What are the reasons for video redaction?

Law enforcement agencies and criminal justice organizations release multimedia for a variety of reasons including:

• FOIA (Freedom of Information Act)
• Court orders
• Increased transparency
• Use in criminal prosecution or civil litigation

What needs to be redacted?

Each case is unique as state and local legislation mandate what should be redacted before release. The most common redaction requirements that are necessary to maintain the privacy of individuals include, but are not limited to minors, victims, witnesses' names, all personal data, date of birth, age, sex, home address, telephone numbers, family members, place of employment, vehicle information (license number, or VIN), HIPAA, and medical information.

What are the different methods of redaction?

Full Frame Redaction

This method is applied during circumstances when the entire video frame needs to be obscured to protect information that is either very close to the lens of the camera or large enough to fill the entire frame. Other situational circumstances can require full-frame redaction including a hospital or private residence that could expose security information and private details. When attempting to determine if full-frame redaction is the most appropriate form of redaction, one should always take into account the type of information and the amount of transparency that is required.

Selective Redaction 

As the name implies, this method is applied selectively within the video when individual faces or objects are visible on the frame and background information must be retained. This type of redaction requires the forensic video examiner to track objects using an automatic or manual process. The goal during the tracking process is to create accurate keyframes or motion information and obscure moving objects throughout sequential video frames. Many factors can inhibit the success and accuracy of motion tracking including extreme motion, poor lighting, and low-resolution video.