The FusionTrace Evidence Standard · Version 1.0 (draft)

Crime doesn’t start as a pattern.It starts as an incident.™

The FusionTrace Evidence Standard is a public set of rules for the incident records a business chooses to share with law enforcement: how they are preserved, sealed, requested, released and checked, and what agencies that commit to it agree never to do with them.

Agencies and people who commit to it agree to follow it. It is written so that a police chief and a civil liberties lawyer can read the same page and find the same rules.

Verify a package you hold The eight commitmentsFor the public

Start where you are.

How it works, in four steps.

  1. The business preserves. It records an incident in its own words, and the record is sealed.
  2. A law enforcement agency asks. The request names the agency, the person asking, the purpose and the record.
  3. The business decides. A named person approves or declines, one request at a time.
  4. Whoever receives it checks the seal. In a browser, against the issuer's published key.

Nothing is sold. A business decides, one request at a time, what it releases to a law enforcement agency. The agency sees a record only after a named person at the business approves its request. The release opens the record to the agency for 90 days, and every look in the system that holds it is logged. A copy the agency downloads is kept as long as the case and the law require, and a certified agency commits to log every access to it.

What the Standard is

Eight commitments, in plain words.

Every pattern an investigator ever finds was first a single incident someone wrote down well, or didn't.

The Standard is about that first record: preserved, structured and sealed, so it is still trustworthy when it matters. The earlier an incident is documented properly, the sooner it can be connected, by the right people, under the right authority.

These eight commitments and the rules on What the Standard forbids are the public summary of Version 1.0 (draft). The full text is not yet published.

  1. Observations, not accusations.

    A sealed record documents what was observed. It never states who a person is, and never accuses, labels or characterizes anyone. A network view shows observations, not accusations.

  2. Requested, never taken.

    An agency asks a business for a record, and the request names the agency, the person asking, the purpose and the record. If the business says no, a certified agency uses legal process as the law requires. Nothing in the Standard limits an agency's lawful authority, including in an emergency.

  3. The business decides.

    A named person at the business approves or declines each request, one at a time. No standing, blanket or automatic approval. No service, permit or response time is ever tied to the answer.

  4. Every look is logged.

    A release opens the record to the agency for 90 days, and every look in the system that holds it is logged. A copy the agency downloads is kept as long as the case and the law require, and a certified agency commits to log every access to it.

  5. Sealed, and checkable by whoever receives it.

    Every file in the package's index carries a SHA-256 fingerprint, which shows it has not changed, and the index and the manifest are digitally signed, which shows who sealed them. The recipient, and the prosecutor, defense and court the case brings in, can check it against the issuer's published key, in a browser, without asking the steward or the issuer. One changed byte in any indexed file makes that file fail its check.

  6. The system never decides. A person does, every time.

    It never decides: every determination is made by a person, 100% of the time. A Similarity Check result tells a person where to look. It is never a finding about who someone is.

  7. An agency's own case number is never collected.

    A system built to the Standard never asks for or keeps an agency's own case number. The agency copies the business's case number into its own case management system, never the other way round.

  8. Tracing, never tracking.

    To trace is to work back over a record that already exists, after the event, under a case, by a person who answers for it. It is never to follow a person forward in real time.

What the Standard forbids

What no one may do with a record.

Each line is a rule of the Standard, written to be quoted. Hold any law enforcement agency or person that commits to the Standard, and any system that uses its words, to every one of them.

A system built to the Standard never decides what happened, never labels a person, and never puts a name to anyone from a camera.

  1. The system never decides.
  2. Requested, never taken.
  3. The business decides.
  4. No look without a record.
  5. Nothing pooled by default. Nothing sold. No collection built by an agency.
  6. One purpose per release.
  7. No sharing beyond the case.
  8. Observations, not accusations.
  9. A camera never names anyone.
  10. A score is a measurement, not a verdict.
  11. Tracing, never tracking.
  12. No quiet widening.
  13. Nothing is kept because a machine kept everything.
  14. Disclose first, and plainly.
  15. Certification covers a law enforcement agency, an investigator, or a system that builds sealed records to the Standard.
Every rule, in full

Who stands behind it

A retired chief of police. A retired federal special agent.

