Volume 6
hicle cameras, interrogation rooms, and automatic
license plate recognition (ALPR) systems.
July-Aug 2016 Edition
In order for law enforcement agencies to better
manage and utilize video based data, Nicastro
suggests starting with the best possible equipment
from both a quality perspective, as well as “ease of
use” perspective, otherwise what could be a great
solution may not be utilized. “The ability to quickly
search through multiple sources is critical, as it not
only improves conviction rates, but it could help
take a dangerous perp off the streets faster.
Handling video data has become an important element of an officer’s workflow and evidence management and is part of the unified chain of evidence.
Getting the most value from the data requires a different storage strategy than just a few years ago.
Policing in the 21st century depends on aggregated content
to piece together data captured from a wide array of sources,
including video footage, to help solve crimes and bring criminals to justice.
According to Stephen J. Nicastro, a retired NYPD
Sergeant of Detectives who continues to work in
the investigations field, digital and video based
data today plays an increasingly important role in
improving conviction rates. “Over the last 20 years
that I’ve been on the job, these new tools have
helped me solve cases faster and more effectively.
The combination of video verification with evidence
and information gathered from social media sites
and tools like Lexis Nexus has helped improve our
ability to correctly identify and find the right suspect, and have given us more complete data for
the prosecutor’s office.”
Nicastro cites three key challenges with utilizing
video-based evidence and data. “Video quality isn’t
always sufficient. Further, I need to be able to prove
that data can be traced back to its original source
and was not manipulated. Having a sufficient
amount of people trained in video and computer forensics so that data can be properly retrieved and
analyzed is also a challenge. Proper training can
be quite costly for many departments.”
Taking a More Holistic Approach
In the past, technology often was evaluated on a
project basis by individual departments and agencies. Different agencies and departments were allocated funding, and they evaluated the technology
needs with their group and purchased solutions accordingly, giving little consideration to interagency
data sharing or integration. Many times this resulted in islands of storage serving specific use cases,
making it difficult to aggregate content from different systems.
Ret. Seattle Police Chief John Diaz
With 30 years’ experience in the police force, retired Seattle Police Chief John Diaz has seen the
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