News | CCTVImage
THE INVESTIGATION of the Boston Marathon bombings developed quickly with the release of CCTV footage of the two prime suspects, but it has been revealed by a senior figure connected with the investigation that facial recognition software played no role in the identification.
Boston bombings: CCTV crucial but facial recognition a failure In the meantime, police were worried about
Within hours of the bombings, investigators were dealing with thousands of still and mov- ing images of the area around the bombings, images taken from phones, personal cam- eras and CCTV. Boston Police commissioner Edward Davis said dozens of investigators looked through hundreds of hours of video, looking for people “doing things that are dif- ferent from what everybody else is doing”. From scores of potential suspects, the investigation soon began to focus on two men who would later be identified as the prime suspects. Although they had images of the two men, one wearing a black baseball cap and the other a white one, they didn’t know who they were.
In an attempt to identify the men, images were circulated to law enforcement agencies and run through a facial recognition system. According to the Washington Post, Davis was told that facial recognition software had not been able to identify the suspects, even though photos of both of the men – brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev – existed in various government databases and despite the fact that the FBI had previously investigated the older brother. It’s not known what facial recognition sys-
tem the investigators used, but given the qual- ity of the images from the CCTV cameras, it is unlikely that any facial recognition system would have had enough pixels to analyse. What we do know is that there is more to recognising a person than their face. In the same way that you can spot a person you know in the crowd by what they are wearing and the way they walk, people who knew the brothers would have been able to quickly identify them from the video.
a parallel, amateur investigation being coor- dinated online which had wrongly identified several bystanders as suspects.
The decision to release the CCTV footage when they did, despite the risk that the sus- pects might run or conduct another attack, was taken partly to head off the amateur investiga- tion and partly to identify the suspects. Within hours of the release of the footage, the brothers were on the run, sparking a gun battle and a city-wide manhunt with resulted in the death of the older brother and the cap- ture of the younger one.
In the end, despite all the talk about the use of crowd sourced images and automated facial recognition, it was the investigators, methodi- cally combing through CCTV evidence that cracked the case. While CCTV didn’t prevent the bombings, it underscores the power of CCTV video surveillance as a post-incident investigative tool. • Read more on page 12
CCTV monitoring cuts will increase crime and disorder, claim Weymouth traders
Retailers in Weymouth and Portland have voiced concerns that crime could increase if proposals to cut round-the-clock CCTV coverage go ahead. Weymouth and Portland Borough Council are facing budget cuts and have outlined plans to cut spending on CCTV surveillance by £100,000. This would see the current 24 hours a day, seven days a week, monitoring cut in half. Traders in the area fear the reduction to 12 hours a day of CCTV monitoring, which will see the most active times observed, will result in a rise in crime and vandalism, impacting on the town’s status as a tourism hotspot. Tom Philips, outgoing chairman of the Weymouth Shopwatch Scheme, told the Dorset Echo that CCTV is second only to the police as “the most important tool in helping to fight crime within the town centre”.
Retailers currently benefit from the peace
of mind of knowing that CCTV observers are always there to observe and report criminal’s behaviour and location and relay this informa- tion to ensure quick assistance from the police. There are fears the removal of the round- the-clock surveillance will encourage criminal activity and put some shoppers off from coming into town centres across the towns. Philips said: “CCTV is one of the most vital links we have to pro- vide safety and security to us and members of the public. “As a town and county that thrive on the tourism trade, this would have a detrimental effect on our economy.
“Added to this is the increased risk of violence towards our shop and security staff, who try to provide a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for all who visit.”
Weymouth Shopwatch has launched an online petition calling for the council to re-consider the plans to cut CCTV monitoring. It describes the plans as “downright dangerous” for people who rely on it for their safety, such as police, security staff and emer- gency personnel. The petition reads “the loss of the CCTV system WILL result in higher crime levels and ultimately a reduction in tourism”.
Spring 2013 8
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