Sole Source Digital Evidence Solution for Assigned Counsel Plan Attorneys

As the Agency Chief Contracting Officer of the Mayor s Office of Contract Justice (MOCJ), I have determined, pursuant to §3-05(b)(1) and (2) of the Procurement Policy Board Rules, that NICE Defense (Sourcing EPIN: 12826Y0010) is the first and only source of a comprehensive digital evidence and digital discovery solution for New York City s Assigned Counsel Plan (ACP) attorneys.

In addition, MOCJ will release a Notice of Intent in City Record in order to assess market availability to confirm NICE Defense as the only source to provide these services. The anticipated total contract value is $2,990,012 for services over a period of three City Fiscal Years ( CFY s), beginning November 1, 2025, and ending June 30, 2028, with one option to renew for three years.

NICE Defense will develop a cloud-based, SaaS software that collects, analyzes, and shares digital evidence from all sources. This enables a complete, fast, and secure exchange of information for all ACP panel members. NICE Defense has submitted a sole source letter confirming these services and their proprietary software to carry them out. NICE Systems, Inc.

is the manufacturer and a sole provider of NICE Defense software - the first and only comprehensive digital evidence and digital discovery solution that automates and expedites the entire process from incident to court through the power of digital transformation.

While other solutions attempt to improve a segment of the process or simply take numerous manual and time-consuming tasks into the cloud, NICE solutions stand unrivaled in the scope of their completeness, intelligence and automation.

As further detailed herein, NICE Defense is uniquely positioned to provide these needed services to ACP given (1) its exceptional command and familiarity with NYC s criminal justice system data(NICE Systems Inc. has recorded 911 calls in New York City for more than 25 years and, as a result, has extensive familiarity with the City s criminal justice system data.

In addition, four of the five District Attorney s offices currently use NICE software. Over the past three years, NICE has collaborated closely with NYPD, further deepening this expertise.) and (2) the proprietary software they use to develop the infrastructure and data capacity MOCJ seeks. Background Historically, ACP panel members are given discovery materials in a piece meal fashion.

The data (police reports, body worn camera footage, surveillance footage, forensic evidence) is obtained from a myriad of sources. When shared by prosecutors to defense counsel, it is not labeled and not organized. Reviewing vast amounts of discovery materials is a laborious process that takes hundreds of hours.

Using software that organizes and labels the discovery as well as providing the ability to simultaneously review multiple videos will save thousands of hours of soul crushing work and millions of dollars. Users can currently search by keyword in documents, OCR-processed images, and transcriptions. Keyword search within videos is not yet available.

However, if Body-Worn Camera (BWC) audio is transcribed, users can perform keyword searches within the transcript. This allows them to identify precisely where in the video a keyword (e.g., gun ) appears. NICE Defense Uniquely Streamlined, Rapid Journey of All Digital Evidence from Creation to Court.

No other solution on the market provides a comprehensive, evidence collection and automated case building option, leveraging a custom integration with the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice s case management system. Over the past two years, NICE has participated in numerous meetings with ACP staff, MOCJ s IT Department, and ACP Cases developer, Arbola.

These sessions have been both informational and collaborative. NICE has developed an understanding of ACP Cases framework and is well positioned to support the secure sharing of data from the District Attorneys offices to 18b panel members.

Regardless of the source and format of each evidence item (video, documents, images and more), NICE Defense provides universal, standardized viewing and playback; no need to search for countless video players and codecs. The only DEMS solution with a complete built-in set of digital evidence analysis and discovery tools as a powerful aid in review and preparation of evidence for discovery and exhibits in courts.

Integrated tools include (but are not limited to) redaction for privacy compliance, media compilation for the creation of video clips/snapshots, transcription & translation of audio/video files, photobooks and media albums as exhibits for courts, and AI enhanced timeline reconstruction.

Robust, end-to-end chain of custody is automatically generated and reported throughout the journey of every single evidence item, ensuring admissibility of exhibits in courts as well as adherence to policies throughout the entire journey of evidence and cases. The Assigned Counsel Plan attorneys will be able to transform their laborious evidence processing into swift digital cases and evidence intelligence.

Because of the unique design and established contracts with the City of NY, the NICE Defense solution enables a uniform process of evidence collection from the NYC District Attorney s Offices, clients, and expert witnesses in which the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice receives cases from.

Evidence is automatically organized and standardized for synchronized viewing and playback regardless of evidence sources or file formats using NICE s proprietary video processing tools. Defense staff will be able to rapidly assemble and share evidence, with increased level of confidence in its completeness.

Evidence shared to Clients and other 3rd parties is sent in a viewable and downloadable format automatically, which minimizes follow-up communications related to access and viewing of evidence. Built-in transcription and translation services (over 180 languages) for audio and video evidence expedite the preparation of exhibits for court - a rare functionality in a DEMS solution.

CMS Integration Due to NICE s work with multiple Public Defender offices throughout the country, NICE has experience building unique, specific integration with a variety of case management systems. With a bi-directional connection, NICE can pull data from and insert a link into NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice s case management system.

Once an attorney would like to open a case in NICE, they simply click on the menu link, and the CMS communicates with NICE Justice via middleware designed and developed by NICE. Then, a case is created within NICE, and NICE will then begin looking in other integrated source systems for relevant data to automate the collection of digital evidence.

NICE is the only digital evidence management solution that builds these custom interfaces for all case management systems. Summary NICE is uniquely qualified and equipped to help the NYC Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice improve efficiency and streamline the sharing and processing of digital evidence between the defense council, county DA s, Law Enforcement agencies, and courts.

With NICE Defense, significant time and process improvements are realized through the transformation of highly manual tasks and processes into rapid, automated, auditable workflows that otherwise would not be possible. ACP evaluated both Axxon Video Management System and JusticeText , but were not chosen as they lack the proprietary software, experience and capacity NICE has.

Plus NICE solutions stand unrivaled in the scope of their completeness, intelligence and automation. Ultimately, NICE was chosen because of its widespread adoption: four of the five District Attorneys offices (all except Staten Island) and most institutional defenders have signed contracts with NICE.

Both prosecutors and defense providers concluded that NICE offers the most robust software and platform for managing discovery materials. Agency: Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Status: Intent to Award