Disclosure portal

The Justice disclosure portal facilitates the disclosure of digital evidence from prosecutors to defenders.

Disclosure portal overview

The disclosure portal addresses several requirements for sharing digital evidence in the cloud:

• It creates a read-only workspace to view and download evidence in the cloud.
• It creates a read-only workspace that upstream offices can’t track. This protects prosecution defense work product.
• It offers access to the case file for a limited period of time. Defenders have the option to upgrade to paid plans to store their cases for an unlimited period of time and access other key Axon Justice products.

To activate the disclosure portal, contact your Axon representative. They can set up single or multiple instances. An administrator in the jurisdiction is required to own and operate the portal(s), and is responsible for:

• Adding users
• Deactivating users
• Reassigning cases
• Configuring partner access
• Configuring user roles

After the portal instances are created and users are added, Axon Justice customers can use the partner share method to disclose cases. This minimizes the use of download links and speeds up the process.

Roles and permissions

Two new user roles, Admin and User, facilitate sharing of data in the disclosure portal.

Admin role

The Admin Role can create users, access all cases and evidence, and reassign cases as the defense counsel changes. However, they don't have access to work products for end users of the portal, including audit trail.

Note: Admins have the ability to configure certain permissions, but many permissions are not accessible from here. For more information on permissions, refer to Roles and Permissions.

User role

The User Role, for the most common users, can only see cases and evidence specifically assigned to them. They have no access to other data in the Disclosure Portal.

Users can share evidence they’ve received via a download link to other parties as needed. Work product is protected with this role in its creation of a read-only workplace.

Once users are invited, they can create a password and sign in to receive cases. It’s recommended that they bookmark the portal’s URL for access later.

Some factors to consider when creating a role

• Disclosure Portal instances automatically include both admin and user roles; you can’t create or duplicate additional roles in the Disclosure Portal.
• Each role offers a simplified permissions configuration experience compared to the experience in Axon Evidence. Within the available permissions, there is a default setting for the most common use cases seen across jurisdictions. However, admins can update permissions in both roles based on the requirements of their jurisdiction.

Upon signing in, users are able to:

• View cases with limited metadata
• Access evidence with limited metadata
• Download all evidence
• Share information internally with other users
• View case and evidence audit trails
• Reset their password

The following actions are not available to users:

• They can’t store evidence indefinitely
• They can’t unable to write notes
• They can’t create clips or redactions
• They can’t see disclosure statuses
• They can’t send partner shares

Best practices

Enabling the disclaimer feature for each portal instance is recommended. By enabling this feature, each user will see the legal disclaimer when they sign in. They must agree to the disclaimer before accessing the portal. Admins can enable this legal information from the agency settings admin panel.

FAQ for non-Axon partners (disclosure portal users)

How long do I have access to each case and evidence?

Evidence remains accessible in the disclosure portal is 90 days from the last shared date. This date is recalculated if additional evidence is received during the 90-day period. If 90 days elapse and no additional evidence is received, the case and evidence are deleted.

What happens after the 90 days?

The media is deleted but the case record remains. Be sure to save the evidence before retention ends.

What happens if I need access after the 90-day period?

Contact the sender and request a download link.

Can the administrator see my work product?

No. Administrators can see all cases but do not have access to the evidence audit trail, user audit trail, or case audit trail.

What if I want to upgrade?

Contact sales if you want to upgrade to paid tiers with more functionality. Migrating data from your disclosure portal to a paid plan is not available at this time.

How do I reassign a case to a different counsel?

There are three (3) ways to reassign a case to a different counsel. The administrator can reassign the case, a user can add a member of the disclosure portal to the case, or a user can send a download link.

FAQ for Axon Justice Partners

What happens if the admin gets locked out?

Contact Axon support to restore admin status.

What happens if our admin leaves the organization?

Contact Axon support to add a new admin.

Can I send more evidence after the 90-day period?

If no evidence is sent within the 90-day period for each case, then you will have to send a download link.

Can I send the same case to a different user on the disclosure portal?

No. Once the relationship from a case is set to a disclosure portal instance, you cannot reassign from your side. An admin of the disclosure portal will need to reassign.

Can I change the 90-day period?

No. 90 days is a fixed time and requires an Axon software update for any changes.