Castle Shannon. First Police Department in PA to Use Body Camera Analytics. Plus Other CS Positives

CASTLE SHANNON, PENNSYLVANIA : April 19, 2023 By Jon Forrest Little

Backstory Before we discuss Castle Shannon Police Department's use of Body Camera Analytics we want to give props to Castle Shannon for some quality of life virtues.

Castle Shannon was recently featured in Best of Pittsburgh. There are lots of talks about up and coming places like Millvale, Lawrenceville, Bloomfield and then there are more exhausting talks about so called higher end neighborhoods (Mt Lebo, Upper St. Clair, Sewickley, Fox Chapel) but

Castle Shannon has many superior qualities such as:

1/ Affordable homes.

2/ Adorable deer dancing alongside wild turkeys.

3/ Best police force in Pittsburgh, most neighbors feel like they could keep their homes unlocked based on the high quality of police presence and spirit of community and civic pride. Neighbors watch over each other in a friendly culture harkening back to the 1950's sociology. 4/ The Renovated downtown is astounding, architectural, and attracting some significant investment and improved tenants. 5/ The Keystone Oaks school district is top notch. The kiddos have boutique bus transport that stops at almost everyone's home. Parents need not worry as the KO school district is on top of threats and their leisure and academic programming is creative and sparks enthusiasm in students which is a huge feat given the ridiculous shut downs associated with the mishandled lab leak in Wuhan.

5/ Castle Shannon Borough staff are responsive, efficient and visionary for recognizing the history of Castle Shannon while incorporating massive infrastructure improvements. The streetscape / hardscape project incorporating brick paving could be the Nation's Best renovation project we've seen. They did everything right.

The pavers are the correct texture (grain texture prevents people slipping,) laid tight without mortar joints is the proper technique, herringbone pattern is the correct aesthetic. Moreover, some would have opted for tumbled pavers but this would have created safety issues (women's heels caught in between bricks) Lastly, they selected the proper color.

Brick red is the most affordable color because the brick kiln doesn't have to heat up over 1,800 degrees. People that select gray colors pay more because the brick companies have to introduce minerals that are expensive and they have to turn up the kiln to close to 2,000 degrees.

Transition, we now pivot from discussing Castle Shannon in general to an important topic that is getting national attention. Public violence. Civil unrest. High Stress and Violence.

Cultural wars are at all time highs in United States. There are daily mass shootings, there are clashes in public, road rage incidents, fights that start on social media, economic inequality is creating class wars and there is a sense of angst and frustration as The Federal reserve has mishandled US monetary policy creating a banking crisis and inflation is just getting started.

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Unfortunately the police are set up to deal with the civil unrest that they did not create but stems from failures on a federal level. US foreign and domestic policy creates the chaos and then local police forces have to be on the front line to deal with the intensifying civil strife.

We are super impressed with how Castle Shannon is handling this. They inherited a social problem but are proactively using innovation and collaboration to tackle the impossible task of keeping us safe.

Castle Shannon Policing. Smart Technology to Reduce Escalation. New technology like "predictive analytics" machine learning or what they are calling Artificial Intelligence can help reduce incidents and assist law enforcement in several ways.

Here are a few examples:

1. Predictive Policing: AI algorithms can be used to analyze data from crime reports, arrest records, and other sources to identify patterns and predict where crimes are most likely to occur. Law enforcement can then use this information to deploy resources more effectively and prevent crime before it happens.

2. Facial Recognition: AI-powered facial recognition technology can help law enforcement identify suspects and solve crimes more quickly. This technology can compare images from surveillance cameras or social media profiles to databases of known criminals, allowing law enforcement to identify suspects faster and with greater accuracy.

3. Natural Language Processing: AI-powered natural language processing technology can be used to analyze social media posts, emails, and other online communications for potential threats. This technology can help law enforcement identify individuals who may be planning a crime or making threats, allowing them to take proactive measures to prevent violence.

4. Crime Analysis: AI-powered crime analysis tools can be used to analyze data from a variety of sources, including crime reports, social media, and surveillance cameras. This can help law enforcement identify trends, patterns, and potential hotspots for criminal activity, allowing them to allocate resources more effectively.

5. Sentiment Analysis: AI-powered sentiment analysis tools can be used to monitor social media and other online platforms for potentially dangerous or threatening language. This can help law enforcement identify individuals who may be planning a crime or making threats, allowing them to take proactive measures to prevent violence.

Truleo, the leading provider of automated body camera review and analysis technology for law enforcement, today announced that Castle Shannon Police Department is the first agency in Pennsylvania to sign on to leverage the company's data analysis platform. Truleo converts body camera videos into customer service metrics by analyzing police-civilian interactions at scale.

Law enforcement continues to struggle to keep up with the overwhelming volume of data generated by police body-worn cameras with less than 0.1% of footage ever being reviewed by humans. Truleo's body camera analytics platform converts 100% of this data into searchable "Baseball Card Stats for Cops", which includes productivity and customer service metrics. Truleo leverages natural language processing (NLP) to automatically detect and classify events as well as analyze the language the officer uses. Truleo's metrics enable command staff to identify both high levels of professionalism as well as risky officer interactions. Truleo's quality assurance technology originated on Wall Street and is now being used by police departments across the U.S. to gain unprecedented insights into everyday police-civilian interactions.

"The overwhelming majority of police interactions are positive, and we help departments highlight good policing for recruiting and retention purposes," said Anthony Tassone, CEO of Truleo. "We also help command staff detect risky officer behavior so they can be aware and take corrective actions. I have a great deal of respect for Chief Truver, who is an early adopter committed to leveraging A.I. technology to further optimize the Castle Shannon Police Department."

"Truleo is a game changer. I am excited to be the first department in Pennsylvania to use Truleo," said Ken Truver, Chief of Police for Castle Shannon PD. "We will leverage Truleo's automated review capabilities to gain workflow efficiencies and maximize officer productivity. In addition, the customer service metrics reporting will enable me to ensure we maintain the absolute highest levels of professionalism for our community."

Real Life Case Study of Exemplary Police Work by Castle Shannon Sergeant Watkins.

There has been an ongoing open source investigation into American Legion Post 0490 located at 1008 Castle Shannon Blvd Pittsburgh PA 15234, Phone 412-561-9709

Through our open source portal, there have been numerous complaints citing that patrons of the club are "whiskeyed up" beyond safe limits.

Moreover, there appears to be a recent and disturbing pattern that some members are "infected with anti-semitism." Whispering and even yelling slurs like, "We saved your Jewish asses in WW2," and worse vocal attacks have been registered.

Sergeant Watkins of Castle Shannon gathered some intel regarding some "back and forth" between the ALP 0940 and citizen(s) who are under privacy protection (given the emotion surrounding the Tree of Life Trial...understandable)

Sergeant Watkins developed a dispute resolution agreement which is satisfactory to the individual, his Jewish community and the perpetrators of "alleged hate" within the American Legion Halls.

We must emphasize that this anti-Semitism isn't chronic or consistent with all members but perhaps an acute or "one-time" incident vs. an overarching hate sentiment. In other words the club for the most part is a positive force in the community (other than the aforementioned issues)

Words Matter, see graphic below

About Truleo Truleo is an automated review and analysis platform for police body camera data that dramatically reduces the time it takes to review footage by automatically labeling and bookmarking events in the videos. Truleo also generates customer service and productivity metrics which enables agencies to promote best practices, train new officers and mitigate risk. To learn more about Truleo's mission to improve trust in the police with body camera analytics, visit www.truleo.co.