Focal Forensics
A Trusted Transparency Tool For Law Enforcement Agencies

Body cameras are reshaping people's perspectives of policing. Footage released from these gadgets plays a crucial role in preserving the transparency and accountability of law enforcement, along with gathering evidence and progressing an investigation.

However, in order to release crucial video footage, police departments need to redact the footage and prevent all sensitive information—like witness IDs, vehicle information, and victims’ details—from public viewing. They also need to do this complex task quickly and with 100 percent accuracy to aid the investigation process.

This is challenging, as these agencies are often faced with poor software solutions and lack skilled media forensic professionals.

Operating with a mission to be a trusted tool for media redaction, Focal Forensics leverages a collection of software and operational standards for the acquisition, redaction, and release of image, video, and audio provided by law enforcement agencies. Some of its employees are retired officers from police departments, municipalities, and government agencies who understand the nuances and requirements of their respective bureaus and help appropriately deliver the redacted footage.

“We possess a deep understanding of how to handle forensic video analysis requests and put forth that same process for all our video redaction work. This repeatable process enables the timely release of redacted footage, even if proprietary video formats are involved,” states Zac Giammarrusco, co-founder of Focal Forensics.

Focal Forensics is also instrumental in resolving the problems faced by agencies due to the high cost of processing, storing, and releasing the body-worn camera footage generated. To help agencies, it maintains competitive pricing and has the adequate workforce and technological support to process the hefty load of footage daily. For instance, it regularly assists police departments tormented by a massive backlog where they are mandated to release the footage within a specifically set period of time which is often less than two weeks.

Focal Forensics has also come to the rescue in many situations where the department was drowning in public records requests and helped them reduce the burden of video redaction entirely.

In another instance, Focal Forensics released a critical incident involving multiple video sources including CCTV and BWC footage. It contained sensitive information, including the suspect's identifying information and arrest details. Focal Forensics amended the media using high-quality redaction techniques and protected the privacy, while preventing further tensions between the public and the police.

After acquiring the body-worn camera video from agencies securely, Focal Forensics begins the media redaction process. It has built guidelines (SOPs) for each agency and communicates with the department's records staff to ensure the requirements are met prior to beginning the project. The company also performs a rigorous quality assurance process on each video frame to ensure 100 percent accuracy for each project. Its media-sharing platform has been built around Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Guidelines, providing clients with a frictionless experience from acquisition to release.

We possess the technical, forensic, and legal acumen to redact all their sensitive media materials and follow scientific procedures to process them, enabling the timely release of the redacted footage

Focal Forensics believes that ‘the slightest error is crucial, and finding those errors is detrimental’ while working with law enforcement agencies. To that end, it also employs trained professionals with ability to operate linear video editing programs, offers security training to staff, and uses a collection of the latest tools to achieve the desired accuracy.

“Our customer service delivers each agency a seamless experience. We understand their workload and operational distinctions and handle each agency exclusively,” notes Steve Bufalino, co-founder of Focal Forensics.

Along with a discrete focus on tools, talent, and technology to provide the perfect redaction service accurately and timely, Focal Forensics also maintains a strong organizational culture and provides mental health resources to employees.

Focal Forensics' dedication to accuracy and aspiration to be helpful to law enforcement agencies makes their services a trusted choice for clients.