RAND Corporation research

Using Video Analytics and Sensor
Fusion in Law Enforcement
Building a Research Agenda That Includes Business
Cases, Privacy and Civil Rights Protections, and
Needs for Innovation
SUM M ARY
On July 12–13, 2017, on behalf of the National Institute of
Justice (NIJ) and the Priority Criminal Justice Needs Initia-
tive, the RAND Corporation, assisted by the Police Execu-
tive Research Forum, held a workshop on video analytics
and sensor fusion (VA/SF) at the NIJ offices in Washington,
D.C. The panel was structured to reflect four top-level ques-
tions:
1. What are the core public safety applications for VA/SF?
2. What are the specific VA/SF tasks needed to carry out
those applications?
3. What security, privacy, and civil rights protections are
needed?
4. What technology, policy, and educational needs for
innovation are most important to address?
The panel specified four key business cases for employ-
ing VA/SF in public safety, summarized in Figure S.1. The panelists collectively noted that the use of VA/SF to detect crimes and
major incidents potentially in progress (accidents, fires) was the highest priority business case. An example comment was that “we
want to stop [crime] from happening, not investigate it later.”
The panel also identified a core set of technical functions for supporting the business cases and needs for core bodies of research
on recognizing objects and events in images, video, and other sensor feeds; developing computational infrastructures; and provid-
ing a range of security, privacy, and civil rights protections. The body of this report provides detailed lists of common objects and
behaviors that VA/SF systems should be able to detect, along with a list of common security, privacy, and civil rights protections
that should be integrated into VA/SF implementations.
The panel generated 22 high-priority needs for innovation to enhance the effectiveness and security of VA/SF for law enforce-
ment. These 22 needs, combined with discussion about the business cases and enabling research at the workshop, inform creation of
an investment roadmap that describes necessary investments and whether they are near- or long-term investments. Table S.1 sum-
marizes the resulting investment roadmap.
In general, the panel found that VA/SF were extremely promising technologies for improving public safety. The capability to detect
crimes or major incidents was seen as potentially very valuable for society. The panel also said that VA/SF could be of great benefit in
investigating crimes and incidents, could provide major time-savers through automatic reporting, and could support performance mon-
• There are 22 high-priority needs for innovation to enhance the
effectiveness and security of video analytics and sensor fusion
(VA/SF) for law enforcement.
• VA/SF could be of great benefit in investigating crimes and
incidents.
• VA/SF could support law enforcement by monitoring officer per-
formance and protecting officers’ health and safety.
• The risk

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