Criminal investigations often hinge on the strength and clarity of a well-built timeline. As a former intelligence analyst with the Colorado Springs Police Department and then Colorado's 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office, I spent countless hours assembling timelines that brought together the who, what, when, and where of each case. But this work went far beyond simply arranging the facts in order. It was about diving deep into the data to uncover key evidence, connect the dots, and ensure we had a complete and compelling narrative to support a successful prosecution.

The first step in building a timeline used to be manually entering every single event. Each text message, call log, photo, or financial transaction had to be logged, labeled, and verified by hand. Then came the tedious but essential process of double and triple checking for typos or human errors. One small mistake could jeopardize the entire investigation.

And that was all only after the data arrived (often weeks later). Before I could begin building a timeline, I had to wait for records to come back from cellular providers, social media platforms, or financial institutions. And that delay assumed the warrants were approved on the first try.

Search warrants don’t get signed off automatically. They need to be written tightly as overly broad language will be rejected by judges. You make your edits, resubmit, and hope for a quick turnaround. But realistically, it can take weeks before you have even your first batch of digital evidence in hand. Only then does the real investigative work begin.

And even then, the hardest part is realizing what you have and what you don’t. What’s missing? What’s still coming? What’s buried in that 60,000-message phone download? That’s where the real challenge lies. The stakes are enormous: a suspect might be out reoffending, or in custody with a bond hearing approaching. Trial preparation often has a strict 45-day discovery deadline, which means we’re racing the clock to submit evidence on time.

I often think about how much time I could’ve saved, and how many cases might have moved faster or hit harder, if I’d had access to some of the new technology tools that are available today.

How AI Can Speed Up the Digital Evidence Review Process

Digital evidence is only growing in volume and complexity. In my work, I dealt with everything from cell phone extractions and tower logs to vehicle data and even crypto transactions. It’s a lot. And you quickly learn that you have to prioritize. You have to invest your time where the yield is highest.

Phones are by far the richest source. But they’re also the most burdensome. We all live on our phones, and that means there’s a lot to sift through: texts, images, calls, notes, videos, apps, cloud backups. You can spend days just reviewing a single device. But those phones can contain the smoking gun, especially in narcotics cases or conspiracy investigations. As tedious as it is, you have to go through it all.

And the truth is: people lie. Digital evidence doesn’t.

These days, I’m no longer building case timelines for prosecution, but I am working alongside hundreds of investigators and prosecutors across the country to speed up their digital evidence review process through my work at Tranquility AI. Our product, TimePilot, uses artificial intelligence to accelerate some of the most time-consuming parts of an investigation.

TimePilot’s integrated Assistant surfaces critical evidence in seconds. Whether it’s buried in case summaries, handwritten reports, or multilingual conversations, TimePilot helps investigators quickly pinpoint what matters. It also helps you quickly build a clear, start-to-finish timeline of your case. With just a few clicks, you can visualize the receipts: cell phone extractions, emails, social media posts, jail calls, location data, forensic evidence, financial records, surveillance footage, and more.

In the past, I had to read every single message on a phone manually, trying to spot signs of fentanyl trafficking or uncover communications about a fatal overdose. Now, with TimePilot, I can ask a question like: “Are there any communications in this phone about drug deals, specifically fentanyl?” Within 8 to 12 seconds, I’m provided with the relevant messages, if they exist.

It’s not just a time saver. It’s a game changer.

What used to take days, sometimes weeks, to get through with human analysis can now be surfaced in seconds. And that shift has massive implications. Now we can act while leads are still hot—before evidence is destroyed, before co-conspirators disappear, before witnesses are coerced. We get to be proactive instead of reactive.

It’s not just about making life easier for investigators. It’s about making outcomes better for the public.

From Evidence Collection to Intelligence

When you strip away the noise, every investigation comes down to a few critical questions: What happened? Who was involved? And how can we prove it?

Traditionally, the path from raw data to actionable intelligence was long and winding. Analysts spent hours buried in PDFs and spreadsheets. Sometimes we’d get lucky and find a clear thread in the first pass. Other times, we’d spend weeks chasing leads that went nowhere.

TimePilot shifts that entire paradigm. Instead of manually assembling case timelines one data point at a time, I can now ask high-level questions and get precise, sourced answers almost immediately. That means less time guessing and more time acting. It also means I can support prosecutors earlier in the process. Whether it’s strengthening a probable cause affidavit, refining a plea offer, or preparing for trial, having the key evidence surfaced faster gives the entire justice system a better chance of success.

