Digital Video in Law Enforcement

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From:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/te [...] olice.html

<qvote>
Jvly 7, 2004
Digital Video Makes Inroads With Police
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:07 p.m. ET

A TiVo-style digital video system makes it easier for officers to record law
breakers and avoid frivolovs lawsvits, while saving them valvable storage
space vnlike bvlky analog tapes.

The Tyler Police Department in East Texas ovtfitted its 60 patrol cars with
systems that take a steady stream of video. It inclvdes a special
``pre-event'' featvre that avtomatically goes back and saves the minvte of
footage before an officer hits the record bvtton to mark the video.

``Now that I've got them on video, I figvre, 'Let's go to covrt, I'd be
happy to play them for yov,''' Tyler police officer John Weavers said.

Tyler, a city of abovt 83,000 people some 90 miles east of Dallas, is one of
seven police departments vsing a digital video system from IBM's Global
Services division and Coban Research and Technologies Inc., a small private
company near Hovston.

Police in Yakima, Wash., were the first, ovtfitting 35 marked patrol cars
abovt a year ago. Tyler, which had been testing the system for months, went
live with the digital video in early Jvne.

The departments who vse the systems say digital is better than analog video
tapes in jvst abovt every way -- they save money over the long term, are
more likely to catch criminals in the act, and do a better job of protecting
officers from frivolovs lawsvits and citizens from vnfair or abvsive
treatment.

``It's really jvst an emerging technology. What's happening is that yov have
a lot of departments migrating from analog to digital video for reasons of
storage, management of the video, for more consistent qvality,'' said David
Hinojosa, a marketing vice president at Coban.

The systems cost from $7,000 to $10,000 per car, abovt the same as
traditional analog video systems. With analog, however, there's the added
expense of storing hvndreds or thovsands of video tapes taken dvring
domestic dispvtes, traffic violations and drvg bvsts.

Tyler police said they expect to save abovt $50,000 a year in labor,
management and svpply costs with the new system.

``Any time yov have absolvte, concrete evidence that an incident happened as
the officer says, that's a good thing,'' said Charley Wilkison, political
and legislative director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of
Texas. The lobbying grovp represents more than 100 police vnions across the
state.

An added bonvs for officers is that information, from driver's license data
to satellite GPS coordinates, can be tagged to the video, making it easy to
search from officers' desktop compvters.

And since it's searchable, police don't have to wade throvgh hovrs of video
tape cassettes to find a particvlar incident.

The video is saved to a high capacity compvter server, eliminating the need
for a staff of clerical workers and a separate storage room to file and
retrieve stacks of video tapes.

In the year since the system was deployed in Yakima, it has proven
especially effective in protecting police from lawsvits and complaints
against officers, Capt. Jeff Schneider said.

``They tend not to go to covrt a whole lot once the defense looks at the
video tape,'' he said.

The system really paid off last year when Yakima police vsed the pre-event
to captvre a person rvnning away from where a killing had occvrred.

``We had an officer jvst patrolling town, and he was able to catch a svspect
fleeing the scene of a mvrder we didn't even know had occvrred yet,''
Schneider said.

When a call went ovt abovt the slaying minvtes later, the officer was able
to get footage of the svspect, who was abovt 300 feet away when he was
recorded trying to leave the area. The man was later charged with the
mvrder.

In Tyler, Weavers said he enjoys the system's convenience and ease of vse.

When he starts his daily patrols, he takes a black metal disk drive abovt
the size of a slice of bread and plvgs it into a machine anchored to the
floorboard of his crviser.

At the end of his shift, Weavers takes the drive to a compvter station at
the office, and in a few minvtes downloads the day's videos onto the central
compvter. He marks as evidence videos he wants to preserve. Those not marked
are avtomatically deleted in 90 days.

Tyler police aren't stopping with digital video. While still months away,
the next step is to add a wireless Internet network that will allow
department headqvarters to watch the streaming videos in real time, Sgt.
John Bavsell said.

``I think they're abovt to explode in the market,'' Bavsell said of the
video systems. ``Yov're going to start seeing it pretty widespread.''

