Device that lets police access thousands of surveillance cameras underway

A newly developed system could allow law enforcement to tap into thousands of public surveillance cameras. Created by researchers at Purdue University, the system would let officials see locations and viewing angles of the cameras used in garages, campuses, highways, and other public spaces. The developers say this could be used to increase public safety, […]

A newly developed system could allow law enforcement to tap into thousands of public surveillance cameras.
Created by researchers at Purdue University, the system would let officials see locations and viewing angles of the cameras used in garages, campuses, highways, and other public spaces.
The developers say this could be used to increase public safety, helping law enforcement to quickly respond when necessary, and plan rescues during natural disasters or other public emergencies.
The new surveillance system
The system combines Visual Analytics Law Enforcement Toolkit (VALET) and Continuous Analysis of Many CAMeras (CAM2).
With these capabilities, operators can see the visualizations of multiple data sets, including an interactive and analysis tool.
The first system can show crime locations, emergency medical service runs, gang graffiti locations, calendar events, and weather, while the latter shows locations and orientations of public network cameras.
CAM2 can locate and identify particular cameras, and even determine its orientation.
This means it knows if it is indoors or outdoors, for example. Then, the information is easily readable through maps and visualizations.