It is 7am on what seems to be just another Monday morning as throngs of weary commuters stream into a crowded city subway.

A security operator at the transit control center is just beginning her workday too - when she's jolted to attention by a loud beep. Instinctively, she shifts her attention to a large video monitor mounted on a control center wall. Camera 48, on the mezzanine level of the subway station, has just detected an abandoned bag. Reaching down to her terminal, the operator instantly replays the last two minutes of video. She sees a man carrying a black briefcase come into view, glance over his shoulder, then conspicuously stash the briefcase and briskly walk away. As the operator views the last few seconds of video, her supervisor, alerted by pager, rushes into the room. In the frantic ensuing moments, the station is evacuated and the city bomb squad arrives to diffuse the explosive device, averting near certain catastrophe.

Now law enforcement authorities have another challenge on their hands: catching the would-be terrorist. They have little to go on. In the subway video, the man's face is obscured by a brimmed hat and dark glasses, making him nearly impossible to ID.

But soon, a string of clues emerge. An eyewitness, suspicious of the man's odd behavior, snapped a cell phone picture of the man as he made a bee-line from the scene. Hypothesizing his likely exit, investigators then examine video from a nearby department store entrance to the subway station, and find video of the man making his getaway. The same individual, without hat and glasses, is captured on city surveillance cameras less than a block away, jumping into a waiting van. The van's license plate can clearly be made out on the video.

The investigators scan back through more of the department store video tape and see the man entering the station hours earlier, loitering nervously and talking on his cell phone. They now have a complete timeline. Putting all of the pieces together the police follow the trail of evidence back to a likely suspect.

It's a "gotcha" story that's fictitious, but not far from reality.

In the UK, where there are an estimated 4 million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 Britons - video surveillance was credited with helping to track and identify the suspects in the July 7, 2005 London suicide bombings and the foiled London car bombings just this year.

The U.S. is embracing its own brand of video surveillance. Fueled by new technology, continued security jitters, and homeland security grants, U.S. cities are setting up their own video surveillance networks. By one estimate, nearly one in four major U.S. cities is investing in the technology. Smaller municipalities are also getting into the act, as are airports, transit hubs, shipping ports, retailers, and critical facilities. Cameras are even being affixed to intersections to catch would-be speeders and red light-runners. There are an estimated 30 million surveillance cameras in the U.S. capturing billions of hours of video footage every week.

Video surveillance has been a boon to law enforcement. It has been used in drug busts; to net out vandals, prostitutes, burglars, and car thieves; and nab perpetrators of more violent crimes too. In recent memory, videotape helped authorities ID a man who abducted an 11-year year old girl in Florida. He was later convicted in her kidnapping, rape and murder.

Other forms of video are finding their way into the digital evidence stream too. In car (police) video has been used to document everything from routine traffic stops to high speed pursuits.

Then there are the cell phone video clips and pictures taken by ordinary citizens who suddenly find themselves in extraordinary situations. In one documented case, a passer-by stumbled upon an attempted kidnapping in progress, dialed 9-1-1, and then used his cell phone to videotape the kidnapper's car and license plate as it sped away. The observer's quick thinking led to the suspect's capture and arrest.

Catastrophic events of our time have also been captured on camera phones - the Virginia Tech massacre, September 11, the London subway bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the Glasgow Airport attack, and the recent bridge collapse in Minneapolis, to name a few. The dramatic images not only captivate the public, they capture the imagination of law enforcement officials - because the images bear witness to what happened.

Next Gen 9-1-1: A Rising Tide of Multimedia
More than 230 million Americans use cell phones and some eighty percent of cell phones purchased today have camera and videotaping capabilities built in. While people are accustomed to using their cell phones, computers and handheld devices to exchange videos, text messages, and photos - they still can't transmit them to 9-1-1. But that's about to change. Plans are underway to replace the nation's aging 9-1-1 network with an IP-based Next Generation 9-1-1 'internetwork.' Next Gen 9-1-1 will open up a floodgate of multimedia emergency communications, which could lead to a rising tide of cell phone photos and videos making their way into the digital information stream.

Therein lies the problem - and the opportunity.

"Emergency communications as we know it are going to change dramatically within the next decade," says Mike Coleman, Bureau Chief of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office Administrative Services Bureau. "We're going to have voice, video, text, images, telematics, and data. And we'll have a lot more video coming at us too - from building cameras, vehicles, incident scenes and traffic cameras."

But, he says, it could be a nice problem to have.

Agencies will be able to begin to build their cases in the field, Coleman explains. "The voice and the visual cues of a scene might tell us how effective our first responders were in responding to an incident. When we're able to take our field audio, video and data and put it together, we'll be able to augment our understanding of incidents - and look at what happened in a way that we couldn't before."

According to Diamond Chaflawee, one of the patent-holders and inventers of a solution that helps agencies analyze, manage and share multimedia incident information, the extent to which public safety operations are able to put all of this multimedia information to good use boils down to one fundamental principle. "It's about getting the right information to the right people at the right time," he says. "Whether that means improving the way public safety operations detect threats, respond to incidents, or prosecute crimes."

