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Seattle Police Held Hackathon To Redact Footage From Body Cameras
An anonymous reader writes: Hackathons are common these days, but you don't often hear about events hosted by law enforcement. That's what the Seattle Police Department did on Friday, with the solitary goal of finding a good way to redact the video streams taken by police body cameras and dash cameras. Seven different teams demonstrated solutions, but in the end, none thought automation could realistically handle the task in the near future. "The Washington State public records act requires that almost all video filmed by any government agency – including police – be disclosed upon request. The only real exception is for video which is part of an open case currently under investigation. However, various parts of the state code include other restrictions – the identity of minors cannot be disclosed. Requests from victims or witnesses who may be at risk if their identities are disclosed also must be honored. However in all such cases the video still must be released – it is just the faces or other potential identifying characteristics, which might include gender or even a person's gait – which need to be blurred and redacted." The city just started a pilot program for body-worn police cameras.
The problem, of course, is that the whole point of body cams was that we can't trust the police, so any means of redacting content which needs redacting will likely be used to redact anything which casts a bad light on the officers.
It will be redacted for FOIA requests. But the original video will still be available for other purposes. For instance, if someone sues the police for misconduct, they could subpena the original uncut video. If the police charge someone with a crime, then that defendant's attorney will also have access to the original video.
Exactly,
The conspiracy theorists have to dial it down a bit.
The redacting is for faces that must be protected by law, such as children, and witnesses.
Hardly make sense for the police to release photos of witnesses so that the thugs homeboys can put a hit on them.
The redaction is Like the redaction on street view, blurring of faces.
There are also places where the police have no right to film, such as in homes.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
seattle's the city that tried to set up a secret police surveillance system (based on MAC addresses) using the free city-wide wifi network, so any inconvenience caused to the police is well deserved. they can kiss my ass.