Analytics in Action: Safe Cities
Combat Crime, Improve Public Safety, and Foster Economic Development with BriefCam Video Analytics
DELIVER SAFE, SECURE, AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES
From local police forces to military units and federal agencies, law enforcement worldwide relies on video surveillance for intelligence crucial for preserving order, protecting citizens, and increasing security. By collecting and structuring video data, the BriefCam Video Analytics Platform empowers law enforcement to get the most out of their video content and build safer cities.
ACCELERATE INVESTIGATIONS
- Powerfully accelerate time-to-target by reviewing hours of video in minutes and pinpointing objects and events of interests across cameras.
ATTAIN SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
- Proactively respond to events as they unfold by triggering real-time alerts based on complex object classification and recognition filter combinations. A concurrent number of objects appear in a predefined area within a certain time period.
DERIVE OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE
- Quantitatively analyze video metadata with easy-to-use dashboards to uncover patterns, drive strategic decision making, and optimize operational and business practices
TRANSFORMING CITIES WORLDWIDE BY OPTIMIZING SAFETY & EFFICIENCY
CHICAGO, IL POLICE DEPARTMENT
To track and deter crime, the Chicago Police Department has a new high-tech analytics center that
leverages tens of thousands of police and private sector video surveillance cameras, as well as gunshot detection platforms, predictive mapping and data analytics. The CPD combines BriefCam video analytics with other capabilities enabling state-of-the-art investigative techniques. Thanks to video content analytics and traditional police detective work, it didn’t take long for the Chicago, IL police to crack a highly unusual and high-profile case of an alleged hate crime early in 2019.
Jussie Smollett, the actor from the hit TV series “Empire,” had claimed to be the victim of a homophobic and racist attack. To isolate video segments relevant to the Smollett case, police detectives used the BriefCam advanced video analytics tools to quickly search through video segments from hundreds of cameras, according to Jonathan H. Lewin, Chief of CPD’s Bureau
of Technical Services. The video analytics and CPD interviews with suspects led to the arrest of Smollett.
“Video from inside the vehicle, along with a series of public and private cameras on the North side of the city, allowed investigators to track the subject’s movement backwards to where they came from prior to the attack, which ultimately led to their identification.“
Jonathan H. Lewin, Chief of the Bureau of Technical Services, Chicago Police Department
SPRINGFIELD, MA POLICE DEPARTMENT
The Springfield, Massachusetts Police Department launched its Real-Time Analysis Center (R-TAC) three years ago as part of its commitment to using the newest tools of the digital age to give officers the most current information for real time crime analysis and situational awareness. The BriefCam VCA software is an integral component of the R-TAC because it allows analysts to quickly review footage from traffic cameras at any of several dozen locations around the city. Analysts can condense hours of footage into a couple of minutes and enable police to pinpoint objects of interest, filtering out irrelevant objects.
When a 911 call comes in, dispatchers coordinate the address on the map with the nearest traffic
cameras in the area to see if there is footage of potential suspects coming or going. If there’s a
description of a car fleeing the scene, they can quickly review footage from cameras nearby,
filtering out traffic that does not match the description. Working with information in real-time
increases officer and civilian safety as officers respond to incidents. During a recent
fatal shooting incident, R-TAC analysts were able to quickly view several perspectives of the crime
scene via different cameras, and deliver timely, accurate and actionable information to the responding officers.
“There’s a lot more it [BriefCam] can do. It’s a phenomenal tool that allows us to operate pretty quickly up here.”
William Schwarz, Director, Springfield Police Crime Analysis Unit
COEUR CÔTE FLEURIE COMMUNITY, FRANCE
The Cœur Cote Fleurie Community encompasses multiple municipalities along the Normandy coast in France, which work together to streamline operations, development and planning for the territory. Video surveillance plays an important role in the communities’ digital infrastructure,
but the review and monitoring of video demands significant time and manpower. The community
implemented BriefCam’s video analysis platform in 2016, to help law enforcement – including the local governments, municipal police, national police and gendarmerie – streamline video review and evidence extraction.
The technology has been used for supporting investigations, detecting traffic violations, and
recognizing traffic patterns throughout the territory. Law enforcement can search for specific objects or people of interest and drive investigations where there are
few known facts about the target. “By delegating video review tasks to BriefCam,” says T.I.C Manager, Dominique Marchive, “we are able to more quickly understand security incidents and trends throughout the region. The ability to accelerate investigations saves tremendous time – especially with high volumes of video footage to review.