Midlands Police force improve their covert surveillance operations. (Darc)
When a major midlands police force TSU wanted to set up a covert surveillance operation they almost always used a CCTV camera and a video recorder set to time-lapse mode. Every 24 hours they would return to the scene to change the tape and then sit and watch the recording for three hours to find what they were looking for.
Such an approach will be familiar to anyone involved in covert surveillance as will the problems associated with it. The first problem is, of course, the sheer waste of manpower. Sitting and watching a videotape for three hours and possibly only finding one incident is, to say the least, mind numbing. Concentration fades and the very events that are expected can easily be missed.
The other problem is that of constantly changing the tapes. Not only is this time consuming but it also increases the chances of the operation being discovered. So when the head of the TSU, was given the opportunity to test a new product which claimed to make covert surveillance more efficient and more effective, he jumped at the chance.
The product, called Protrax DARC from a Birmingham company called Scyron, was a small, self-contained unit which could easily be left on site with a CCTV camera. Using a detachable screen, keyboard and mouse, the TSU team found that they could quickly and easily define the parameters of the events they were expecting to see. For instance, if they were only interested in filming people going through a particular door or getting into a particular car, they could set the system accordingly. They could then leave it to get on with the job. Protrax DARC would actively watch the scene and when the specified event or events occurred it would record them in full to the built-in hard disk. It could even be set to record a few frames both before and after each event.
But the real benefits came later. Because of the capacity of the hard disk, the system could be left untouched for a considerable period of time. In fact all the events in an entire surveillance operation could usually be stored on the system. No longer did the TSU team have to constantly re-visit the site to change tapes. Nor did they have to watch endless hours of video to find a few minutes of interest. At the end of the operation it was simply a matter of retrieving the Protrax DARC box and then watching just the events, all of which had been recorded in sequence.
The TSU team gave Scyron feedback on improvements that they felt could be made to the system. Now Protrax DARC incorporates standard Wireless capabilities. This means that a member of the TSU can sit in a car some distance from the surveillance site and, using a laptop PC, remotely examine the recordings which the system has made. Having looked at the frames, which triggered each recording, it is even possible to copy any recordings of interest straight to the laptop. When an event occurs, the operator can be informed immediately via the wireless link if this is key to an operation. In addition t is now possible to set the system up remotely from the laptop using the wireless link.
For this police force, the process of obtaining evidence and intelligence has been made more successful. For the TSU the process has been made easier. As the man in charge says: “Everybody does motion detection, Protrax DARC allows us to define the motion we are looking for.” A clear case of technology delivering operational advantage.
