Horry, Georgetown law enforcement use new digital program to send evidence to Solicitor’s office

Almost all local law enforcement agencies in Horry and Georgetown counties are now taking part in a digital discovery program to streamline how they send evidence to the solicitor’s office. 

Six months ago, a local judge ordered law enforcement in Horry and Georgetown counties to consolidate how they store and send evidence, including body camera video footage, witness statements, and other data. Now, almost all of about 20 agencies are uploading evidence to an online portal 

The digital software cost about $30,000. The only agency left to join is the city of Georgetown.  Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said the goal is to avoid unnecessary delays in trials, or having to restart trials all together. 

“When you have to restart the whole case, then everybody that we’ve flown in or every person from SLED, there’s a jury that’s taken off from work – that’s time we could have been more efficient with,” he said.

According to Richardson, defense attorneys sometimes request continuances for trials because they claim they haven’t received certain pieces of evidence.

“Basically every case that was coming up, the defense attorneys were saying, hey we got 485 pieces of paper, but we didn’t get the 486th,” Richardson said. 

The solicitor’s office will train local defense attorneys to use the online portal in the next few months. Once they’re using the digital program, the solicitor’s office will allow them to track when the defense receives, opens and reviews any document.

“Right now you can blame it on the mailman or someone else. But you really can’t blame it on the computer system. It sent. It was received. And it was opened,” said Richardson. 

According to Richardson, digital discovery has been used for about 900 cases, and he expects that number to increase significantly. He said it will save local law enforcement and his office money and time that they really don’t have to waste.

“We’ve got very limited court time. And with the shortage of court reporters and everything else it’s even more limited. So there’s not a lot of opportunity to strike and miss,” he said.

Richardson’s office is the first in the state to turn the discovery process digital, but he doesn’t think they’ll be the only ones for long.

“The other prosecutors from across the state they have been begging to get forced into doing something like this,” he said.