Mudding the waters to clear things up. Records retention.

[saras]

1. Muddying the waters, certainly. Clearing things up - nope.

It's not the "digital age" for Sheriff Joe, so everything that follows is irrelevant to him.

Hell, it's not the "digital age" to anyone but people who believe in that sort of PR as a way of thinking about things.

But back to the OP
Safer and more effective aren't important to Sheriff Joe - they're YOUR priorities.
Legally, it isn't logical to replace authoritative paper records with meta-records. In a different legal system, it might be.
Storing multiple copies is incompatible conceptually with the concept of an authoritative master.

But in the big picture, NOBODY GIVES A SHIT. The birth certificate is an excuse - it's like you find a neighbor cutting up a kid with a chainsaw like Leatherface, and all you can do is criticize his choice of appliance, suggesting a sawzall might be less dangerous for Leatherface, if perhaps slower sawing through thighs and skulls.