For the last few blog posts, we have discussed answers to different aspects of the question “What is Case Management”. With the several roles that are involved in controlling and managing components of a Case Management system. Lets discuss a few more:

A couple more roles although tangential come to mind – evidence administrator and records administrator.  Again, neither role may be primary to closing the case; however both can be critical in ensuring that the case is compliant.

The case management system may not and probably should not be the evidence management system; however it should integrate with the evidence management system.  At a minimum, the case agent(s) need to understand the chain of custody of evidence associated with their case.  It would be better if it provided richer features like allowing the case agent to request evidence for charge out, reporting on state of evidence within case, electronic representation of evidence (i.e. picture) or etc.  The evidence administrator ensures that the evidence can be found when it is needed for whatever reason.

The case management system should provide records management services. If deigned correctly, this will be transparent to the case agent.  As you clearly stated in “The People of Case Management”, the system has to make it easy for officers to document their investigation.  The records management system will ensure that the case adheres to the organization’s retention and disposition policies.  The records administrator maintains the file plan with its associated policies and enforces them during the lifecycle of the case.

The evidence and records administrator supports the case agent by ensuring that physical and electronic material is tracked and available during the lifecycle of the case.