The Standard is stewarded by Stephen Pales and Jim Cords, co-founders of BlueWave Technology, Inc., which builds software to it. Any vendor may build to the Standard, and every implementation, the first included, is held to the same rules. Between them, nearly sixty years of building cases from what someone else wrote down, and answering for it.

Stephen Pales, portrait

Stephen Pales

  • Chief of Police (Ret.)
  • Founding Steward of the Standard
  • FusionTrace Academy Director

Stephen Pales gave thirty years to policing. He started in dispatch at eighteen, the seat where every case begins, rose through patrol and command, and retired from the chief's office, the seat that answers for all of them.

For a career he stood on the receiving end of the evidence gap: officers telling victims there was not enough, and prosecutors telling him a case would not hold.

As Academy Director he will be responsible for the Academy as an institution: its standards, its relationships with law enforcement agencies, and the bar every certification will have to clear.

Jim Cords, portrait

Jim Cords

  • Federal Special Agent (Ret.)
  • Founding Steward of the Standard
  • FusionTrace Academy Chief Instructor

Jim Cords served nearly three decades as a federal special agent, across the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, where he retired. He built cases from the ground up, including years in San Francisco and Seattle, many of them from digital evidence.

His cases ran from fraud to child exploitation. At the Inspector General's office he investigated wrongdoing inside government: he spent years investigating the investigators. What a sealed record must hold, how custody is kept, and what a prosecutor needs to act on it are the questions he brought to the Standard.

As Chief Instructor he will lead the Academy's instruction, and will train and certify the trainers who teach the Standard to law enforcement agencies.

Former agencies are listed as career history only. No government agency endorses the Standard.

Disclosure and governance

The Standard is stewarded by Stephen Pales and Jim Cords, co-founders of BlueWave Technology, Inc., which builds software to it. Any vendor may build to the Standard, and every implementation, the first included, is held to the same rules. Stewardship will pass to an independent board, with a majority independent of any vendor, and with nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, prosecution and civil liberties among the first seats filled. No board exists today, and no date is set.

Film No. 01

Crime doesn’t start as a pattern.

For everyone. What the Standard is for, from the first record of an incident to a sealed package a law enforcement agency can check.

Runtime (1 minute 13 seconds)English captions

Transcript and every film

Six short films on the Standard, for law enforcement, prosecutors, businesses and nonprofit organizations. Nothing loads from the film host until you press play.

Every film, with its transcript

How a sealed record is checked

Check the seal yourself.

The recipient, and the prosecutor, defense and court the case brings in, can check a sealed package themselves. It is checked against the issuer's published key, in a browser, and nothing is uploaded. No one has to ask the steward or the issuer.

  1. Press Verify the seal on the sample record. Your browser recomputes every fingerprint in its Record Chain and the record's SHA-256.
  2. Press Change a character. One changed character, and the chain shows where it broke.
  3. Then check a real sealed package: the demonstration package, or one you hold, on the Verify page.
Verify a package The demonstration package

SimulatedA sample incident record. Check the seal yourself, live.

INCIDENT RT-261016-SAMP-0417SIMULATED
Type recorded by the businessSlip / fall
Case numberC-261016-SAMP
Evidence Exchange BundleSealed and signed, carrying both numbers

Record Chain

  1. 01PRESERVED14:02:118a6b919a
  2. 02CASE OPENED14:09:371121e84b
  3. 03SEALED14:10:02dd53ceb7

Each entry carries the fingerprint of the one before. Fingerprints are shortened to eight characters for display; the Standard requires the full SHA-256.

Record seal, as printed

53592e83c9f980f09eaf93c40477b3da
2d7ea419ebf68b5aacd5fec6854f9c47

SHA-256, computed in your browser

Not computed yet.
SEALED · NOT CHECKED YET

Nothing is computed until you press Verify the seal.

The Record Chain, in four links.

Under the Standard, every record carries one chain. The system assigns its numbers; no person picks or changes them.

