Forensic video analysts are about to get much better at sharing, which is not a promising development for the bad guys.
Through a grant managed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, four regional forensic video labs equipped with dTective, a suite of forensic video analysis tools from Ocean Systems powered by Avid NLE systems, will soon help coordinate and share forensic video evidence between law enforcement agencies.
Funding is from a grant from COPS, the Office of the Community Oriented Policing Services, part of the U.S. Department of Justice. The IACP is also partnering with the Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association to provide training for regional lab personnel (also funded by the COPS grant).
The regional labs will be operated locally and housed in law enforcement agencies across the country. Three of the four initial labs have already been established and should be operational by the spring -- the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office in Fort Worth, TX, the Raynham Police Department in Massachusetts, and the Cincinnati Police Department. The plan is to start with four regional labs and expand the program so it can grow regionally and nationally.
While the labs will certainly do their fair share (probably more) of forensic video analysis, they aren't designed to be the regional "one-hour photo" processing labs for investigations. Mike Fergus, video evidence project manager for the IACP, emphasized that the new labs are clearinghouses through which agencies can coordinate the sharing of information from cases involving video evidence.
Grant Fredericks, formerly of Avid Technology and now with Forensic Video Solutions, a private forensic video consulting business, compared it to the roundtable concept of regional robbery meetings between agencies -- but without the waiting. "I think you measure results by connecting similar fact cases," said Fredericks.
For example, say an analyst is assigned to a convenience store robbery case with two white male suspects that use shotguns. Through the managed site, he can search through a crime database and potentially find a link to associated crimes out of his jurisdiction.
According to Fredericks, it's the first time a plan has been developed to share visual information when suspects are still unidentified. "This is the new wave of evidence," he added. "This is a national database of criminals caught on tape."
As you've probably guessed by now, I think the introduction of regional forensic video labs is a great idea. Between the establishment of these regional labs and the new Forensic Digital Multimedia Evidence Training Lab that will be opened this month at the University of Indianapolis (see Government Video, January 2007), forensic video analysis is moving in the right direction toward the mainstream. That said, forensic video is still vulnerable in the court of public opinion (not to mention the courts themselves).
What's important at this early stage of the regional program is quality, not quantity. Officials need to make sure these first few regional labs will perform as advertised, and that inter-agency cooperation remains the overall objective. With the spotlight clearly shining on these national forensic video developments, maintaining outstanding standards and airtight methodologies remains critical.
Mark J. Pescatore is the editor. Contact him at mpescatore@nbmedia.com.
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