Homeland security concerns are also a driving force of change. "After the 9/11 attacks and the incidents in London, Tokyo and Madrid, security has come to the forefront of the public safety agenda," says Chaflawee. "Agencies are re-assessing their role from just being first responders to being 'first preventers' too." And he adds, technology is helping public safety step into this dual role to address a broad spectrum of security issues.

Chaflawee points to a number of solutions which work together to help public safety operations extract insights from multimedia. Included among these are intelligent video surveillance, voice and video (multimedia) capture, and multimedia incident information management.

By employing these technologies and the five-prong approach below, Chaflawee asserts that public safety operations can sharpen their situational awareness; improve their ability to detect, evaluate and respond to threats; streamline investigations; increase responsiveness; and close the gap on crime.

Here's how the process works:

Step 1: Detection:
The first step is threat detection - having specific knowledge of an imminent threat as it's happening.

Consider the following. A network of 3,000 city surveillance cameras, recording 24/7, might capture a half-million hours of video footage each week, more than 2 million hours a month. But in terms of detecting a specific threat (as in our abandoned briefcase example), only 2 minutes of that video would matter - not the other 1,999,999 hours and 58 minutes when the cameras were watching but nothing happened.

By themselves, CCTV cameras don't see anything - but they do provide a window into what's going on - for human eyes. The problem is, human beings aren't wired to sit and stare at video screens for hours on end. Fatigue, boredom, distraction and sensory overload quickly set in, impairing an operator's ability to detect something awry.

An intelligent video solution, also called "smart video," solves this problem by using video analytics (pre-set algorithms built into the video surveillance system software) to identify and detect specific threats, conditions, or behaviors. Think of the video surveillance camera as an unblinking eye; then think of the analytics as the brain behind the lens. Smart video doesn't require human eyes to detect an impending threat - it relies on the pre-programmed intelligence of the surveillance system.

The video analytics software monitors live video feed from the cameras to detect potential threats as they occur. This reduces the likelihood of human error and increases the likelihood of detecting threats. But relegating threat detection to the system doesn't mean that humans don't have an important role to play. Offloading threat detection lets control center personnel focus on what they do best - making decisions in critical situations.

Many smart video applications are used in public safety today. The abandoned bag scenario is just one example. City centers are using gun shot detection software coupled with video surveillance to detect crimes in progress. When the software hears the gunshot, the surveillance camera can pan, tilt and zoom in on the direction of the shooter. Another application is license plate recognition (or ANPR), which scans license plates to ferret out suspects with felony or misdemeanor warrants, vehicles that are stolen or involved in Amber Alerts, and even possible terrorist targets. Intelligent video surveillance is also used for intrusion detection, crowd control and perimeter protection. Biometrics is another developing area of smart applications where intelligent surveillance cameras can recognize faces.

Step 2: Verification
Detection is just the first step on the security continuum. Before first responders can respond, the nature and seriousness of an incident needs to be assessed.

How real is the threat? Is it an impending disaster, or a false alarm?

The clock is ticking. If the control center operator waits too long to act a dangerous situation could escalate out of control. But making the wrong decision - a misinformed one - could lead to bad consequences too: misallocated resources, a costly evacuation, widespread panic, a too little too late response, or worse - loss of life.

Fortunately, intelligent video surveillance systems have built in capabilities that can help the operator rapidly and accurately evaluate the potential threat. When the system detects a threat and signals an alarm, it automatically displays the relevant video footage. The operator can instantly replay the video to review what just happened, while simultaneously surveying live video from the same scene. Together, these two pieces of visual information help the operator assess the nature and severity of the threat.

By clicking on a suspicious object on a video monitor screen (for example, the abandoned briefcase in our example above), the operator could also immediately initiate a replay of a video from the exact point the object in question came into the scene.

Step 3: Resolution
Once it's determined that a threat is real - the next step is response, which leads to resolution.

From the control center operator's standpoint, responding to an incident boils down to two things - knowing what actions to take, and acting quickly.

From the standpoint of emergency personnel, an effective response hinges on years of training and experience. But tons of know-how is no substitute for a clear understanding of what awaits. It's essential for first responders to know what they're getting into - before they step into a situation.

Intelligent video surveillance technology accelerates and improves the response to incidents in several ways.

First, in addition to alerting the control room operator of a threat, the system can immediately send out an automatic notification up the chain of command or down through the response organization.

Second, the system can incorporate relevant task lists based on pre-defined response scenarios - so the control room operator immediately knows what to do next. When a threat is detected, instructions specific to that incident type automatically pop up on the operator's screen, directing what steps to take, who to contact, and providing other essential data.

Third, the system ensures that first responders have access to vital video information. The same on-scene video seen by the control room operator can be streamed to mobile units or incident commanders in the field, for viewing on a laptop, PDA or other handheld device. This real-time capability puts everyone on the same page, using video as a common reference point for understanding and resolving the incident.

Step 4: Investigation
Another key step in the security process is the investigation. Investigations might be conducted to uncover the facts surrounding an incident, or to gather evidence for an arrest or prosecution.

