Law Enforcement
Utility Introduces Revolutionary Crime Scene Documentation Technology At IACP 2016
Utility, Inc., announced that it will now offer the industry?s first digital crime scene imaging system, the Smart Scene 360™. This new product represents the next generation in the evolution of body camera technology and it is intended to provide a higher level of situational awareness while enhancing mission critical intelligence. Smart Scene 360 —along with Utility?s full suite of products, including BodyWorn™— were on display at the recent IACP expo in San Diego. Utility provided a virtual reality room at IACP so that attendees could personally experience Smart Scene 360.
Panasonic Showcases Next-Gen Security For Law Enforcement At IACP 2016
Panasonic, a leading provider of advanced mobile technology and video evidence solutions for the government and public sector, announced that it has been officially awarded a contract for Arbitrator Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) from Rutgers University, New Jersey?s largest institution of higher learning. With the rollout scheduled for completion in 2016, officers are already patrolling campuses in Camden, New Brunswick, Piscataway, and Newark with the equipment. In addition, the NJ cities of Long Branch, Asbury Park and Rutherford started to roll out Panasonic body-worn cameras this past summer. In South Carolina, the Greenville County Sheriff?s Office is deploying 300 Arbitrator 360 in-car video systems.
Security Camera Registration Program Launched in Beaverton (Ore.)
Police in Beaverton (Ore.) have launched a security camera registration initiative here in an effort to fight crime, including acts of terrorism. ?Surveillance video is huge,? Beaverton Police Officer Jeremy […]
Sacramento Mayor Promises Police Reforms After Videos Of Fatal Shooting Made Public
Sacramento police on Tuesday released video that shows a mentally ill man running from police officers, then stopping to gesture at them before they shot him dead in July. The police released the video and related audio hours after The Sacramento Bee posted surveillance video of the incident it had obtained earlier Tuesday. Sacramento City Council members viewed the footage released by police in closed session Tuesday night. During the public portion of the meeting, Mayor Kevin Johnson promised to propose a set of police oversight reforms in coming days. The mayor said he felt a ?sense of urgency? for the city to take action.
Why Video Everywhere Is A Boon -And Bane- For Police
Video technology and terrorism have in many ways revolutionized American policing. Since 9/11, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has built up a network of some 8,000 surveillance cameras constantly on watch over its streets, tunnels, and bridges. And this week police were able to glean information from grainy captured images, identify a suspect behind last week?s pressure-cooker terror bombing, Ahmad Khan Rahami, and then capture him quickly within a 48-hour span. But what some might call the brave new world of video surveillance has had its flip side, too. Dashboard camera technology, the growing use of clipped-on body cams, and of course the presence of civilian smartphones ? each has become part of a rough-and-ready system of checks and balances between police and civilians, operating now in a fast-evolving landscape in which proliferating digital lenses record more and more encounters on the street.
How A Prison Drug Smuggling Case In Kansas Led To A Showdown Over Recordings Of Inmate-Attorney Talks
When attorneys said in court recently that phone calls between lawyers and inmates at Leavenworth Detention Center had been recorded and obtained by federal prosecutors, the development was just the latest revelation in what a United States public defender says was a systemic violation of constitutional rights.
‘Predictive Policing’ Isn’t In Science Fiction, It’s In Sacramento
Sacramento —like New York, Houston, Miami, St. Louis, and other cities before it— is looking at the next step: the launch in October of a ?real-time crime center,? a central location from which officers could monitor all their existing surveillance technologies, PODs included. The idea is that consolidating information about criminal activity —from stalking complaints to potential lone wolf terrorist attacks— would make law enforcement more effective at investigating and perhaps preventing some incidents. The process would also promote accountability and transparency at a time of rising tension between police and the black community, providing evidence of both police and suspect behavior during tense encounters, proponents say.
Why We Must Continue To Turn The Camera On Police
When MIT grad student Steve Mann began wearing a computer and a head-mounted camera every moment of the day in 1981, he wasn’t thinking of Black Lives Matter, racism, or police violence. But Mann, now a professor at the University of Toronto, may have given us the key concept for understanding the role of ubiquitous cameras in documenting police violence against people of color. Thirty-five years ago, Mann began thinking about a future that seems increasingly real?a world in which cameras are ubiquitous and can store and share what they see. Mann believed that his Eyetap system would be helpful in enhancing human capability and memory, allowing complete recall of past events. But he also predicted that it would have powerful social effects as millions of people with connected cameras could collectively hold authorities responsible for their misdeeds.
