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From:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Digital-Police.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>
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Digital-Police.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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