The term "digital evidence" would have been foreign to Perry Mason, the famed attorney from the popular 70s' television series by the same name. But now-a-days, it's more common than not for the outcome of an investigation to hinge on multimedia - the voice recordings, the video, the GPS data, even cell phone photos. The problem is - most of this information is typically stored in different formats and different systems that weren't designed for interoperability, if the data is even kept at all. This makes it difficult to connect the dots in an investigation.

Then there's the problem of too much information. The July 7, 2005 bombing of the London Underground is a case in point. Investigators had to sift through thousands of hours of video to compile a visual history of the suspects' actions prior to the bombing.

Today's technology offers a solution to these problems. The same content analytics available for real-time threat detection can be applied to the investigative process too. Investigators can perform content-based video searches to quickly zero in on video that's likely to be of interest in an investigation. For example, an investigator might search for video based on suspicious objects, movements, behaviors or events. Some systems can even detect faces in video recordings and then build a visual database, just like a photo-album, to help police cull out suspects.

With the addition of multimedia incident information management, investigators can assemble voice, video and other multimedia information into a 360-degree reconstruction. Think of voice recordings and surveillance video as the puzzle pieces in a case. Now envision multimedia incident information management as the glue that holds them together.

Chaflawee explains: "Basically with one query you can very quickly and synchronously assemble multimedia information from different sources to get a complete visual and audible timeline of an incident." The reconstruction could include 9-1-1 calls, dispatch communications, radio transmissions, related ANI/ALI or GPS information, surveillance videos from various scenes, and even the call-taker/dispatch workstation screens displaying the GIS, AVL, CAD, or location-enabled imaging information at the time of the incident.

Another important thing that Chaflawee points out is that critical incidents may not have defined geographic boundaries. An incident may start in an adjacent city, on a bus or train, or when a suspect arrives at the airport, leaving a trail of video and voice recordings. Furthermore, the response might involve multiple federal, state or local agencies and jurisdictions.

Multimedia incident information management brings all of these elements together to provide a wider and clearer view of an incident from different vantage-points - within the ECC, in the field, and on the scene.

The technology also allows agencies to collaborate on investigations in ways that they couldn't before. Previously, individual evidence, like voice recordings, or video, would need to be shuttled from location to location. With the new technology, multimedia incident reconstructions can be organized into centralized shared incident folders which can be accessed remotely by all of the different departments or entities collaborating on an investigation. The contents of the incident folder can also be burned onto a CD or DVD, or zipped and emailed. The system maintains an audit trail to track who does what and to protect the chain of custody of the incident information.

Step 5: Prosecution
The security process comes full circle with the final step - prosecution.

Government statistics indicate that crime in the U.S. is on the rise, with violent crimes such as murder increasing by nearly 2% last year alone. The murder rate in America's largest cities (with over 1 million people) rose a whopping 6.8%.

Prosecution is the key to getting violent offenders off the street and successful prosecutions depend on solid evidence.

Big city police departments often employ dozens of records custodians working round-the-clock in shifts to handle the thousands of subpoenas and reproduction requests, most of which originate from District Attorneys (DAs). In some cases, the volume of requests is so high, it can be difficult to keep up. The fact that there are now many different potential sources and types of multimedia evidence can further compound this problem.

Timeliness is critical too. Multimedia evidence can be crucial in every stage of the judicial process, even at an arraignment which can take place just days after a suspect's arrest. Evidence presented at arraignment can sway a judge to set bail at a higher level, or remand a defendant to custody.

With multimedia incident management technology, evidence can be prepared, packaged and delivered to DAs in a secure, expedited and automated way.

First, the same incident folder that was created by the investigator can be easily retrieved and copied for a DA, so agencies don't have to do double the work.

Second, agencies can now provide DAs with more of the multimedia evidence they need to win convictions. There are literally hundreds of potential sources of information and evidence that might be vital to reconstructing the facts of a case - the voice and video timeline, crime scene photos, fingerprints, arrest records, incident reports. Now all of that information and evidence can be consolidated in one place and authenticated through the use of digital signatures.

Instead of handing the DA re-recorded tapes and reams of paper, the agency can now provide all of the necessary evidence in one incident folder, burned onto a CD. Or the agency could choose to email a link to the DA who can then securely access the folder online.

Just as investigators need to put the pieces of a case together, so too do juries and judges. It's critical for a DA to be able to show them how the evidence comes together. Multimedia incident information can help a prosecutor do exactly that.

To illustrate, let's revisit our hypothetical subway incident. Our story left off with our seasoned investigators following a trail of evidence back to a suspect. Now it's the DA's turn to present the case in court. Key among the evidence disclosed to the judge and jury is the visual timeline - from the moment the suspect entered the station through the department store to his getaway in the van.

As the jury deliberates the DA ponders the possible outcomes. Any one piece of video or evidence alone might not have been enough, but he's confident that together - the video timeline, the cell phone photo, the GPS data, the eyewitness account - offer indisputable evidence tying the man back to the crime and the scene.

Hours later, he learns that his hard work, and the evidence, paid off - as the jury returns and delivers a guilty verdict.

And so our story that began in near calamity finds its perfect ending - case closed.