to organize folders into logical groups streamlines folder management and ensures consistent application of policies. Cabinets are especially useful for managing large or complex evidence systems by providing centralized control over related folders.

Folders

Folders are virtual containers designed to categorize evidence files. They provide more granular control at the folder level and can be used to:

  • Manage metadata, retention policies, and access controls.
  • Automatically route files into folders using association rules based on specific metadata.

When used with cabinets, folders can inherit cabinet-level policies such as retention and access controls, ensuring consistency across the hierarchy. Folders can also be used independently when a simple structure is sufficient.

Use cabinets and folders together

Best practices recommend using cabinets and folders together:

  1. Organize evidence: Use cabinets to group related folders, such as by department or division, and use folders for finer categorization, like case or incident type.
  2. Automate processes: Create association rules to route files automatically into folders based on metadata, and link those folders to cabinets for inherited polices.
  3. Streamline retention and access: Apply retention policies and access controls at the cabinet level to ensure consistency across folders and files.

Example cabinet and folder scenarios

Scenario 1: Organize evidence by divisions

In this example, a police department wants to organize evidence files by division to streamline access and retention management. The administrator creates two cabinets:

  • Patrol division
    • Includes folders like "Traffic stops" and "Routine patrol reports."
    • A post-retention workflow moves files to an "Archived patrol cases" folder.
  • Investigation division
    • Includes folders like "Homicide cases," "Fraud investigations," and "Narcotics cases."
    • A post-retention workflow transfers files to an "Archived investigations" cabinet.

Officers and supervisors access evidence relevant to their division. Retention policies ensure evidence in each cabinet is stored for the appropriate duration, and workflows automatically archive files when the retention period ends, freeing up active storage while maintaining compliance.

Scenario 2: Automate evidence organization

In this example, an organization wants to reduce manual effort in assigning evidence files to folders. The administrator creates association rules that automatically organize files into the correct cabinet and folder based on metadata:

  • Files tagged with Traffic are routed to the "Traffic stops" folder within the "Patrol division" cabinet.
  • Files tagged with Homicide are routed to the "Homicide cases" folder in the "Investigations division" cabinet.

When evidence is uploaded, it is automatically categorized into the appropriate folder based on its metadata. This ensures consistent organization without requiring manual assignments.

Scenario 3: Reset permissions for a cabinet

In this example, a department updates its access policies for the "Investigation division" cabinet to align with new organizational rules. The administrator uses the Reset Security feature on the cabinet to:

  • Reapply cabinet-level permissions to all folders and files.
  • Ensure any custom permission on folders or files are overridden with the new cabinet permissions.

All files and folders within the cabinet now follow the updated security rules. Accurate access is maintained, while outdated or misconfigured permissions are corrected, ensuring compliance and consistency.