Police in Seattle have launched a YouTube channel to share officer body camera footage with the public, while using software written by local developers to blur and redact the videos in a bid to protect privacy.
Facing a flood of requests for public disclosure, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) was at a loss on how to efficiently redact the videos in order to protect the privacy of both officers and suspects. According to a Seattle Times report, the SPD has collected more than 1.5 million videos – 364 terabytes – over the past five years.
The software currently being tested was conceived during the December 2014 'hackathon,' following the SPD’s call for help to local tech talent. Initial videos uploaded to the channel (SPD BodyWornVideo) were taken at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day protest.