Video Software Blurs Faces, Markings, Tattoos to Protect Privacy - Smart Redaction

Utility Associates Inc., today announced it has unveiled a state-of-the-art software that will blur-out faces and personally identifiable markings such as body tattoos to protect the privacy and identity of victims, innocent bystanders, minors and undercover police officers in police In-Car and Body-Worn video.  This technology, Smart Redaction, will save millions of dollars in manual video redaction labor costs and further ensure police protection, accountability and transparency.

Smart Redaction enables 21st Century Police Accountability and Transparency by removing cost as a barrier to releasing body-worn video on a timely basis.  As police departments equip all officers with body-worn video cameras to record exchanges with the public, there will naturally be a big increase in FOIA requests for those body-worn video recordings.  

The Smart Redaction software as a service can automatically identify and redact all faces and body parts in a video.  Alternatively, a video administrator can select one or more objects in a video to redact.  Smart Redaction then redacts the selected object(s) as they move around in the video.  A third alternative is to select one or more objects to not redact, and then Smart Redaction redacts all faces and body parts in the video except the objects selected to remain clear.  Audio can also be selectively redacted during a specific timeframe in the video to help protect victims, minors and/or bystanders.  Smart Redaction does the redaction work on a copy of the original video.  The video administrator gets a notification when the redacted video is completed and ready to distribute. A video administrator can launch any number of video redaction jobs in parallel.  The original video is retained and is never modified, so the Legal Evidence Chain of Custody is protected.  A Police Department can quickly redact video and audio at low cost to protect public confidence. 

An example of how Smart Redaction works can be seen on the http://www.SmartRedaction.com web site. 

Smart Redaction’s is integrated into Utility’s AVaiLWeb Video Management software as a service.  There is no additional cost to subscribers using the Utility Evidence Ecosystem cloud product suite for In-Car Video dashcams and Generation 2 BodyWorn police cameras.