More and better video evidence for police investigations of shootings: Evaluation of Chicago’s Area Technology Centers

Amid persistently low homicide and nonfatal shooting clearance rates and well-known challenges to securing victim and witness cooperation, police departments are increasingly turning to video and other digital evidence – evidence that is often difficult and time-consuming to identify, obtain, and process. This report examines the design, implementation, and early effects of the Chicago Police Department’s Area Technology Centers (ATCs), launched in 2019 to provide specialized investigative support for digital evidence collection and processing in homicide and nonfatal shooting investigations. Drawing on administrative data, in-depth interviews, surveys, and focus groups with detectives, we document strong internal adoption: ATC teams became embedded in investigative workflows, were typically co-located within homicide units, and helped standardize and accelerate tasks such as video evidence retrieval, format conversion, compilation, and preparation of investigative materials used in charging decisions. Administrative data shows a sizable growth in video and digital evidence inputs into investigations during the period after ATCs were implemented. Qualitative evidence suggests Cook County prosecutors increasingly expect curated digital evidence for homicide cases and this demand reinforces ongoing use of ATC services. We also assess whether ATCs improved investigative outcomes using a quasi-experimental approach, but results are indeterminate due to limited statistical power – there were too few homicide cases during the pilot period to estimate outcome effects precisely. Overall, the report highlights how the organizational design, co-location, specialized staffing, and alignment with prosecutor expectations enabled successful adoption of the ATCs in Chicago, while underscoring the need for better outcome data and evaluation designs to estimate causal impacts on ultimate case outcomes like clearance and prosecution.