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Law Enforcement
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On-camera confessions
Chicago PD keep video record of homicide interrogations
Dec 21, 2005
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by James Careless
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Chicago has a history of deploying leading-edge law enforcement technology. For example, when 9/11 made the lack of interconnection between police, fire, and other government radio users tragically clear, Chicago was one of the first U.S. cities to deploy the JPS ACU-1000 audio bridge, which interconnects incompatible radio systems and switches signals between them.
When the state of Illinois passed a law requiring that the audio from homicide interrogations be recorded in its entirety, it wasn't surprising to see the Chicago Police Department do more than the minimum. In this case, the CPD elected to capture these interrogations on video, then store them digitally using TranTech's CLEARView Visual Interrogation System. By implementing CLEARView -- which went live on July 18 -- the CPD not only ensured complete video recordings of all homicide investigations, but did so using a system that is easy to access, supports detailed searches using 20 different fields, and produces DVDs.
Room With A View
The story of the CPD's video implementation goes back a few years, when the department was looking for ways to comply with the homicide interrogation recording law. As fate would have it, they saw a TranTech news release detailing a contract with the Department of Defense, recalled Mark Wells, TranTech's technical director. Under that contract, TranTech is being paid $9 million to supply CLEARView installation and multi-year support to the DOD's American Forces Information Service, the Defense Visual Information Center, the Joint Combat Camera Center, and the Joint Visual Information Services Distribution Activity agency.
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| The I-CLEAR case management system provides a 65 TB storage capacity, which is enough to fill more than 14,000 DVDs. |
Having selected CLEARView, the next step was to deploy it in the CPD's interrogation rooms. "We have 37 rooms in all, spread across six different physical locations," said CPD program coordinator Lt. Marty Ryczek. "Each of these was equipped with a CCD camera capable of shooting color in lighted conditions, and black-and-white via infrared when the lights are out."
To make CLEARView work, the cameras in each of the six locations are now connected to a TranTech server on the premises. The video is encoded into MPEG-4, so it can stream high-quality video over LANs and the Web. In turn, these servers are connected by the City's 1 GHz fiber optic cable network to a central server running the CPD-developed I-CLEAR case management system.
With a 65 TB storage capacity, which is enough to fill more than 14,000 DVDs, the CPD hopes to have enough room to keep five years worth of interrogations on the server, according to Ryczek. Older video will be archived elsewhere, using a format yet to be determined.
Clips And Compliance
Besides ensuring that the CPD's homicide investigations are in compliance with state law, CLEARView offers investigators some distinct advantages. First, all the detective has to do is push one button to activate the system. CLEARView handles the rest, including marking the time, date, and room location on the video files.
Because the CPD has configured CLEARView to record up to 48 hours at a time, there's no need for the detective to worry that his recording is running out. He also doesn't have to worry about losing the recording if the power fails, because CLEARView captures each session as a series of individually-stored sequential video files. The system even has an "attorney/client privilege" function that turns off the recording during such conferences, yet keeps the time clock running to provide accurate documentation.
The simplicity of the CPD's CLEARView system, combined with the department's infrared-capable cameras and ceiling-mounted microphones, improves the suspect's chances of making slips on camera when they think they aren't being observed.
I-CLEAR's Web browser-style interface allows the detective to add more details to the video clips after the interrogation is over, to allow for easier cross-referencing by other officers in the future. "We didn't want the detective to be distracted by adding lots of details during the interrogation," Ryczek told Government Video. "So the system is designed so that they can do this at their desktop later, adding useful information such as the interviewer's and interviewee's names to the file at that time. We have developed our own background search engine to take advantage of this capability. We can now search by case number, time, location, suspect name, or the last time he was interviewed."
Officers can also set electronic "markers" on their video files, allowing them to get to the clips they need fast. Plus, the I-CLEAR system provides a record of who accesses video from the server anytime they do so. This provides the CPD with control over the system, aided by the fact that the files are tamper-proof.
Finally, when a complete copy of a given interrogation is required, the CPD can make one with a few mouse clicks. "We have a robotically-controlled DVD burner connected to I-CLEAR," explained Ryczek. "We just select the file, and the burner does the rest. Thanks to MPEG-4, we can burn up to five hours worth of video on one DVD." In instances where time is of the essence, the video can be transferred electronically using an FTP site.
Making Progress
Since going live last summer, the CPD's CLEARView and the CPD's I-CLEAR systems have been working overtime. "In four month's we've done over 218 interviews, and used about 3.5 terabytes on the I-CLEAR server," Ryczek reported.
In doing so, the CPD is creating a video database with tremendous short term benefits, as far as homicide investigations are concerned. However, this video could prove to be profoundly valuable in the long term as well.
For example, having access to complete interrogations from 2005 may help detectives crack future cases in years to come. Should the same subject end up back in custody, investigators can prepare themselves by reviewing the earlier interrogation first, in order to get insights that could help during questioning.
Meanwhile, there are times when a department's past investigations are called in question, either by the media or the defense during a case. Again, having a complete video record easily at hand is an effective tool in answering these questions both in court and on TV, providing protection to the detectives involved and the department in general. In addition, having access to such videos will help police improve their interrogation techniques, and teach these techniques to new detectives.
MORE INFO
TranTech www.trantech-inc.com
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