Force trials live video feeds for real-time situational awareness

City of London Police is to trial new technology that will allow live transmission of video and audio from officers’ body-worn video (BWV) cameras and in-vehicle mounted cameras to a central control room.

It will be the first force to test a live feed from these devices and will allow tactical decisions to be made more quickly and efficiently in response to threats around London. Traditionally, officers have used radios to verbally relay situational intelligence.

With the new technology from Xtralis, specialists in command and control solutions for first responders, police central monitoring stations can view live video and audio from the incident scene to better assess situations and more efficiently deploy appropriate assistance.

City of London Police Commissioner Adrian Leppard said: “Xtralis approached City of London Police to understand how we operate and how they could help our mission. Xtralis was quick to demonstrate a promising solution that could provide us live video and audio feeds from vehicles and officer-worn vests direct to our central monitoring stations.

“Having more eyes on developing situations allows for better decisions and quicker and more efficient response, so we are happy to explore and work with Xtralis to perfect these solutions for the City of London.”

Mr Leppard said “technology can be the officer’s best friend”, adding: “The general public and the police officers benefit when there are many eyes on a potential situation or actual crime. Xtralis live monitoring solutions can, in a remote location, help to assist officers at an incident scene and provide appropriate assistance as needed.”

He said City of London Police will be working with Xtralis to further advance these solutions “as they will put more eyes on the street”.

Samir Samhouri, chief executive officer and chairman of Xtralis, said it was “honoured that City of London Police is working with Xtralis to partner on exploring the advanced technology solutions for live monitoring of police response and protection”.

The force could also be given the power to take CCTV footage from consenting shops and businesses and send it in real-time to an officer’s phone or tablet computer.

Similar tactics were used recently in the lead-up to the raid by French police on a Jewish supermarket during the terror attacks in Paris, with the live feed from inside the shop providing vital intelligence in preparation for breaking the siege.

The Dubai Police and Spanish National Police have already adopted the live streaming video technology from Xtralis.