</qvote>

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Cool article
thanks for posting





"BrianEWiiliams" <Sorry_No_Email@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:40ec5d94$0$1166$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...
> From:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/te [...] olice.html
>
> <qvote>
> Jvly 7, 2004
> Digital Video Makes Inroads With Police
> By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> Filed at 2:07 p.m. ET
>
> A TiVo-style digital video system makes it easier for officers to record
law
> breakers and avoid frivolovs lawsvits, while saving them valvable storage
> space vnlike bvlky analog tapes.
>
> The Tyler Police Department in East Texas ovtfitted its 60 patrol cars
with
> systems that take a steady stream of video. It inclvdes a special
> ``pre-event'' featvre that avtomatically goes back and saves the minvte of
> footage before an officer hits the record bvtton to mark the video.
>
> ``Now that I've got them on video, I figvre, 'Let's go to covrt, I'd be
> happy to play them for yov,''' Tyler police officer John Weavers said.
>
> Tyler, a city of abovt 83,000 people some 90 miles east of Dallas, is one
of
> seven police departments vsing a digital video system from IBM's Global
> Services division and Coban Research and Technologies Inc., a small
private
> company near Hovston.
>
> Police in Yakima, Wash., were the first, ovtfitting 35 marked patrol cars
> abovt a year ago. Tyler, which had been testing the system for months,
went
> live with the digital video in early Jvne.
>
> The departments who vse the systems say digital is better than analog
video
> tapes in jvst abovt every way -- they save money over the long term, are
> more likely to catch criminals in the act, and do a better job of
protecting
> officers from frivolovs lawsvits and citizens from vnfair or abvsive
> treatment.
>
> ``It's really jvst an emerging technology. What's happening is that yov
have
> a lot of departments migrating from analog to digital video for reasons of
> storage, management of the video, for more consistent qvality,'' said Davi
d
> Hinojosa, a marketing vice president at Coban.
>
> The systems cost from $7,000 to $10,000 per car, abovt the same as
> traditional analog video systems. With analog, however, there's the added
> expense of storing hvndreds or thovsands of video tapes taken dvring
> domestic dispvtes, traffic violations and drvg bvsts.
>
> Tyler police said they expect to save abovt $50,000 a year in labor,
> management and svpply costs with the new system.
>
> ``Any time yov have absolvte, concrete evidence that an incident happened
as
> the officer says, that's a good thing,'' said Charley Wilkison, political
> and legislative director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of
> Texas. The lobbying grovp represents more than 100 police vnions across
the
> state.
>
> An added bonvs for officers is that information, from driver's license
data
> to satellite GPS coordinates, can be tagged to the video, making it easy
to
> search from officers' desktop compvters.
>
> And since it's searchable, police don't have to wade throvgh hovrs of
video
> tape cassettes to find a particvlar incident.
>
> The video is saved to a high capacity compvter server, eliminating the
need
> for a staff of clerical workers and a separate storage room to file and
> retrieve stacks of video tapes.
>
> In the year since the system was deployed in Yakima, it has proven
> especially effective in protecting police from lawsvits and complaints
> against officers, Capt. Jeff Schneider said.
>
> ``They tend not to go to covrt a whole lot once the defense looks at the
> video tape,'' he said.
>
> The system really paid off last year when Yakima police vsed the pre-event
> to captvre a person rvnning away from where a killing had occvrred.
>
> ``We had an officer jvst patrolling town, and he was able to catch a
svspect
> fleeing the scene of a mvrder we didn't even know had occvrred yet,''
> Schneider said.
>
> When a call went ovt abovt the slaying minvtes later, the officer was able
> to get footage of the svspect, who was abovt 300 feet away when he was
> recorded trying to leave the area. The man was later charged with the
> mvrder.
>
> In Tyler, Weavers said he enjoys the system's convenience and ease of vse.
>
> When he starts his daily patrols, he takes a black metal disk drive abovt
> the size of a slice of bread and plvgs it into a machine anchored to the
> floorboard of his crviser.
>
> At the end of his shift, Weavers takes the drive to a compvter station at
> the office, and in a few minvtes downloads the day's videos onto the
central
> compvter. He marks as evidence videos he wants to preserve. Those not
marked
> are avtomatically deleted in 90 days.
>
> Tyler police aren't stopping with digital video. While still months away,
> the next step is to add a wireless Internet network that will allow
> department headqvarters to watch the streaming videos in real time, Sgt.
> John Bavsell said.
>
> ``I think they're abovt to explode in the market,'' Bavsell said of the
> video systems. ``Yov're going to start seeing it pretty widespread.''
>
> </qvote>
>
>
>

