"BriefCam" Allows Police To Identify People By What They Are Wearing And Carrying

By MassPrivateI

In the span of two years, law enforcement’s ability to identify the public using BriefCam has gone from disturbing to frightening.

A recent article in Twin Cities Pioneer Press revealed how the St. Paul Police Department uses BriefCam to identify people, cars, and physical objects.

If they’re looking for a blue car or a man wearing a white shirt, for example, algorithms can pinpoint when those objects appear in videos from particular locations and times.

Law enforcement uses BriefCam to look for more than just a single blue car or a single person wearing a white shirt; it will identify every blue car and person wearing a white shirt.

If, for example, police are told a suspect was a male wearing a hat and backpack at a particular intersection, technicians can enter the terms “hat” and “backpack” to search CCTV videos for people with those objects.

credit: Twin Cities Pioneer Press

Police are using BriefCam to identify people by the type of sneakers, shoes and handbags people are wearing or carrying. But to do that, law enforcement uses BriefCam to surveil everyone, regardless of guilt or innocence.

BriefCam boasts that they use 27 classes and attributes to identify people in unimaginable new ways.

Quickly search and filter objects and events of interest by men, women, children, vehicles, and lighting changes with speed and precision, using 27 classes and attributes, in addition to face recognition, appearance similarity, color, size, speed, path, direction, and dwell time, providing an ever increasing and powerful set of distinct search combinations.

If you think that police tracking people based on 27 classes and attributes is frightening, then wait a couple of years until BriefCam expands to 50 or more ways.

BriefCam’s “Video Content Analytics Technology” also allows police to use multiple CCTV cameras to pinpoint people on bicycles or inside vehicles or by specific objects they are carrying.

Advanced multi-camera search powerfully identifies men, women, children and vehicles of interest with speed and precision, using face recognition, appearance similarity, apparel, color, size, speed, path, direction, dwell time and illumination change filters.

What does this mean for everyone’s privacy?

Police now have the ability to identify a person who is trying to hide their identity from them by using a mask, umbrella, hat or sunglasses. Would anyone like to bet that one of BriefCam’s 27 identifiable attributes also includes necklaces, earrings, piercings or rings?

Ben Feist, American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota chief programs officer warned, “BriefCam is fundamentally changing the way that you police people.”

Of course none of this would be possible, if it weren’t for Smart City surveillance. In fact BriefCam’s success at identifying everyone is dependent on the continued growth of Smart Cities.

BriefCam’s Video Content Analytics capabilities enable both private and public sectors to deliver safe, secure and sustainable cities by reducing the crime rate, optimizing pedestrian and vehicle traffic flow, monitoring these trends over time, and enabling proactive response with real-time alerting.

If you think I am exaggerating BriefCam’s role in smart city surveillance, then why did they write these two articles? BriefCam’s “Smart City’s Complete Guide To Face Recognition”, “BriefCam at Work In Safe Cities”.

BriefCam’s claim that smart city video surveillance is great for everyone really does not even come close to telling people the truth.

Taking advantage of the video surveillance systems deployed throughout these metropolitan areas, Smart Cities are unlocking the treasure trove of value in their video systems.

BriefCam’s attempt to obscure what is really happening can best be summed up like this:

Law enforcement and private companies are “taking advantage of video surveillance systems in metropolitan areas” by finding new ways to identify each of us. Smart cities allow police and corporations to unlock a treasure trove of data about everyone.

Article source: MassPrivateI Blog

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