Reynoldsburg Division of Police originally acquired VideoFOCUS Pro from Salient Stills (http://www.salientstills.com/videofocus/stories/reynoldsburg.html) at a time when evidentiary video was predominantly being recovered from multiplexed, time-lapsed VHS tapes. Detective Brian Marvin shared that the department needed a means of processing a wide variety of VHS formats it was receiving as evidence, but also required a video forensics solution that was “user friendly,” so that a large amount of technical knowledge was not needed to render useful still images and video segments.
Reynoldsburg Division of Police has processed hundreds of videos over the years and turns to VideoFOCUS Pro several times each week to extract still images and video evidence for investigations and prosecutions of cases. VideoFOCUS Pro is used to extract video and images from the simplest theft complaint, to homicide investigations, and almost every offense in between.
Detective Brian Marvin shared cautions to be realistic in expectations. Oftentimes it is requested that a blurred license plate, face, etc., be cleared up when there is no detail to begin with. This software cannot create what does not exist, nor should it. The basic rule of thumb is that if a bad video goes in, bad results will come out. This is not to say that some enhancements and clarity cannot be achieved, but it is important to realize that the enhancements portrayed on TV and in the movies are not feasible in the real world.
