Peoria County approves five Axon Evidence licenses for guardian ad litem attorneys

The Peoria County Operations Committee on Oct. 28 voted unanimously to approve a resolution adding five Axon Evidence cloud licenses for the county's contractual guardian ad litem attorneys.

Court administration staff said the licenses will give the five guardian ad litem attorneys direct, cloud-based access to discovery in juvenile abuse-and-neglect cases. Mark Little, court administration, explained the product is already used by the State's Attorney's Office and the Public Defender's Office and that guardian ad litem attorneys currently must download large amounts of discovery to personal devices or external drives.

"They can receive, like, 10 links in a week for their cases for discovery," Gabe said. "This causes them to spend hours and hours because this can include hundreds of documents with thousands of pages and hours of video." Gabe added that real-time cloud access will speed searches and make it more likely attorneys can review discovery before hearings.

Committee members expressed two central concerns: assignment and cost. Member Phelan asked whether licenses would be shared; Gabe said each license would be dedicated to an attorney but could be transferred if that attorney left. Member Daley noted the county's growing software costs and said she hopes efficiency gains could reduce staff time or FTE needs.

The request was presented as a security as well as efficiency measure. Gabe said juvenile records are confidential and continuing to download discovery onto unknown devices risks data loss or breach: "My personal device could be hacked, and all this information can get out there." The committee accepted the resolution and approved it by unanimous vote.

Votes at a glance: the motion to place the Axon Evidence license resolution on the floor was moved by Member Elsasser and seconded by Dr. Boyer; the committee approved the resolution unanimously.