The Power of Intelligent Video Analytics for Law Enforcement
Transforming Raw Video into Actionable Data
Intelligence is a central function of law enforcement and a critical resource for effective investigations. Because we live in a technology driven world, digital content has become a key driver for both evidence collection and intelligence in investigations. Law enforcement no longer needs to rely solely on traditional surveillance footage but can utilize digital data sources ranging from mobile phones and social media profiles to video from traditional, stationary security cameras. While the volume of video available is a valuable intelligence resource for investigators, most of it remains useless and unstructured. Law enforcement agencies worldwide are facing the reality that – while they need the critical intelligence lying latent in video sources to advance investigations and bolster intelligence – they lack the manpower and tools to harness this largely untapped resource. But just as technology presents a dilemma, it also offers a unique solution in the form of Artificial Intelligence-driven video analytics. For investigators, this solution empowers them to fully utilize the potential of video surveillance, accelerating time-to-target, reducing the manpower needed to effectively review video evidence, and increasing policing productivity. Intelligent video analytics for law enforcement is all about transforming raw video into searchable, actionable, quantifiable data that supports swift justice and more closed cases.
Intelligent Video Analytics in Action
Video Content Analytics (VCA) technology helps law enforcement maximize the value of their surveillance footage by seamlessly processing and breaking down video into categories like objects and behaviors to increase speed, efficiency, and insights. This breakdown enables law enforcement to search video evidence more efficiently and achieve more accurate results, all while dedicating fewer officers to video investigation.
For instance, when detectives at Hartford Police Department were trying to shut down a drug operation, they needed to review data from multiple cameras in order to have the most accurate information for a successful bust. While manually reviewing the extensive video would require prioritizing the evaluation of recordings based on time and manpower, intelligent video analytics enabled officers to leverage all the video data at their disposal without having to dedicate significant time or manpower to the task. By applying video analytics tools to the video obtained from multiple sources, captured over a number of days, law enforcement officers effectively tracked movement around the scene to identify corroborators and help focus investigation efforts to the relevant target. Intelligent video analytics not only reduced days of video into minutes of intelligence-dense footage, but additional tools, like geo fences, reduced the video content further, providing deeper insights about the target that would not be possible with traditional reviewing methods. All these factors contributed to the successful take down of the intended drug house, provided supporting evidence for an air-tight case, and promoted officer safety by providing as much detailed intelligence about the situation as possible.
This was not a one-time success for the Hartford PD. The same intelligent video analytics have helped them keep their city safe with wins like the apprehension of a suspected child predator.
Why You Need Intelligent Video Analytics:
- Faster Time-to-Target: Detectives can save critical time when reviewing evidence by using video analytic to do the heavy lifting of searching and filtering video for investigation-relevant content. Known targets can be easily detected, identified, and tracked in the digital data, but even more importantly, when there is an unknown suspect or lack of supporting evidence, investigators can uncover details quickly by reviewing the AI-structured data provided by video analytics.
- Review More, with Less: Data is knowledge, and knowledge is power. But tapping into vast amounts of video data shouldn’t stand in the way of gaining that knowledge for your investigations. Using intelligent video analytics enables faster review of high volumes of video data. Furthermore, operating video analytics typically demands fewer investigators than traditional manual video review. Less manpower and increased efficiency are a win for any law enforcement department.
- Optimizing Productive Policing: With intelligent video analytics, law enforcement agencies can leverage existing video to derive actionable and quantifiable insights about an environment. Deeper understanding of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, loitering, and more promotes strategic public safety planning. Video analytics solutions offer intelligence that can be used by law enforcement to productively drive safe city transformationsand proactively respond to public safety threats.
Today’s Mission Critical Tool
Unlocking the power of Intelligent video analytics enables law enforcement to overcome challenges by making important data searchable, actionable, and quantifiable. These AI-backed solutions not only process and structure raw video for easier analysis, but also make it faster and easier to leverage findings to solve cases. Faster time-to-target, effective use of resources, optimized safety, and productive policing are critical solving cases with speed and precision. Video analytics is the mission critical tool today’s law enforcement needs to safely and successfully to serve and protect.
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