New AI technology in Cumbrian CCTV is 'not Big Brother'

Officers unveiled the new system on Tuesday (October 29), during Neighbourhood Policing Week.

It uses AI to rapidly look through thousands of hours of CCTV footage in a fraction of the time it would take human operators to identify individual people and vehicles – which are known collectively as "objects".

Organisers say that the time saved is important because it means that vulnerable people and violent suspects can be located sooner by officers and police can also be carrying out other duties while the system is searching footage.

When the system was tested in Kirkby Lonsdale, a town which has just two CCTV cameras, it identified 782 different objects and, on a separate occasion elsewhere in the county, it took just one hour and 20 minutes to go through 230 hours of footage and identify 450,000 objects.

It can distinguish between men and women, adults and children, types of vehicles, what people are wearing and the operators can used search filters, such as colours of clothing, to narrow down the range of objects.

(Image: Supplied)

Andy Petty, Cumbria police's CCTV manager, said: "The benefits are that the speed at which we can get through reviewing CCTV footage.

"We are inundated nowadays with CCTV footage, not just from our own cameras but from third party cameras, your Ring doorbells, shops, commercial footage and it takes an awfully long time for a human operator to review that CCTV footage and we are not that accurate when we do it.

"This system will do it far more accurately and it will do it in a fraction of the time. So, it is saving time, it is saving money and, most importantly to me, it is reducing the risk to the public because it means we find those violent individuals that bit quicker and we find the vulnerable people that bit quicker and get them to a place of safety."

He said that some of the force's cameras had four camera heads making up a 360 degree view, and he added: "So there are 125 feeds, in 80 locations, but that is due to go up in the coming months because we are expanding further."

Mr Petty said he was pleased that the system was now operational and added: "It is unbelievable. We've already processed 40,000 hours’ worth of footage operationally.

"To put that into context that is four and a half years’ worth of footage. What we have had to do is estimate how long it took to process that footage and I reckon it took about 16 days to process 40,000 hours’ worth of footage so the savings there are huge.

Andy Petty of Cumbria Police in the control room (Image: Ian Duncan/LDR)

"Another example of 250 hours of footage was processed in one hour and 20 minutes and it brought back 450,000 objects. We found what we were looking for within a couple of minutes of that job finishing.

"So, if you add that up within an hour and 45 minutes we had processed, reviewed and finalised over ten days’ worth of CCTV footage and that would have taken at least four or five days and we had wrapped it up in an hour and 45 minutes."

Mr Petty said that people should be reassured that it was not Big Brother and it was "not a risk to anyone's liberty or anyone's identity” and added: "This does not identify a person, it doesn't look at faces, it doesn't look at skin colour, hair colour, this looks at the colour of your top and the colour of your bottoms, trousers, shirts, skirts, shorts, whatever you are wearing, whether you have got a hat on, a backpack.

"This isn't about finding John Smith - this is finding a red top and blue jeans and we all own a red top and blue jeans."

Cctv Operator Adrian Bostock (Image: Ian Duncan/LDR)

Chief superintendent Carl Patrick, who has responsibility for operations command within Cumbria Constabulary, described the system as "a fantastic new piece of kit” that they had invested in and added: "It's a real game changer for us because it gives our officers and staff access to find victims and missing people and offenders far more quickly than ever before."

He also said that residents should be reassured that it was not "Big Brother" and added: "When we've done surveys with the public they are overwhelmingly supportive of the CCTV as a concept. CCTV in the UK has been in for 20 or 30 years, people are used to it.

"We record the data 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, but we only use it for a policing purpose. After 30 days the data is deleted unless we need it for evidence for court.

"So, all of the safeguarding measures you would expect are in place and that makes sure that we can keep the public safe.

"We also make sure that the cameras can't view into people's houses, we have got privacy settings within the system that stop officers and staff from doing that, not that they would, so we have thought about all the things that we can do to keep the system safe and make sure that we can keep the public safe in the process."

Ch Supt Carl Patrick (Image: Ian Duncan/LDR)

Ch supt Carl Patrick said the system was always being developed and work was carried out developing facial recognition tools. He added: "We are just doing some final testing of that and getting our policies and procedures in place and staff consultation and the plan will be to go live with that in the New Year."

It has been partly funded by the office of Cumbria's police, fire and crime commissioner and David Allen, who was elected to the post in May, praised the benefits of the system.

He added: "This new system is fantastic, new and emerging technology which saves police time. We have lots of CCTV cameras, we've replaced the ones all over the force and sitting behind it is AI technology that lets us home in and identify objects."

Mr Allen said the time saving feature was useful and added: "We've seen examples here today where over 30 hours of video was analysed by the system and reduced down to less than six minutes. That allowed the officers to find individuals really quickly, deal with the issue and protect the public."

He said it had been fully tested and it was now up and running. He said: "We are always looking to improve it. At the moment it is using our fixed camera sites and, in the future, we are looking to use other people's cameras, Ring doorbells and the cameras that our officers wear and again it will save officer time and better protect the public."

Mr Allen said that the amount his office had contributed for the equipment was "commercially sensitive" and added: "It's not cheap but it's a lot cheaper than another 10, 20, 30 officers sat pouring through 30 hours plus of video."

Dave Allen (Image: Ian Duncan/LDR)

He said that he was pleased that the equipment was now operational and added: "This is brilliant, this is proper Star Trek stuff really, it's next generation.

"Cumbria is one of the best performing forces in the country and I am really pleased with that. What this shows is that we are not resting on our laurels, actually we are always looking to improve.

"We know that numbers of officers, numbers of staff, are always going to be finite and this lets us improve that and expand our capabilities. It's a real force multiplier for us "