Grimes County commissioners approve Evidence.com trial, annex storage change and other operational measures

Grimes County Commissioners Court on Wednesday, May 21 approved a package of operational actions including a limited trial of Evidence.com for digital evidence management, a change order to add an enclosed sign-storage area at the new Justice Center annex, and a revision to the county's pipeline installation permit form.

The court opened with routine consent business and departmental reports before moving to a series of items the judge and commissioners described as intended to improve county operations.

The court voted to approve a trial deployment of Evidence.com, a cloud-based digital-evidence platform, for a test period through September, contingent on the county attorney's confirmation that signing the vendor paperwork for the trial will not bind the county to a five-year contract. Greg Cannon, Grimes County IT director, told the court the system would replace time-consuming DVD and thumb-drive workflows and "literally takes minutes versus hours" to distribute and convert video evidence.

Why it matters: The county and district attorney's offices often exchange large video files for prosecutions; staff said the software could reduce staff time and the risk of unreadable media.

The court also approved a change order to the Justice Center annex to provide climate-controlled storage for county signs that lose their reflectivity once exposed to UV light. Rodney Floyd, facilities manager, said the preferred option is to partition a portion of the annex's voter-storage area with a roll-up door to create sign storage and room…