An ACE review established that police forces could realise
efficiency and productivity savings of 60% through better use of
automated redaction tooling.
The volume of digital evidence in investigations, including
body-worn video, mobile phone footage and CCTV, is increasing
dramatically, and with it demand for technology that can automate
the currently time-consuming process of redacting sensitive
details such as personally identifiable information and vehicle
registration numbers.
Estimates suggest that better utilisation of automated
audio-visual multi-media (AVMM) redaction technology in
police forces across England and Wales would rapidly reduce the
amount of time frontline officers are currently spending on
manual redaction activities.
The current average is nine hours to redact around 60 minutes of
visual media.
Through previous discovery, it is clear there is tooling
available but that maturity varies, with a trade-off between
speed and accuracy.
However, this work also showed that the use of technology can
significantly support the challenges officers face throughout
their individual redaction processes, improving productivity and
efficiency as a result.
Understanding the current state of play
The Home Office asked the Accelerated Capability Environment
(ACE) to
carry out a comprehensive landscape review to establish the
current state of play across police forces and the challenges
they face when conducting the redaction process.
Following this, work was continued across a Police Engagement
workstream and a Market Engagement workstream, exploring
different areas of the end user process to better understand the
bigger picture of how redaction is utilised within
policing.
Through Police Engagement, 16 police forces were involved.
Information was gathered via interviews with various operational
teams, run throughs of current processes and capturing of
end-to-end user journeys to understand in more detail the
challenges faced.
Assessments of the time to redact files were carried out as well
as an assessment of the current tooling being used and the
significant limitations these have on the user
workflow.
The second workstream focused on a market evaluation of the
current technological capabilities, to understand how far these
meet AVMMredaction
requirements and needs, as well as balance technical capability
with compliance and security standards.
ACE
conducted this work in partnership with Blue Lights Commercial
and were able to run demonstrations of six different commercial
off the shelf tools with a varying maturity in the AVMM space. This included a
review of speed and accuracy for each.
Significant efficiency savings identified
After consolidating the key findings from both workstreams, it
was found that up to 60% efficiency savings could be achieved by
using automated redaction tooling.
Additionally, more clarity and consistency on policy and the
requirements for redaction on a given case would lead to the
depth of efficiency savings that improve force ways of
working.
Wider benefits would include quicker criminal justice outcomes
and a positive impact on police officer and wider staff
morale.
AVMM technology
could be transformational for policing and implementing effective
technology and efficient operational processes will be critical
to realising this full potential.
