Built for labs that can't afford to
get chain-of-custody wrong
TraceVault is an AI-native forensic laboratory information management system. We built it because the alternative was leaving mid-market crime labs stuck with spreadsheets, legacy LIMS vendors, and $300K implementation quotes.
"Modernize forensic evidence management with AI-native technology so every crime lab — regardless of budget — has access to enterprise-grade chain-of-custody tracking, automated reporting, and court-ready documentation."
The forensic lab software market has a market-access problem. The dominant LIMS vendors — STARLIMS, Versaterm, LabVantage — price their systems at $100K–$500K+ for implementation, then charge $50–200K annually for maintenance. That's workable for state crime labs with large budgets. It's not workable for the 5,000+ regional crime labs, county ME offices, and small forensic units that handle the majority of US evidence processing.
Those labs get sold antiquated on-premise systems from the 2000s, or pieced together workflows from generic LIMS software not designed for forensic custody requirements. Neither option is acceptable for institutions whose data ends up in criminal proceedings.
TraceVault closes that gap. We deliver immutable chain-of-custody, AI-generated court-ready reports, and full compliance tooling at a price point accessible to labs that currently make do with spreadsheets.
Built specifically for forensic labs that legacy LIMS ignores
Regional Crime Labs
Multi-examiner labs processing 500–5,000 cases annually. Need full chain-of-custody, multi-user access, and reporting — without enterprise pricing.
County Medical Examiner Offices
ME offices tracking evidence from scene to courtroom. Immutable custody logs, location tracking, and automated documentation built in.
State Forensic Units
State-level forensic units that need ASCLD/LAB and FBI CJIS alignment without a $300K implementation engagement and a 12-month deployment timeline.
Law Enforcement Agencies
Municipal and county agencies managing physical evidence internally. Court-ready reports generated automatically — no analyst hours spent formatting Word docs.
The problems we're solving — specifically
Chain-of-custody breaks on handoffs
Legacy systems log transfers in spreadsheets or paper logs. TraceVault's custody log is append-only and immutable — every transfer, correction, and location change is recorded with full attribution, timestamp, and reason. Nothing is overwritten.
Report generation costs analyst hours
Examiners spend hours formatting case reports into court-ready documents. TraceVault generates them with one click using AI trained on forensic documentation standards. Analysts review and approve — they don't draft from scratch.
Legacy LIMS locks out mid-market labs
The dominant vendors price implementation at six figures — not because the software costs that much to deploy, but because it's the business model. We build for the labs that have been told to wait for a budget cycle that never comes.
Compliance documentation is manual and error-prone
ASCLD/LAB, FBI CJIS, and ISO 17025 compliance requires documented procedures, audit trails, and chain-of-custody integrity. TraceVault makes compliance documentation automatic — not a separate project.
How we build and what we won't compromise on
Custody records are never overwritten
Every event is appended. Corrections create a new record that references the original — they don't delete it. Court defensibility requires a complete, unedited history.
Enterprise capabilities at regional lab pricing
We don't segment features by plan to force upgrades. Core custody tracking, reporting, and compliance tooling is available at every tier.
Everything is attributable and timestamped
Who transferred. Who corrected. Who generated a report. Every action carries user attribution, organization context, and an immutable timestamp.
No 12-month implementation projects
TraceVault is operational in days, not quarters. We don't require a professional services engagement or a system integrator to go live.
See it working on real evidence data
The demo environment has pre-loaded cases, evidence items, and custody logs. You can generate a court-ready report in under 90 seconds.