Public Safety
More Facts, Less Friction: Body-Worn Cameras for
Insight-Driven Police Solutions
Body-worn cameras are more than
just another device in the wearable
technologies revolution. These
devices—worn on helmets, jackets
and lapels—have the potential to
be a powerful means of protecting
both the citizen and the officer and
delivering public service for the future
through digital law enforcement.
Detailed and unbiased evidence
collection, greater accountability for
officers and more transparency of
police/citizen interactions are just
some of the benefits of these police
solutions.
Adoption of body-worn cameras is
likely to increase as law enforcement
agencies start to see the positive
results coming from pilot programs
spanning the globe from New York to
London to Sydney. What’s more, there
may be new funding to back these
programs. President Obama has also
proposed a three-year, $263 million
spending package to fund 50,000
body-worn cameras.1
A new police solution
for gathering unbiased
information
Body-worn cameras have the
potential to support the gathering
of evidence as police conduct dayto-day operations, and they could
help create a true record of events—
evidence that could later be used
for criminal prosecution. They also
can help deliver additional insight,
especially when the data captured
through body-worn cameras is
combined with video analytics to
transform raw information into
valuable intelligence.
For the record
Body-worn cameras could create a
real-time record that could ultimately
reduce the number of complaints
made against a law enforcement
agency. With the help of body-worn
cameras, an authentic first hand
recording can be used as evidence. In
the case of claims of unfair treatment
or inappropriate behavior, the footage
can be used to help establish the
facts. The very wearing of the devices
can have a modifying effect on both
the behavior of the officer and citizen
as both know their actions are being
recorded.
Indeed, after the Rialto Police
Department in California deployed a
camera program pilot in 2012, they
saw a 60 percent reduction in useof-force incidents and an 88 percent
reduction in number of citizen
complaints.2
From the beat
When officers activate their
cameras, they can capture data
about vehicles (make, model, color,
license plate number) and people
(physical features, gender, age, attire).
Geocoded, time-stamped data on
vehicles and persons is captured and
fed into a central operations data
index.
Take that video index and integrate
it with analytics, and you have a
police solution for fighting crime. For
example, if an alert goes out about
a robbery suspect wearing an orange
t-shirt and glasses, analytics would
run algorithms to comb through
metadata on people captured on
footage that day. If the suspect has
passed an officer wearing a bodyworn camera, the system could find
a match. Officers in that area would
be alerted that a potential suspect
was recently identified in the area,
allowing for quick action. Historically,
officers would have to rely on their
memory (“did I see someone wearing
an orange shirt today?”). With bodyworn cameras as police solutions,
officers’ capabilities can be extended
with near-perfect memory and
unwavering attention.
For the future
As these digital police solutions
mature, they may include notification
mechanisms such as audio alerts that
signal officers without distracting
them, or even Google Glass-type
devices where officers “see” alerts
or metadata in real time. The future
could also include providing realtime alerts of known offenders seen
by the camera, helping to increase
officers’ safety by alerting them that
they are dealing with someone who is
potentially dangerous or has a certain
behavioral history.
Storing and safeguarding
data
As law enforcement agencies begin to
explore body-worn cameras as nextgeneration police solutions, important
questions arise: where do you store
these huge volumes of data, and
for how long? How can we address
citizen concerns over privacy? When
and in what circumstances, should
the cameras be on and recording and
switched off? What protocols and
policies should be in place to ensure
that officers can easily access the
footage to support their daily work,
such as writing police statements?
1
Pickler, Nedra; Associated Press; “Obama proposes bodyworn cameras for police;” December 1, 2014; http://www.
pbs.org/newshour/rundown/obama-proposes-body-worncameras-police/
2
Johnson, Kevin; USA Today; “Police body cameras offer
benefits, require training” September 12, 2014;
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/12/
police-body-cameras/15522059/
To address data privacy issues, law
enforcement agencies must develop
their own policies that clearly outline
how the department plans to be
transparent and accountable, but
also protect the civil liberties and
privacy interests of citizens—all
while reflecting the laws of the given
country. Of the 254 law enforcement
agencies participating in the PERF
survey, nearly a third of the agencies
using body-worn cameras had no
written policy on the devices.
