Awareness and Preparedness: Los Angeles Police Department
Within the Media Relations Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Observer provides a powerful and easy-to-access solution for information officers to remain aware of breaking news items. The Observer plays a critical role in LAPD’s efforts to share information internally and stay prepared for events requiring a law enforcement response, such as terrorist activity. The system receives live video feeds from all national and local news outlets, as well as closed-circuit city channels and downlinks from police helicopters. Officers can easily access and search archived video for any material concerning the LAPD and law enforcement in the city of Los Angeles.
Prior to the Observer, the Media Relations Unit relied on an analog system in which each broadcast was displayed on a different monitor and recorded onto videotape for later reference. The system required constant live monitoring by public information officers, who then had to search manually through videotaped recordings to find archived clips. The Observer removes videotape from the process, continuously recording and displaying broadcasts from all channels on a single monitor and giving officers access from any networked PC with a Web browser. Since the Observer uses closed captions to index video in its database, the system can issue alarms and trigger e-mail notifications, complete with a clip of the video, when a breaking news event is taking place. In addition, the closed caption database enables officers to search for and retrieve archive clips quickly and easily, and then e-mail them to others in the department.
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