Rochester Police Accountability Board Adopts Reduct.Video to Transform Police Misconduct Investigations
About the Rochester Police Accountability Board
The Rochester Police Accountability Board (PAB) is an independent, community-led municipal agency that investigates police misconduct and ensures accountability and transparency within the Rochester Police Department (RPD).
Created by Rochester voters, PAB’s mission is to: Ensure public accountability and transparency over the powers exercised by sworn officers of the Rochester Police Department.
They aim to reimagine public safety by holding officers accountable, pushing for systemic reforms, and amplifying community voices.
The need for a better video investigation solution
Inefficient note-taking & review – Investigators had to manually record timestamps and create separate documentation files, making it difficult to review evidence, locate key moments, and build cases.
Manual synchronization of multi-angle footage – Investigators often found that the officer accused of misconduct had the least useful camera angle, requiring them to cross-reference multiple body-worn cameras to capture a full picture of events. Doing this manually requires frame-by-frame analysis using advanced video-editing software, making investigations slower and more complex.
Challenges with clipping – Investigators relied on Microsoft SharePoint and Genetec Clearance to view videos, neither of which were fully fit for purpose. These platforms don’t support in-platform video clipping. This forced investigators to download entire videos and clip out key portions using various third-party tools.
Video playback on SharePoint – Playback of video hosted on the organization's SharePoint instance was slow to play back and review for investigations.
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Is there a way to take all the body-worn camera files we have from a case, put them in a web browser for an investigator to look at, and have them already be synchronized? And then secondarily, could there be transcription?
Casey Asprooth-Jackson, Digital Forensic Analyst at PAB
The Rochester Police Accountability Board needed a faster, more scalable way to review body-worn camera (BWC) footage. As their caseload grew, the Board recognized the need for a technology solution to manage large volumes of video, speed up reviews, and improve investigative accuracy.
Faster, smarter investigations with Reduct
After evaluating multiple solutions, PAB adopted Reduct.Video to improve their video investigation review and team collaboration.
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To immediately have access to frame by frame advancing of three videos is a massive step forward.
Casey Asprooth-Jackson, Digital Forensic Analyst at PAB
Multiple body cam synchronization – Reduct automatically syncs body-worn camera footage from multiple officers, making it easier for PAB to analyze incidents from all angles and different officer’s perspectives.
Tagging & categorization – PAB can now use Reduct’s tagging and taxonomy system. Investigators now organize and tag video clips by types of misconduct, making it faster to identify patterns across cases.
Effortless video clipping and sharing – PAB can now easily clip key video moments within Reduct and share the video evidence without needing to download files or use additional video editing software.
Better performance – Rochester finds Reduct’s video playback faster and more flexible than the systems they were using before, allowing them to focus on identifying key evidence instead of dealing with slow video playback.
Better collaboration – Color-coded visual highlights help investigators quickly identify key moments in large video files. Reduct also improves collaboration with comments and easier handoff from one investigator to another.
Kannan Tyagarajan
Director of Investigations
Reduct has already had a positive effect on our investigative workflow...
Kannan Tyagarajan, Director of Investigations
The current process of reviewing video evidence is time consuming as it involves manually synchronizing video, transcribing audio and analysis.
In just a few months, Reduct has already had a positive effect on our investigative workflow and the efficiency with which we review video evidence. It will help investigators close cases faster, and more effectively provide the accountability our community seeks from law enforcement.
Welcome, Rochester Police Accountability Board
The Rochester Police Accountability Board has reduced the complexity of handling large volumes of bodycam footage. Investigators can now review cases more efficiently, cutting down on time-consuming manual processes.
We’re proud to support your mission!
