Digitizing evidence for environmental enforcement
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria is stepping up its fight against environmental offences. Learn how the agency is now responding to waste crimes faster and streamlining investigations—keeping its people and places protected.
The company
Environment Protection Authority Victoria (EPA) is the environmental regulator in Victoria, Australia. Established in 1971, the EPA is tasked with preventing and reducing the harmful effects of pollution and waste on Victoria’s people and places. In short, the EPA enforces Victoria's environmental laws and issues strong sanctions to hold polluters accountable.
The challenge
Despite following best practices in evidence management, the EPA struggled to distribute footage and images securely to key stakeholders. The EPA was storing evidence on multiple devices and platforms. At times, this hindered workflows and made it hard for teams to keep track of evidence. Plus, the EPA needed to ensure that all evidence was fully encrypted for privacy compliance and reliability during enforcement actions.
The solution
Streamlined investigations
The EPA has centralized its investigations with the Genetec Clearance™ evidence management system. Officers can now review and manage evidence from multiple internal support functions, all within a single system.
Faster waste crime response
Once evidence has been gathered, officers can quickly and securely upload footage and images and attach them to the relevant case. This ensures a secure chain of custody.
Easier evidence collection
The Clearance system encrypts evidence to meet the highest security standards. The EPA can also set access policies to approve Clearance users and control what they can see and do within the system.
More secure collaboration
Clearance encrypts evidence to meet the highest security standards. The EPA can also set access policies to control who uses Clearance and what they can see and do within the system.
The EPA needed a simple, secure way to manage evidence. The Clearance system helps the agency handle a high volume of complex data from various sources. With this actionable evidence, the EPA can prevent and tackle more environmental crimes in Victoria.
Results
Since transitioning to the Clearance system, the EPA can more easily manage its investigations. EPA officers can now upload video evidence from Genetec™ Security Center into Clearance and share it with authorized individuals. This consolidated system helps them securely capture, manage, and review evidence of environmental crimes across the state, within a single ecosystem.