The central falls detention facility corporation proposes to implement project deep: digital evidence to enhance practices

The Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation was awarded a $350,000 Project Grant by the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) under the Body Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (CFDA 16.835). The grant, titled "Project DEEP: Digital Evidence to Enhance Practices", will be used to expand and enhance the facility's body-worn camera program. Key objectives include upgrading body-worn camera equipment, improving digital evidence management, and developing enhanced employee performance and training practices. The project aims to increase the quality, reliability, and utilization of digital evidence, optimize the availability of evidence for legal outcomes, and improve employee performance and de-escalation success rates. The 3-year grant period runs from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2027.

The purpose of the project is to expand and enhance the current body-worn camera program at the facility and rebuild its digital evidence management to achieve further improvements in employee performance, constitutional policing, and facility/community safety practices. The design of the project will take a research-to-practice approach by analyzing evidence to develop policy, procedure, and training recommendations as the foundation for continual process improvements to the operational environment. The first goal of project deep will be to (1) upgrade the facilitys BWC equipment to enhance quality, reliability, efficiency, and utility of available evidence and expand use of bwcs to new categories of employees. The second goal of the project is to leverage an upgraded and expanded body-worn camera program to (2) further develop and enhance digital evidence management and employee performance and training practices. The project will establish a stakeholder advisory group to inform the practice area of digital evidence management regarding procedures for integrating digital evidence sharing activities with criminal justice partners. The project will also establish an evidence review team to inform the practice area of employee performance and training by evaluating DE-escalation and policy compliance scenarios. Evidence generated from the scenarios or other incidents will be integrated and utilized as training tools for current employee and academy trainings. Project deep expects the outcomes of increased quality, reliability, efficiency, and utilization of digital evidence; improved digital evidence management; optimized availability of digital evidence to achieve just legal outcomes; enhanced training tools for employees resulting in improved employee performance metrics; increased success rates of DE-escalations; and a decrease in deviations from body-worn camera program policy and procedures. Achieving these outcomes will result in increased equity, safety, and transparency for detainees and employees, as well as evidentiary support for prosecutors and the overall facility community. Subrecipient activities will include train-the-trainer technical assistance regarding new equipment and establishing data collection protocols as well as dissemination of best practices to the grants training and technical assistance provider, and procurement of new equipment.