Managing categories

Add a Category

You can create categories as needed. A new category has the following default settings:

• Evidence Retention — Until manually deleted
• Restricted Category — Not restricted

1. On the menu bar, click Admin and then under Agency Settings, click Retention Categories.

   The Retention Categories page appears.

2. Click Add Category.

   The New Evidence Category page appears.

3. Type a Name for the new category.
4. Under Retention, specify the retention duration for evidence in this category.
   
   • If you want Evidence.com to initiate deletion of evidence after a retention period, click the Until Manually Deleted list and a select the unit of time. Then enter the length of the retention period.
      
   • If you do not want Evidence.com to initiate the deletion of evidence in this category, leave Until Manually Deleted as the selection. 
5. Under Restricted, select if the new category is a restricted category. Enabling Restrict limits user access to users on the access list or with Access Restricted Evidence permission.
   • If you want the new category to be restricted, toggle the switch to Restricted (the toggle color is blue).
   • If you do not want the category to be restricted, leave the toggle at Restrict (the toggle color is white).
6. Click Save.
7. In the confirmation message box, click Close.

   The Retention Categories page lists the category you added.

Edit a Category

Before you edit a category, Axon recommends you search for all evidence that is assigned to the category and determine if, because the planned changes to the category, you should assign the evidence to a different category or an additional category.

If you change the retention period settings of a category, Evidence.com initiates deletion of any evidence assigned to the category that is older than the new retention period and which is not assigned to another category whose retention period dictates that the evidence be retained.

1. On the menu bar, click Admin and then under Agency Settings, click Retention Categories.

   The Retention Categories page appears.

2. Find the category you want to change and click the edit icon () on the same line as the category. 

   The Edit Retention Category page appears.

3. Edit the category as needed. For detailed steps, refer to the following table.

   Task	Steps
   Change the category name	Under Name, type the new name.
   Set a retention period for evidence assigned to this category	Under Retention, select the unit of time for the category retention. In the box, type the length of the retention period.
   Ensure that evidence in this category is retained indefinitely	Under Retention, select Until Manually deleted.
   Restrict access to evidence assigned to the category	Under Restricted, toggle the switch to Restricted (the toggle color is blue).
   Remove restrictions from access to evidence assigned to the category	Under Restricted, toggle the switch to Restrict (the toggle color is white).

4. When you have finished editing the category, click Update.
5. If the “Category has been updated” notification message box appears, skip to step 9.

   A warning dialog box shows the number of evidence files affected by the changes to the category.

6. If you are not certain that the changes to the category are appropriate for all evidence currently assigned to the category, click Please review these evidence, review the category assignments of all the evidence files listed, and then repeat this procedure.
7. If you are certain that the changes to the category are appropriate for all evidence currently assigned to the category, click OK.

   A confirmation message box displays information about acknowledging the possible effects of the changes to the category.

8. After you read the message, click OK.
9. In the notification message box, click Close.

   Evidence.com saves the changes you made to the category and begins enforcing the effects of the changes.

Delete a Category

Before you delete a category, Axon recommends you search for all evidence that is assigned to the category and determine if you should assign the evidence to a different category or an additional category.

You can delete any category except for the following categories:

• Uncategorized
• Pending Review

1. On the menu bar, click Admin and then under Agency Settings, click Retention Categories.

   The Retention Categories page appears.

2. Find the category you want to delete and click the delete icon () on the same line as the category.

   A dialog box lists the number of evidence files that are currently in the category you are deleting.

3. In the Reassign Evidence to Category list, select the category that you want to assign to the evidence files.
4. Click Delete.
5. On the confirmation message box, click Close.

   The Retention Categories page no longer lists the category you deleted.