By: Natalie Johnson
Modern criminal investigations increasingly depend on data held by private companies rather than eyewitness testimony alone. As digital platforms have become embedded in everyday life, investigators now rely on telecommunications providers, financial institutions, social media platforms, and cloud services to uncover evidence. The process for obtaining that information, however, has remained remarkably outdated.
Matt Donahue, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kodex, says the result of that is a system where investigations routinely stall before they can gain momentum. “The main critical part of an investigation that was actually a bottleneck was the ability to get third-party data from some other organization.”
That realization came during his time as an FBI counterterrorism intelligence professional, where a seemingly routine instruction to fax a subpoena exposed a much larger systemic problem. Kodex, the company he went on to build, modernizes how organizations securely handle and respond to law enforcement data requests.
Crime Has Evolved Faster Than the Process
Investigations once centered on witnesses, interviews, and physical evidence. Today, digital services often become the silent witnesses to criminal activity. “A legacy investigation was very human-centric,” Donahue says. “As crime has evolved, so too has the need for law enforcement investigations to develop.”
A drug transaction that once occurred on a street corner may now involve encrypted messaging platforms, payment processors, and delivery services. Each organization holds only a small piece of the evidence, but investigators must work through different legal processes, communication methods, and technical requirements to obtain it.
Many industries still rely on workflows designed decades ago. Some organizations continue accepting legal requests through fax machines or shared email inboxes, creating operational inefficiencies that delay investigations while increasing security risks. The result is a growing gap between modern criminal activity and the infrastructure designed to investigate it.
Standardizing a Fragmented Process
Kodex was built to eliminate that fragmentation. Rather than requiring investigators to determine how each company accepts legal requests, Kodex provides a secure, standardized platform where verified law enforcement agencies interact directly with participating organizations.
Every new agency undergoes a verification process, allowing companies to know requests originate from legitimate authorities, while protecting sensitive customer information from impersonation attempts. “The point isn’t making it easier to get data,” Donahue says. “It is making it easier for them to do it right.”
Companies can clearly define what information they possess, what legal standards apply, and what documentation investigators must provide. Instead of broad requests that waste time on both sides, investigators learn how to submit legally valid, narrowly tailored requests from the outset. The approach replaces inconsistent manual workflows with a consistent process, which improves operating efficiency without compromising legal safeguards.
Why Response Times Have Been Measured in Weeks
Historically, investigators were often expected to wait 45 to 60 days for a response to a law enforcement data request, if they received one at all. Kodex was designed to compress that timeline considerably. Donahue says companies working through the platform respond far faster than the traditional process allowed, and that the difference comes from removing unnecessary friction rather than bypassing legal oversight. Every participant understands the applicable legal framework before information is exchanged, which reduces invalid requests and improves response quality.
The platform also creates network effects that individual organizations cannot replicate independently. Suspicious activity monitoring across verified users allows Kodex to identify patterns that would otherwise remain invisible to companies operating in isolation. For organizations, the benefits extend beyond compliance. Tighter internal workflows reduce manual effort and strengthen trust around one of the most sensitive business processes they manage.
Why Speed Matters in Time-Sensitive Investigations
Donahue points to real-world cases where reducing delays changed investigative outcomes. Brazilian authorities credited Kodex with helping facilitate communications that contributed to preventing a planned terrorist attack targeting a Lady Gaga concert. In investigations involving child exploitation or an imminent threat of violence, the gap between a response measured in hours and one measured in weeks can shape what investigators are able to do at all. Every delayed request represents more than paperwork. It represents lost investigative momentum.
“There is truly no investigation that doesn’t rely on this,” he says. As digital evidence becomes central to virtually every major investigation, organizations face increasing responsibility to build secure, efficient, and legally compliant processes for handling government requests. Companies that invest in disciplined processes today will be better positioned to protect customer trust, support legitimate investigations, and meet the expectations of an increasingly digital legal environment.
Follow Matt Donahue on LinkedIn for more insights on modern investigations, data access, and law enforcement technology.