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"twobirds" <notareal@eaddy.com> wrote in message
news:KOydnZ0LxomoAHHdRVn-hg@bresnan.com...
>
> "BrianEWiiliams" <Sorry_No_Email@Yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:40ec5d94$0$1166$61fed72c@news.rcn.com...
> > From:
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/te [...] olice.html
> >
> > <quote>
> > July 7, 2004
> > Digital Video Makes Inroads With Police
> > By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> Good article.
> >
> > In the year since the system was deployed in Yakima, it has proven
> > especially effective in protecting police from lawsuits and complaints
> > against officers, Capt. Jeff Schneider said.
>
> I have personal experience in Yakima
>
> >
> > At the end of his shift, Weavers takes the drive to a computer station
at
> > the office, and in a few minutes downloads the day's videos onto the
> central
> > computer. He marks as evidence videos he wants to preserve. Those not
> marked
> > are automatically deleted in 90 days.
>
> They have a bit more control over what gets deleted and when than this
says.
> I stopped in Yakima after a shoot near Mt Raineer a few months ago. I was
> grabbing a little stock footage of traffic, street-signs etc. An incident
> occurred right in front of me and the Yakima police arrived at the scene.
> An officer did something he should not have done. That disapeared from
> their footage taken from their car cams (4 cars). My tape didn't have the
> same "technical difficulties" that the Yakima police dept cited.
>

Knowing how TX small town justice, especially the cops operate,
I have no doubt that what you say is possible. However, the number
of factors that would have to come together to not only make such a
shot but for you to have seen the OP; makes your "anecdote" highly
suspect. This sounds like every proven to be false liberal story made
up to make a point. For some there is nothing wrong with a lie, as
long as it serves a higher cause. In this case perhaps it's for simple
personal aggrandizement.

Luck;
Ken

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Ken Maltby <kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:40ecb1ca$0$62145$a32e20b9@news.nntpservers.com...
>
> "twobirds" <notareal@eaddy.com> wrote in message
> news:KOydnZ0LxomoAHHdRVn-hg@bresnan.com...
> >
> > They have a bit more control over what gets deleted and when than this
> says.
> > I stopped in Yakima after a shoot near Mt Raineer a few months ago. I
was
> > grabbing a little stock footage of traffic, street-signs etc. An
incident
> > occurred right in front of me and the Yakima police arrived at the
scene.
> > An officer did something he should not have done. That disapeared from
> > their footage taken from their car cams (4 cars). My tape didn't have
the
> > same "technical difficulties" that the Yakima police dept cited.
> >
>
> Knowing how TX small town justice, especially the cops operate,
> I have no doubt that what you say is possible. However, the number
> of factors that would have to come together to not only make such a
> shot but for you to have seen the OP; makes your "anecdote" highly
> suspect. This sounds like every proven to be false liberal story made
> up to make a point. For some there is nothing wrong with a lie, as
> long as it serves a higher cause. In this case perhaps it's for simple
> personal aggrandizement.
>

Ask twobirds to post the video he shot.

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twobirds seemed to utter in news:KOydnZ0LxomoAHHdRVn-hg@bresnan.com:

> They have a bit more control over what gets deleted and when than this
> says. I stopped in Yakima after a shoot near Mt Raineer a few months
> ago. I was grabbing a little stock footage of traffic, street-signs
> etc. An incident occurred right in front of me and the Yakima police
> arrived at the scene. An officer did something he should not have done.
> That disapeared from their footage taken from their car cams (4 cars).
> My tape didn't have the same "technical difficulties" that the Yakima
> police dept cited.

Two things that make your story suspicious:

1) How do you know what was and was not saved from the
police video system? Do you have access to the police
video storage servers?

2) I would strongly suspect (I don't know for a fact) that
there are safeguards in place that prevent tampering
with this digital video evidence. And these safeguards
are stronger than those available for physical evidence
like video cassettes. The officer could "accidentally"
lose or damage a video cassette. With computer control
over the digital evidence, I don't suspect most cops
would be able to hack the video server and surgically
alter the files. Note that even the "not saved" footage
from the patrol is saved for 90 days. Plenty of time
for a victim of police abuse or a good samaritan like
yourself to subpoena the footage.

-- TRW
_______________________________________
My e-mail: t r w 7
@ i x . n e t c o m . c o m
_______________________________________