THUNDER BAY — City police provided an update on an AI program that is used for investigations.
BriefCam has been used in three active investigations outside of its testing period.
A homicide investigation, a collision, and a missing persons case have utilized the artificial intelligence program since its official launch in December 2023.
Det. Insp. Jeremy Pearson spoke about the ease of use of the program.
"The training was very thorough. It was quite rigorous and the program itself is quite user-friendly," Pearson said.
"The use of the program hasn't been subject to too steep a learning curve — the learning curve is partially in keeping this tool in the consciousness of investigators and reminding people that we have this tool to be accessed."
Pearson said the program is not used to actively surveil video feeds and is only for investigative purposes when the footage has been obtained through legal means.
"We use the program only when there's a public interest that outweighs a privacy interest," he said.
"We've been pretty rigorous in terms of taking hard-line steps such as simply stating and sticking to the fact that we don't use facial recognition software.
"BriefCam isn't a program that is being used to monitor live video. Those are the key controls that we have in place to reassure the public and to meet our obligations to privacy interests.
"With that said, the other controls we have in place are that the software is approved for use by four trained members of the service at this time, and there is a process by which approval from either myself or my designate is required in order for the software to be used."
Pearson said the program saves officers many hours of manually watching footage, as it can process a significant amount of data in a fraction of the time it would take an officer.
"The investigative process is still entirely dependent upon a trained investigator who then goes with human eyes and an investigative mind, reviews the footage and takes what is evidentiary out of that.
"So the real benefit of the service into the investigation is it expedites investigations, and it saves time by identifying for investigators objects, people, incidents of interest for them to go and review."
Pearson said investigators use the program on an as-needed basis, depending on each case.
"Say there's an investigation that happens and we immediately know that there is a vehicle of interest that is distinctive, and we have a direction of travel — then we're able to obtain video footage.
"We can start using the program to try to rapidly address the movements of that vehicle or of a person, or, an object of interest that we want to track the movements of.
"The key for us as investigators is to keep this tool in mind and to be constantly assessing at what point the tool is going to be of the greatest benefit and when it's most going to expedite the investigation."
Katie Nicholls is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with Newswatch
