Crime Board Help — Investigator Quick Reference

Welcome

Crime Board is a digital investigation board. You place evidence cards on the glass workspace—people, vehicles, weapons, photos, documents—and connect related items with colored string lines. You can add sticky notes and headings. Everything you work on belongs to one case file; the case number in the left sidebar tells you which file is open.

Many chapters below include a short walkthrough video you can play next to the written steps. Browse every tutorial in one place from Help → Video Tutorials (or open the Video Tutorials library directly).

Analogy — evidence on a glass board

Sign-in

Your agency may run Crime Board without logins, or it may require sign-in. When sign-in is on, you only see cases your account is allowed to open—often cases you created plus cases someone has shared with you. On the password field, the eye icon at the far right Show Password reveals what you typed; click it again (Hide Password) to conceal it.

New account — If your administrator turned this on, use Request account on the sign-in screen and follow the steps. Your agency may require an email verification code, or may let you choose a password and sign in right after submitting (when automatic approval is also enabled).
Forgot your password — Use Forgot password on the sign-in screen. Answer the three security questions you set the first time you signed in, then choose a new password.
After sign-in — Returning users (including investigators with no cases yet) see a CHOOSE A CASE TO OPEN list with Start a new case. The organization Sample Case appears at the top of that list for every signed-in user as read-only (labeled Sample Case, not by its internal case number). Agency members only see agency cases whose operational status is Open (Closed, Inactive, and Cold Case files are omitted — use agency List Cases or Re-Open Case instead). Files whose investigative report was returned for corrections are marked Returned and listed next (after the sample). Other cases are sorted by case number, with each original first and its supplemental reports indented underneath (the same grouping as File → Open; that list still includes Closed, Inactive, and Cold Case). Opening a returned case shows Report Review Decision with the supervisor’s notes; that notice is not shown at sign-in. Agency Leads see LCP on that list and supervisors see SCP (same control panels as on the board). After first-time security-question setup, Crime Board may show a welcome choice: Open Sample Case (when configured) or Start a New Case. You can reopen the sample later with View → Sample Case. If you have unread chats or pending requests, a prompt offers to open Messaging. Under Preferences you may see Change Password and Change Security Questions. Treat your login like any work system: don’t share it; user names and passwords are usually case-sensitive.
Phones — Crime Board cannot be opened on a phone (the portal blocks it and shows a message; a direct link also blocks with a return to Investigative Tools).

Main Window & Menus

The Crime Board window is built from the top down: a thin area for status banners (when needed), then the menu bar (File, Edit, and other menus; the center shows Saved, Saving, or Unsaved for the open case; the right side shows Logged In: Name (Badge # n)), then the toolbar, then the Case File sidebar on the left and the board in the center. The figures below use the default Modern Glass chrome and Glass board surface (smoked-glass look) so you can match what you see on screen.

Figure 1 — Window layout (smoked glass)

Menu bar — top-level headings

Click a heading to open its dropdown. Your administrator may hide or rename items; this table reflects the full default set.

Figure 2 — Menu bar (Modern Glass)

Typical commands: New Case, Open Case, Save Case, File → Export → Board as Image… (PNG of the visible board; your browser may offer a Save dialog to pick folder and file name), then (below a divider) Log Out ... (with your username) and Exit. Site administrators also have File → Export → Interactive HTML… to write a zip of offline case folders (one folder per case number). Unzip, then open 00 READ ME FIRST.txt or double-click index.html inside a case folder. Each folder may include a Case Report PDF of the full case (same layout as Print Case File), named with the case number plus - Case Report, when that option is on for your deployment. If the chosen original case has supplemental reports, that export window can include selected supplementals in the Case Report PDF only — it does not export extra interactive HTML boards for those files unless you also check them as cases to export. Print Case’s supplemental checklist is separate and does not feed this PDF. The investigation report in that PDF lists associated supplemental case numbers, date/time, who wrote each file, and report status in a Supplemental Reports section just above Case History when this case has them. The last investigation-report sheet in that PDF includes a handwritten Signature and Date block for the investigating officer when the case belongs to an agency (not on the sample case, personal cases, or attached document pages). Click Show Report at the top left of the exported board (above the Case File list) to open that PDF in a new tab. Cards on the exported board and rows in the left case-file list use the same titles as in Crime Board (people show roster name and person type). Sidebar section headings use the same icons as the live Case File sidebar. When accounts are enabled, the File menu may also include Request Case Access (see Cases & Saving). Share a case or change someone’s access from the toolbar Case Access window (General and Shared Cases tabs). When your account is read-only for this file, Save Case stays visible but is grayed out — see Read-Only Cases.

