Direct to Video

Hartsville, South Carolina may not be a metropolis by anyone’s standards. But when it comes to catching bad guys with video, its small brick police station on Main Street has become a central hub in the Southeast. And that’s primarily due to one officer.

Lieutenant Brian Rudick, a 13-year law enforcement veteran, started out analyzing footage a few years ago on a ‘cheap VCR-DVD combo, an old Sony time-lapse VCR and a TV.’

“I was just hoping to grab some screen shots. Anything to get a case going,” he explains. “The only other option at the time was sending it to the State Bureau. We had to drop it off at an evidence clerk, who is an hour away, and hope to get it back soon. But some cases are emergencies, so we needed something right here.”

It was around that time that videotaping hit what the industry calls ‘critical mass.’ In other words, every convenience store, bank, gas station and Wal-Mart started recording what their customers and employees were doing. More and more video started coming in, and started piling up.

“We were tagging video. Tons of it. Just putting it all in a box. It made me rethink how we were utilizing this evidence. We needed something beyond that.”

So Brian, who had hand-assembled his original ‘system’ (IE that VCR/DVD/TV combo), started looking into building a newer, more powerful one.

“But I quickly realized, with the legal issues and budget issues, that I needed a proprietary system. One built for this kind of thing.”

He started doing research, searching online and studying publications. He eventually selected StarWitness Video Pro.

That was 2005. Now Brian’s station boasts a state-ofthe-art video and audio system, including a server with a Terabyte of memory, a forensic video-enabled laptop, two monitors, hardware, a color printer and 5.1 surround-sound speakers.

But how did he go from an office stacked with videotapes and little way to process them to having one of the most sought-after forensics systems in the region?

It took some patience, classes, calls to Quantico and a few persuasive conversations with his Chief. But what it didn’t entail, at any point, was a single penny from him or his department.

“We got a Narcotics Grant, basically, through SLED (State Law Enforcement Division). That made it easier to convince Chief,” he says, laughing.

Once his agency secured the grant, it was just a matter of getting the necessary training. Like most officers of his generation, Ruddick had a basic knowledge of Windows and a facility with computers in general, but the training helped put him on a faster track.

“They were three-day classes. Simple explanations that gave me a big-idea perspective. Tech expertise on software–what filters do, how analog video is captured, deinterlacing. Just the background and the technical expertise
on the actual software.”

When he got back, Brian supplemented that training with “trial and error…learning the settings, seeing how it works. That’s where I got the most experience.”

And within two months of getting his system up and running, his expertise and new technology had resulted in an arrest.

“It was a forgery case, a bogus check. We had a real grainy, multiplexed shot of the suspect. When we cleaned it up, the case officer yelled ‘That’s Monterio!’ When we arrested the suspect, we brought along a nice, color 8X10 glossy. He confessed.”

Making His Case

Mastering the technology was just one dimension of his new tool, though.

“You had to show continuity of evidence for court cases. Show a judge the whole process. We took the entire system into his courtroom and explained to him what
some of the filters did. I did that once, and he hasn’t questioned any of it since.

“But we’ve had to educate people–defense attorneys, officers, the courts–what this technology can and cannot do. We call it the ‘CSI effect.’ It works for us and
against us.

“I tell my guys now, video is a tool. It’s not ‘plug my video in and I’m done.’ It’s a piece of evidence, just part of the case file. You never know what’s going to make
your case. So treat it like that. See what you can get out of it. It’s information…color of a vehicle, little details that can lead to a bigger picture when combined with other evidence.”



What people don’t know, though, can be a very valuable thing in some cases.

“Sometimes the bad guys don’t quite understand the limits. Which is a good thing. Sometimes you can only clean up an image so much. But I can throw that photo
down during an interview and tell them ‘I haven’t even started cleaning this up yet. Pretty soon, I’ll have it down to the pimples on your face.’ They usually fold.”

“We have an open-door policy. Detectives from all sorts of agencies bring us video. Even private industry. Our turnaround time is 24 hours. Sometimes, we can give it to them while they’re waiting. Usually before they leave we have a DVD or stills for them.”

Nowadays, the agency analyzes up 15 forensic cases a week (“depends on what the criminals decide to break into”). And Hartsville has become a true resource for
other agencies in the area.

What’s Next?

In the few years Officer Rudick has worked with video, he’s witnessed quite a few changes. So where’s he see this technology going in terms of helping law enforcement
in the future?

He sighs.

“It’s going to be interesting, with the FCC pushing us toward digital, which has its benefits and limitations now. I’m hoping that ICAP will support a particular standard
for a handful of recognized formats. We’ll need higher resolution, higher frame rates. That’s the challenge.”

He taps his desk and stares into the early morning sunlight, still considering the future of the technology that surrounds him.

“And circulation. Sharing the analyzed evidence, how that evolves, is exciting. Instead of just using stills to circulate to the press or in roll call. Depending on the type of case, I can see a higher level of connectivity making a huge difference for us. Remote access to businesses, schools, anywhere. So we can instantly download and circulate a bad guy’s photo or other evidence to every patrol car and officer in the area. And get the same kind of information back from those cars. That’s more than
just evidentiary. Even internal affairs issues could be resolved. That’s where I want to see it go.”

With so many cases–and a new promotion to Patrol Division Commander–under his belt, Rudick now has a simple, profound way to describe the power of using videos to capture criminals.

“I use the ‘light bulb in a dark room’ analogy. You go into a dark room, you can’t see anything until you reach over and turn the light switch on. You haven’t physically changed anything in the room. The data is in the image. We’re just bringing it out so you can see it.”

Be Like Brian
Lieutenant Rudick followed some easy, repeatable
steps to build and master his audio/video system.
His agency applied for and received:
• NARCOTICS GRANT through State Law Enforcement
Division (SLED) Counterdrug Technology Transfer
Program.
https://epgctac.com/
• Paul Coverdell Forensic Science Improvement Grant
Program through the National Institute of Justice
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/forensics/nfsia/
• Purchased StarWitness Video Pro and a state-of-theart
Audio System with grants.
www.starwitness.com
• Signed up for three-day Training Classes
18 www.starwitnessinfo.com/ForensicVideoTraining