District attorney seeks discussion on moving discovery storage to evidence.com; court asks for vendor briefing

District Attorney Glenn Harwood briefed the Midland County Commissioners Court on March 3 about a proposal to migrate discovery storage and discovery-management workflows to evidence.com, the Axon-hosted platform used by many law-enforcement agencies.

Harwood said the county’s growing volume of digital evidence (body cameras, dash cams, phone extractions) has increased storage and labor costs for the district attorney’s office. "It's going to be just over $100,000 a year for the software," Harwood said, adding that using evidence.com could save staff time by avoiding repeated downloads and uploads between local systems and defense counsel.

An IT representative agreed the county’s storage needs are increasing and described permanent retention requirements for some evidence; staff noted other Texas counties are using evidence.com and that the county’s sheriff and police departments already use Axon-based systems. The district attorney said he does not seek an immediate funding decision but requested dialog and a vendor presentation to the court and IT to evaluate costs, data access, and security.

Why it matters: Moving discovery to a vendor-hosted platform would change how the county stores and shares evidence, carry recurring software costs, and affect defense access to discovery files; commissioners asked for more detail before any budget commitment.

What’s next: County IT and the district attorney will arrange vendor briefings and additional cost/benefit information for commissioners before adding a budget item.