Edit — Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo (also works in text fields).
Add — Same card types as the toolbar: People, Vehicle, Weapon, Crime Scene Photos, Image, Location, Document (PDF), Media File.
View — Spreadsheet-style lists (Evidence, Suspects, Victims, Witnesses), Case Map, and Sample Case when configured.
Preferences — Display Settings (Ctrl+,), Change Password, and optional security-question updates after sign-in setup.
Tools — Cross-case Search, Case Notes, Sketch Pad, lookups (address, area/ZIP, background check, phone, IP, VIN), Autopsy Report, and Fun Tools (ciphers).
Help — View Help opens this article (F1); investigators linked to an agency (and administrators) open Agency Help instead; Video Tutorials opens the walkthrough library; Provide Feedback sends feedback or a bug report (with optional screenshots) to the site administrator. About — Version and copyright.

Tools menu — Search

Search looks up people, vehicles, weapons, or a keyword across saved cases in the database (see Search). The same menu lists lookups such as Resolve IP Address, VIN Decoder, Case Notes, and Fun Tools for codes and ciphers.

Case File sidebar (left) — Case number, roster of cards, photos, and linked cases.
Board (center) — The glass board workspace (smoked-glass panel); the layout scales to fit your window.
Toolbar — New / Load / Save / Print, add card types, string-line mode, Case Info, Instant Messaging and Case Access (when enabled), and Settings (gear).

View opens spreadsheet-style rosters and map tools without leaving the case. Use Evidence, Suspects, Victims, and Witnesses for tabular lists; use Case Map to plot incident and card addresses when your deployment provides geocoding.

Case Map

Open View → Case Map or the toolbar Map control. The window lists every plottable place in this case on the left and draws them on a street map on the right.

What gets plotted

Case Info incident locations, plus the reporting-party address when it matches a listed place (a Reporting Party badge appears on that row and pin).
Addresses, GPS, and MGRS from people (home and recovery), Location cards, vehicles, weapons, and similar fields. GPS and MGRS plot immediately. Street addresses are geocoded when the service can resolve them. A row that cannot be located stays in the list as Not geocoded and does not get a pin.
Deceased person: marking deceased assigns a permanent headstone number for this case (starting at 1). Turn on Map body location under Recovery so the map uses that numbered headstone (default black with a white number). Click the headstone in the list to change its color.
Vehicle recovery: a vehicle marker (car by default). Click the icon in the list to change color and style — Car, SUV, Motorcycle, or Pickup.
Weapon recovery: a weapon marker. Click the icon to change color and style — Handgun, Long Gun, Knife, or Bat (the first style follows the card when you have not picked one yet).

Using the window

The left column is Locations. The eye control on a row hides or shows that pin. Show all, Hide all, and Fit visible apply to the whole list.
Click a row or pin to center the map and open the popup (name, coordinates or address, and extra recovery notes when present).
When more than one item shares the same coordinates, the map shows a numbered hub at that point (the hub is not a second row in the list). Hover the hub to see the shared location and how many items are there. Click the hub to expand pins in a ring with a line from each pin back to the location; click again to collapse.
Map style (top right of the map) switches the basemap. The choice is remembered on this computer (same options as Area Code & Zip lookup).
Print preview opens a printable page with a snapshot of the map as you see it and the location list.

Pin colors and vehicle/weapon styles save with the case when you close the map. Recovery-field details are also under People, Vehicle, and Weapon.

Starting a Case

Begin the investigation on the board

Starting a case — create a card and place it.

Treat the Case File sidebar as the folder label and the board as the wall: first give the case a number, then add cards from the toolbar, then drag each card to a sensible spot (for example persons in one area, vehicles in another, documents near the timeline or narrative you are building).

Set the case number in the sidebar

Click the case number area on the left, type your agency’s number or label, then press Enter or click away. The board in the center stays tied to this file when you save.

Add a card from the toolbar

Click People (or another type); fill out the form that opens so the new card appears on the board.

IM Reset view Align vertical Align horizontal People Vehicle Weapon Crime Scene Photos Document Image