If you work investigations today, you have probably felt the shift even if no one has named it. A warrant return arrives as a multi gigabyte PDF instead of a few pages. A batch of jail calls appears in your inbox before you have finished the last one. A phone extraction stalls your computer. A single case generates more digital material in a week than older cases generated in months.

These moments add up to one clear reality.

Evidence load did not just increase. It exploded past the limits of the workflow built to handle it.

If you feel those things, welcome to the era of Big Evidence.

What Big Evidence Actually Means

Big Evidence is not just a large collection of files. It is the point where the volume, variety, and speed of digital evidence surpass what a traditional human centered workflow can reasonably process. It is evidence that grows faster than your available hours. It is evidence that arrives fragmented across many formats. It is evidence that contains the answers but hides them inside overwhelming scale.

Digital evidence is also now present in about 90 percent of criminal cases, according to recent reporting in Police Chief Magazine. The average case has five devices and 60 hours of material to review. And as a result, 70% of investigators tell Police1 they don’t have enough time to go through all their digital evidence. 

That means nearly every investigation today involves digital material that is more complex and more demanding than workflows originally designed for it. And investigators aren’t keeping up. 

Most agencies are already operating in this reality, even if they have not started calling it by name.

What Big Evidence Looks Like in Real Cases

Across the country, the size of digital evidence has expanded far beyond what most investigative teams were built to manage. Industry research highlights steady growth in body worn cameras, in car video systems, and digital evidence management platforms.

Agencies are generating more video, audio, and digital media than many back end systems were originally designed to support.

On the ground, that trend shows up in cases like these examples from real cases worked with Longeye:

• More than three thousand hours of jail calls spread across four thousand files in a cold case review

• Sixteen thousand pages in a single social media warrant return

• A one terabyte device extraction filled with years of messages, photos, and app data

• Hundreds of multilingual calls needing rapid triage

In some departments, the daily output of calls alone can consume more than a year of listening time for a single investigator. This pattern appears across agencies of every size, from small municipal departments to large county sheriff offices.

The trend is unmistakable. Evidence volume is rising faster than the capacity to handle it.

How Cases Lose Momentum

Cases rarely stall all at once. They drift.

A detective opens the files that load fastest instead of the ones that matter most.

An interview moves forward because the witness is available before the core context arrives.

A prosecutor receives an update that is accurate but incomplete.

These delays stack quietly. After a few days, the case is no longer moving on the timeline it needs. The best windows for follow up work narrow. Leads go cold.

Big Evidence changes timing, and timing shapes outcomes.

The Strain Investigators Carry

The shift also changes the day to day experience of investigative work. More evidence means more screens, more time spent inside large documents, more audio reviews late in the day, and more device exports that need several attempts to load. Less time supporting victims and contacting suspects. 

Investigators push through all of it because they care about their cases, but the unstructured volume adds pressure. It takes time away from the core work they are trained to do. Verification becomes harder. Cognitive load increases. None of this shows up in reports, but it affects the job every day. Nobody wants to hear echoes of jail calls in their sleep. 

Why This Problem Is Not Going Away

Every trend but one in digital evidence points in one direction.

Devices store more.

Cloud platforms archive deeper histories.

Messaging apps generate denser threads.

Body cameras record longer sessions at higher quality.

Courts continue requesting more documentation, not less.

And as Police1 recently wrote, the explosion of affordable video technology is rapidly increasing the number and types of digital evidence sources, overwhelming many back end systems.

The one trend that isn’t pointing toward growth? Investigator capacity. Some agencies have seen their jurisdictions double in population since the last time they added detective headcount. 

The workflow has to evolve.

How Agencies Are Beginning To Adapt

Many agencies are already making small but meaningful adjustments that help them keep pace with Big Evidence. They begin processing evidence immediately so the case starts moving as soon as files arrive. They prioritize relevance instead of file order. They bring formats together early so that audio, images, documents, and video reinforce the same narrative. They link findings to their sources right away so verification stays close to discovery.

These changes give investigators more time for the tasks only humans can do. Interviews improve. Case updates become clearer. Follow up work happens sooner. The job feels more manageable again.

Investigators everywhere are adapting to this new environment, often without calling it a shift. They are finding ways to keep their cases moving in a world where the evidence no longer fits the old workflow. Agencies that acknowledge this reality early are already seeing the benefits. Others will feel the strain grow each year. Big Evidence is here to stay, but the approach to handling it can evolve. And when it does, investigators regain the time and focus they need to work cases the way they were meant to.

At Longeye, we specialize in helping agencies combat their Big Evidence challenges. If you are interested in a free consultation to assess the extent to which Big Evidence impacts your operations, we can help you with a quantitative baseline exercise to share with your command staff. Feel free to request your no-strings-attached consultation here.

—

Guest contributor Antoine Sawadogo studies criminology and human rights at the University of Lille, with experience supporting judges, court systems, prosecutors, and defense attorneys.