Maximising the Value from Body Worn Cameras
Maximising
the Value
from Body
Worn
Camera- including device
Setting
the overall department
level governance
and rules
of engagement
Setting
the overall
department
governance
rules
of engagement
including device
protocols
(e.g when
to turnlevel
camera
on/off),and
and
privacy
and data-protection
policies
protocols (e.g when to turn camera on/off), and privacy and data protection policies
Managing and controlling
content including redaction,
and FOIL request preparation
Extended video capabilities transforming
raw information into valuable intelligence
both in real-time (e.g. ANPR video analytics)
and post incident analysis
Analytics Solutions
“From the beat”
eF
th
rec
or
or
d”
“F
ut
e”
ur
Body-Worn
Camera
Video Management
System
Storage
g
din
or
c
Re
Device type,
management
and maintenance
e
tim ng
al mi
Re rea
st
Video analytics can help by filtering
out footage that has no information,
for example, does not include faces,
movement or sound. This “removal
of blanks” will minimize storage
requirements. Furthermore, analytics
can help in locating required
footage, e.g., you can search for any
police interaction with a certain
individual using a face photo, rather
than locating that it was officer
“X” on day “Y.” There are also new
technologies, such as cloud-based
video surveillance as a service, which
offer additional storage options for
departments considering body-worn
cameras.
Policies must include guidelines
for digital rights management—
delineating access control for
viewing and copying images. The
infrastructure that stores the footage
collected via the cameras must have
security controls embedded in it
to authenticate identities, create a
chain of custody and secure evidence
against tampering or disclosure.
Other measures, such as embedding
a watermark in footage captured
via body-worn cameras, might also
help to prevent footage from being
duplicated. Watermarks can also be
applied to videos being downloaded
from body-worn camera storage, so
these downloads can be traced if
leaked.
he
There are ways to shrink the amount
of footage stored, thus decreasing
cost and complexity of storage. Most
US states carry legal requirements
that define mandatory timeframes
for which departments need to keep
hold of data. Departments may decide
to discard data after the legal period
expires, or they may opt to drastically
reduce the data to only what’s
interesting. For instance, retain the
five facial photos associated with an
officer’s interaction.
Security
or
t
The body-worn camera and its video
footage offer large sets of data for
analysis. But how can departments
store it all? When PERF asked more
than 40 departments using bodyworn cameras about video storage,
they found that all stored their bodyworn camera footage on an in-house
server or an online cloud database
(managed by a third-party vendor).3
However, thought and consideration
must be given to other data storage
concerns, such as how long to store
footage, when to allow officers to
deactivate cameras, and how to
ensure integrity and security of data.
“F
Storage
Privacy
Today, the public often witnesses
compromising footage of celebrities
interacting with police. This fuels
privacy concerns among citizens—
especially those interacting with
police about sensitive matters or
in their own homes. In the United
States, Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) laws govern when footage
captured from body-worn cameras
must be released.
Computer Aided Dispatch
Video storage type,
capability and policy
Records Management System
Integration Points
Detailed and unbiased
evidence collection
Greater accountability
Increased transparency
3
Miller, Lindsay, Jessica Toliver, and Police Executive Research
Forum. 2014. Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program:
Recommendations and Lessons Learned. Page 15. Washington,
DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
An eye on the future
Body-worn cameras have the potential
to help law enforcement agencies
protect their reputations and fight
crime. Rather than just acquiring bodyworn cameras for evidence police can
turn them into tools to deliver insight,
intelligence and improve operational
effectiveness. And with the proper
procedures and policies in place, these
police solutions can deliver tremendous
benefit without a significant financial
or storage burden.
Connect with us to learn more on
delivering public service for the future
on Twitter @AccenturePubSvc
For more information, please contact:
James Slessor
[email protected]
Wai Yu
[email protected]
Jody Weis
[email protected]
Cyrille Bataller
[email protected]
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