4 Ways Intelligent Video Analytics Enhance Body-Worn Cameras
Body-worn cameras have been a growing trend in the law enforcement community for the last several years. Yet, as agencies worldwide establish body-worn camera programs, they are challenged with how to access, manage, protect, search, and easily share that video. The hundreds to even millions of hours of video that agencies —depending on size— are capturing weekly is simply overwhelming them and complicates compliance with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Criminal Justice Information Standards (CJIS) requirements. Agencies can deploy Video Analytics solutions to help them face these challenges in four key ways.
Thorny Legal Issues Surrounding Body Cameras: From Privacy To Public Access
More and more law enforcement agencies across the country are outfitting their officers with body-worn video cameras and report better policing and public behavior as a result. But Jim Bueermann, president of the Police Foundation, a Washington, D.C. organization that helps improve policing through research and training, said ?There?s more we don?t know about the impact of body worn cameras than what we do know.? From privacy, public access, to cost.
SG-System 5 Integrates With Manitou Central Station Software From Bold Technologies
Tyco Security Products is announcing an enhanced integration between its SG-System 5 receiver and Bold Technologies? Manitou central station software. The enhanced integration means that Manitou now supports visual alarm […]
Tyco Security Products Introduces World?s Most Accurate Reader, Contactless Biometrics
Tyco Security Products introduces the Safran MorphoAccess SIGMA Series access control high speed biometric and card reader featuring the world?s number one performance-ranked fingerprint technology and the world?s only single […]
How Police Body Cameras Change Our Perception Of Right And Wrong
There was something about the sudden, near-universal praise for police body cameras that rubbed Seth Stoughton the wrong way. A law professor at the University of South Carolina who has […]
Burger King Manager Told Grand Jury of Gap in Laquan McDonald Video
As the shocking video of a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald is played worldwide, other footage from the scene that night has gone missing. Minutes after McDonald was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke on a Southwest Side street, several police officers entered a Burger King located just yards from where the teen fell, demanding to view the restaurant’s password-protected surveillance video.
Netvision Brings Mobile Video Surveillance to Law Enforcement at IACP 2015
Netvision will be exhibiting at booth 552 and is excited to introduce its new line of mobile surveillance trailers and pole mount camera systems to the thousands of law enforcement officers who will be in attendance. Their new line of security and surveillance solutions was designed specifically for law enforcement, military, homeland security and emergency management applications.
Skid Row Shooting Tests LAPD Body-Worn Cameras Procedures
The officer-involved shooting Sunday, March 1, on skid row that left a man dead could be an early test of the Los Angeles Police Department’s new body camera program for officers. The encounter was recorded by body cameras worn by at least one of the officers involved in the incident.
Seattle?s Police Department Has YouTube Channel for Body-Worn Camera Footage
At the end of last year, the Obama administration pledged $263 million in federal funding for police training and body cameras. Since then, cities around the country, from New York to LA, have been testing body cameras in their police forces. But we’ve yet to see what any of that body camera footage actually looks like – until now.
Police Tout Benefits of Surveillance Cameras
High-tech surveillance cameras are going up on street poles in suburban South Jersey communities where they are being used as virtual patrols to stretch police departments. Many have been installed quietly, netting a rash of drug dealers as well as petty criminals. In Riverside, NJ, a blue-collar town of 9,000, the equipment was used in recent years to disband a burglary ring and a Bloods Gang affiliate known as Sex Money Murder.
Oregon Lawmakers Propose Bill Allowing Body Cameras, Citizens Recording Police
Oregon lawmakers are working on a bill that would require the state’s police officers to wear small body cameras like the one modeled on a New York City police officer at a news conference, above. Recent high-profile police killings and the double murder of two New York City policemen have made body cameras for officers a popular idea that Oregon legislators are already moving on.
Few Laws Regulate Police Use of Surveillance Systems
Police across the country are using increasingly sophisticated surveillance systems to monitor daily life in their communities. Ultra-high-definition cameras, software that can read license plates and recognize faces, and systems that can alert police to suspicious behavior have given law enforcement unprecedented access to our everyday activities. Average citizens and privacy advocates say the ability to monitor and record public activity at such an extraordinary level is a threat to personal privacy.