Harvey County attorney proposes Gardify evidence-management purchase to handle growing digital case data

Harvey County n attorney told commissioners Dec. 23 the county is approaching unsustainable volumes of digital evidence in the prosecutor n case-management system (PBK) and proposed buying Gardify, a cloud-based evidence-management system with AI tools to speed transcript creation and visual/audio searches.

County Attorney Heather Figger said PBK showed about 3 terabytes of evidence in June, about 5 terabytes now and an estimate of 7.5 terabytes by next summer, and that anticipated PBK storage fees could exceed $7,000 in coming months. She told the board Gardify offered a first-year discounted price of $10,423.67 and that the office could use 2025 salary savings to pay the initial fee while building the cost into future budgets.

Figger addressed security questions: she said Gardify is CJIS-compliant and does not "train their AI based on anything that we submit at all," and that evidence remains the county's property while Gardify stores and offers AI-assisted search and transcription features.

Commissioners sought time to review the contract paperwork. Staff noted that under county purchasing policy purchases below $15,000 can proceed without a formal competitive process, but several commissioners said they preferred to see written agreements and budget implications before approving a new recurring expense.

The county did not make a formal vote on the purchase at the Dec. 23 meeting; staff said they would provide paperwork and return with a recommendation.