Video Surveillance is nowadays an integral part of many police investigations. There are cameras everywhere in any city: traffic cameras, public security cameras or private ones (ATMs, stores, etc.). When something important happens, like a crime or an accident, Law Enforcement usually checks out all the cameras in the area to find clues or suspects. But not all surveillance video is born equal. Sometimes it’s mission critical…

What is mission critical video?

In short, it is the video that is critical to solve a case. Either by its time-sensitive nature (the suspect may still be in the area), or by its contents. In other words: without that video it is most likely that the case isn’t going to be solved in time, or even be solved at all. But not only the contents of the video may be of importance, but also the capabilities of the platform that ingests, analyzes and stores the video. If you can’t access the information in time, it is of no use. Hence, the “mission critical” part applies to the complete chain of elements that allow you find the information you need, when you need it, from anywhere you may be. So let’s see the three main topics that are of importance in mission critical video:

Real Time Analytics

When the video contents are time sensitive, because the accident or crime has happened only minutes ago, having real-time analytics is mission critical, because you need the information as soon as possible, before the suspect leaves the area, or to gather all the possible evidence, before it disappears (like possible witnesses, and the like). Our Intelion Media Investigation platform has the possibility of including real-time and near real-time analysis of video feeds or recordings, so you can get the information you need with minimum delay, while the trails are still hot and people in the area. Be it bodycam footage, security camera recordings or traffic cameras, all can be ingested in Intelion and the AI analyzers report back to you as soon as they found a match with what you are looking for (faces, number plates, voices, etc.).

Forensic Analytics

An excellent complement for the real-time investigation capabilities are the forensic analytics. In other words, sometimes you need to see what has happened before, not only in the area of the event, but also in the surrounding areas or, in the worst case, the whole metropolitan area. For this you need to resort to recordings of security cameras. Once you have the first available data, like a face or a suspicious number plate, you can feed that information to Intelion and have it analyze the recordings of cameras surrounding the area of interest, going backwards in time, until there is a hit. In these cases, you can reconstruct the path the suspect or vehicle took before the event, and add this information to the investigation. Analyzing hours of video can take only minutes due to the intelligent analyzer bus, which discards all non-relevant footage to concentrate on the important parts.

Mobile alerts and access

In any of the previous cases you need to be able to keep doing your work while the system works unattended on the material and parameters you have specified. When a match is found, Intelion sends you an e-mail or contacts you via any messaging platform to alert you immediately of the match. You can even get a screenshot or short clip of what has been found, to immediately evaluate its usefulness. All of this information can be send to colleagues or superior, to keep the chain of command informed of all progress, at all times.

Conclusion

When it comes to mission critical video, you need flexible tool that allows you to do your work, while it works in real-time on video feeds or on recordings, searching for the information you need, that is extracted via artificial intelligence analyzers. When something is found, you get alerted, so you can decide what the next steps are, which the proper evidence in hand, and available.