TimePilot doesn’t create evidence. It brings the receipts. It references the exact source document, so there’s no confusion, no third-party blogs, no internet noise. It’s not pulling from news articles or open-source junk. It’s pulling from the real data: the warrant-returned files, the phone extractions, the hard evidence.

That accuracy matters, especially when you’re prepping for court. But what I love just as much is the speed.

Finding the Pattern Before the Pattern Escalates

In many cases, especially with property or drug crimes, what starts as a single offense can quickly become a pattern if it hasn’t already. And once you spot that pattern, the clock starts ticking again.

The first goal in any pattern crime is to stop the bleeding. We don’t want more victims. We don’t want that burglary crew escalating to robbery or worse. So the key is early identification. You need to link incidents fast, identify the suspects, and make the arrest that will break the chain.

The challenge? That link isn’t always obvious.

The data that connects the dots might be buried in social media records, or tucked away in a witness interview, or hidden inside a credit card statement. Traditional workflows make it easy to miss these threads or to find them too late.

TimePilot shines in this space. It’s designed to find the relationships between seemingly unrelated data sources. It’s not just analyzing one file or one record. It’s correlating across everything in the case file, from call logs to chat messages to location data. And it’s surfacing connections that might take weeks to uncover using manual methods.

And when it does find those connections, it backs them up. It shows you exactly which record or document it came from.

This isn’t just a nice to have. It’s essential. Because every day a pattern goes undetected, the risk grows. The sooner you identify the operation and disrupt it, the sooner you reduce harm.

AI is making that process faster, more reliable, and more complete.

Efficiency That Protects the Public

Let’s be clear: TimePilot isn’t about convenience. It’s about mission readiness. It’s about accuracy, efficiency, and public safety.

Instead of spending hours combing through a suspect’s phone, I can ask a direct question and get real answers in seconds. Instead of hoping I caught all the relevant data points in my timeline, I can rely on automation to surface, track, and source those entries with precision. Instead of delaying an arrest while we wait for an analyst report, we can act immediately, serve warrants, question witnesses, and preserve evidence before it disappears.

This kind of speed and coordination doesn’t just make our jobs easier. It changes the entire pace of justice. It keeps suspects from slipping through the cracks. It helps ensure that victims aren’t left waiting. And it means that when we bring a case forward, it’s strong, it’s defensible, and it’s ready.

Lessons for Law Enforcement Leaders

For those in command roles, the key takeaway is this: AI is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity.

If your department is still relying entirely on manual evidence workflows, you’re at risk of delays, errors, and missed opportunities to stop crimes before they escalate.

The good news is that the tools exist. They don’t replace your people. They make your people faster, sharper, and more efficient.

But successful implementation requires the right mindset:

• Prioritize data sources that yield high value, especially phones.

• Standardize how your teams ask questions and submit findings.

• Create workflows that enable analysts and officers to work in sync, not in silos.

• Make time for training so that prosecutors, judges, and defense teams understand the methodology and the integrity of the source.

• And always maintain the human element. AI points to the truth, but it’s up to us to understand what it means, how it fits the story, and how to act on it.

Final Thoughts

In law enforcement, time is always in short supply. And digital evidence isn’t slowing down. If anything, it’s accelerating. We’re being asked to do more, with more data, and more scrutiny, often with the same or fewer resources.

Tools like TimePilot don’t solve every problem. However, they significantly enhance the speed, accuracy, and coordination of digital casework.

I wish I had it when I was in the thick of it. More departments should now have access to it. And it will be a core part of how modern investigations are run going forward.

Because justice delayed is justice denied not just for victims, but for the system as a whole.

And when we can find the truth more quickly, we can act more effectively. We can stop the bleeding. We can save lives.

Kevin Clark

Prior to joining Tranquility AI, Kevin Clark served as the Director of Crime Strategies & Intelligence for Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, where he built the first Crime Strategies Unit at a DA’s office in Colorado, worked over 100 homicides, and testified as an expert witness in over 70 trials. Kevin also spent seven years as a Senior Crime Intelligence Analyst with the Colorado Springs Police Department and served over nine years in the U.S. Air Force.