  1. Incident numberAssigned when the business preserves the incident. For example RT-261016-SAMP-0417.
  2. Case numberAssigned the first time the business shares the record. For example C-261016-SAMP. Some providers use their own format, such as PX-2026-000123.
  3. Evidence Exchange BundleThe sealed package, signed, carrying both numbers.
  4. Chain ledgerEvery step is an entry that carries the fingerprint of the one before. In the sample above, a broken link shows as "Chain broken at entry N".

A system built to the Standard never collects a law enforcement agency's own case number. The agency keeps it in its own case management system and copies the business's case number into it. Businesses document. Law enforcement investigates. The line between the two is the point.

The Record Chain, step by step

Governance and transparency

Held in the open, on the way to an independent board.

A promise lives in a contract. A standard lives in public, where every law enforcement agency that commits to it, and every system that uses its words, can be held to the same page. This is where the Standard stands today.

  1. Now

    Published, and stewarded by two people.

    fusiontrace.io is published by BlueWave Technology, Inc., an Oklahoma corporation, as steward of the FusionTrace Evidence Standard until the FusionTrace Foundation takes it over. The Standard is stewarded by Stephen Pales and Jim Cords, co-founders of BlueWave Technology, Inc., which builds software to it. Any vendor may build to the Standard, and every implementation, the first included, is held to the same rules. Version 1.0 (draft): the full text will be published here, free to read, with no sign-up.

  2. Now

    Disclosed, and licensed on fair terms.

    U.S. Patent No. 11,830,346 B2 · 3 additional patents pending. BlueWave Technology, Inc. will license any patent claim essential to implementing the Standard on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms.

  3. Coming

    Public comment on every change.

    No version will be adopted in private. Every proposed change will be posted with its reasons and a comment window of at least 30 days. Anyone may comment, signed or anonymous. Until the process opens, write to standard@fusiontrace.io.

  4. Now

    Certification and the public registry.

    Law enforcement agencies, and the organizations that train them, are listed by name in the registry once they complete certification, with their status in the open: Certified, Suspended, Revoked or Expired. Certification is by invitation through the FusionTrace Academy. The Steward scores every exam and issues every certificate.

  5. Coming

    A yearly transparency report.

    Counts only, never case contents, a zero written as zero, with the most important thing that went wrong that year and what was done about it.

  6. Committed

    An independent board.

    Stewardship will pass to an independent board, with a majority independent of any vendor, and with nonprofit organizations, law enforcement, prosecution and civil liberties among the first seats filled. No board exists today, and no date is set.

The Standard, and its first implementation todayThe registry

Adopt the Standard

One bar, the same for everyone.

The Standard is written for the whole field, not for any one vendor. Any business, law enforcement agency, organization or vendor may adopt it, on the same published terms.

  • Businesses

    Ask for it.

    Ask that the incidents you choose to share are preserved, sealed and released under it.

    For businesses

  • Law enforcement

    Commit to it.

    Commit to the Standard and train in it. An agency is listed in the public registry when it completes certification.

    For law enforcement

  • Nonprofit organizations

    Teach it.

    Nonprofit organizations that work alongside law enforcement are invited to teach the Standard. They never see a record.

    For nonprofit organizations

  • Vendors

    Build to it.

    Any system may be built to the Standard. When assessment opens, every implementation, the first included, will be assessed against the same published text.

    For vendors

Available now
The commitments and the rules on this site, to read, to quote and to comment on in writing.
Coming
The full text of version 1.0, assessment of implementations, and listing in the public registry.
The terms
The same for everyone. The Standard is free to read, and no one gets a version of it that others cannot see.

Contact

Read it. Check it. Write to us.

Attorneys general, task forces, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, defense counsel, civil liberties organizations, businesses, the press and any member of the public reach a person at standard@fusiontrace.io.

  • Law enforcement

    Certification is by invitation through the FusionTrace Academy. Tell us your agency is interested.

    Agency inquiry

  • Nonprofit organizations

    Apply to train law enforcement agencies in the Standard as a FusionTrace Master Certified organization.

    Apply

  • Questions, comments, complaints

    On the Standard, a rule, a system that uses its words, or this site.

    standard@fusiontrace.io

  • Verify a package

    Drop a sealed package. Your browser does the checking, and nothing leaves your device.

    Open Verify