– specialist
The Guyana Police Force (GPF) cannot afford not to invest in security camera footage enhancement software, given that such footage could be useful for identification and evidential purposes, a specialist in the field surmises adding that while the equipment is expensive, its benefits to crime solving are remarkable.
Enhancing security camera footage has been a challenge to the GPF for almost a decade with the force’s technological skills under question as valuable evidence continues to be lost.
In January, 46 per cent of the murders committed were gun-related and there was footage of one killing. Stabroek News had learnt from a source that the shooting to death of waitress Kulmattie Singh was recorded by a camera at Safraz’s Bar and Restaurant. The David Street, Kitty night spot was stormed by three gunmen on the night of January 8.
Australian Jason Montgomery resisted the gunmen and was the first to be shot. Singh was then shot to the head and two other patrons were subsequently injured. Crime Chief Seelall Persaud later confirmed that police had indeed been able to recover footage of the incident. The recording, this newspaper was told, contained the shooting of Montgomery and Singh.
The Crime Chief had said that GPF’s Information Technology (IT) Department would have to do some work to enhance the recording. It was later disclosed that the footage was “too grainy” and police would be unable to clear it up enough to glean any useful information.
Is the police force equipped with the necessary computer hardware and software to enhance footage? Stabroek News has made several efforts to have this question answered by the Crime Chief and other police officials. When asked about this Persaud had told Stabroek News to contact the head of the IT Department. The Police Public Relations Department identified that head of department as “Mr Thomas” and provided numbers at which he could be contacted. However, Thomas has consistently been unavailable for comment.
During a recent visit to Police Headquarters, Eve Leary Stabroek News managed to view the IT Department. It consists of approximately 40 computers organized in an open plan layout. At the time, the facility was not in use and the computers appeared to be standard office desktops.
The security camera specialist, who requested that his identity not be published, told Stabroek News recently that there are several software packages that can be used to enhance security camera footage. While they are a bit pricy, he explained, the GPF needs such software and the advantages to crime fighting and solving would be worth it.
The most sophisticated software packages come with customised workstations. In fact, software designed for this purpose is often referred to as Forensic Video Enhancement Applications. Among these applications developed for law enforcement and military use are: Ocean Systems dTective, MotionDSP Ikena and Sarnoff Video ResolvR.
Ocean Systems dTective is among the more sophisticated software packages and comes with workstations. It can cost from US$12,000.
MotionDSP Ikena and Sarnoff Video ResolvR can be used with normal Windows computers (like the ones GPF currently has) and cost from US$7,000 and US$4,000, respectively.
“The least expensive software costs around $800,000 and you’d be surprised at what sort of magic it can work on grainy footage,” the expert explained.
MotionDSP Ikena, the specialist explained, is designed to enhance video from sources like surveillance and security cameras, cell phone cameras, and YouTube videos. This application stabilizes shaky video, cleans up noise, performs super-resolution enhancement to pull more details out of the scene. Instead of trying to enhance just a single image, the application can take advantage of the information from an entire run of adjacent frames to reconstruct the original scene with more detail by tracking common features across multiple frames.
“What I’ve just explained to you there about what the Ikena programme can do solves all the problems the police have had with grainy security camera footage,” the specialist stated.
Installing cameras
He continued to explain that in the interest of securing their business places owners need to be more aware of how technology evolves. If they learn how to apply the technology currently available then they automatically make the police’s work easier and will avoid many instances where blurry images need to be cleared.
Recently, a man was arrested and charged with the murder of Canada-based Guyanese Rawle Harding. He was shot in the chest when gunmen attacked and robbed popular night spot Cool Square. The arrest resulted from images that were left on security cameras set up inside the bar. The cameras captured the entire robbery, which lasted about five minutes. The face of one of the two gunmen was visible in the footage.
The Cool Square owner explained to this newspaper last week that it was a recently installed camera system which captured the footage. The old system, the owner said, recorded in black and white and the footage was extremely poor at night. It was knowledge of this poor night-time footage which prompted them to have infrared cameras installed.
“We installed the new cameras which record in colour during the day and clear black and white in the night and we still have the old camera system in place as back up,” the owner explained. “Security isn’t cheap and you have to invest to get it.”
The specialist reiterated the bar owner’s comment about a heavy price attached to security. Most business owners, he said, think that a camera is just a camera and that any sort will get the job done. However, this is not the case and great care must be taken before a concrete decision is made about installing a surveillance system.
“The infrared camera system installed at Cool Square is one of the best available on the market right now,” the specialist said. “In fact, the reason why police had so much trouble with the footage retrieved from the Safraz’s robbery is because that bar is still using the older camera system.”
Despite the fact that Safraz’s Bar and restaurant was using an older system, if GPF had the relevant materials at hand they would have been able to recover valuable information from the footage.
“It isn’t that it’s impossible for the police to use the grainy footage which is often recovered,” the specialist said, “but they need to invest and get the skills and materials they need to deal with this problem.”