PCC Angelique Foster has awarded the £2.2m contract to Axon to deliver the system within a five-year period.

A Digital Evidence Management System (DEMS) is designed to collect, store and share digital evidence. 

Derbyshire’s new system will be able to share digital evidence with the CPS on a 24/7 basis. It will also make it easier to gather CCTV evidence from privately owned systems - without needing to use a USB or portable device. 

Control of the evidence, however, will remain with the force and shared via a link to avoid making copies.

They are not the only force moving to a DEMS. In January, Lancashire launched their “Constabulary Community Panel” - an addition to their NICE Investigate DEMS which allows local businesses and councils to register their CCTV cameras and speed up the process of passing on evidence. 

Meanwhile, last November, the IOPC moved to the same system to improve file sharing between forces and the CPS. 

Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster said: "I fully support this type of investment. Technology is critical to the Constabulary's ability to solve investigations and bring criminals to justice, making it imperative that officers have the latest, most efficient systems available.  The DEMS system will speed up investigations, reduce the amount of officer time involved, enable easier and shared access to files which ultimately will provide victims with a better service."

The contract will begin this September.  

PCC Foster has said, as with many forces, Derbyshire is experiencing a huge increase in the amount of digital evidence - with more than 20 sources including body worn video, crime scene photos and interview recordings. 

She has also recently funded a dashcam evidence staff role to manage evidence coming through there.