Redacting Body Worn Camera footage can be difficult, especially when it involves lots of small details that are hard to pick up. Luckily, CaseGuard has a feature that makes it easy. In this article, we’ll go through a step-by-step process on how to easily redact BWC footage.
Initial Check
Start by importing your video into CaseGuard Studio. Before applying any redactions, skim through the footage to identify the types of information that need to be protected.
In this example, the video contains:
- Faces
- Computer screens
- License plates
- ID cards
To automatically detect these objects, select AI Video from the left-hand toolbar. When the Automatic Detection panel appears, select the object types you want to redact.
In the next window, you’ll choose how your redactions should appear. To keep everything consistent, select the same shape and effect for each object type.
Tip: You can also assign redaction reasons during this step, making it easy to generate automatic exemption logs later.
Click Next to specify if you want to apply the redactions to a specific part of the file.
- If you would like to apply the redactions to only part of the video, click “Selected Range” and specify where you would like to start and end the redactions.
Click Next to view the “Advanced options” window.
Advanced Options
This window includes two settings that are especially useful when working with video:
- 4k, 8k , 360 video or drone video/images – Select for high resolution video or drone media.
- Detection Mode
- Precise – best for clearly visible objects. May skip blurry, small, or distant ones.
- Optimal – Recommended for most video types, include body worn cameras.
- Extra Coverage – Apply if the system missed a lot of objects.
When you’re ready, click Apply to begin the automatic redaction process.
A Status Bar will appear at the bottom of the screen, showing the progress of the AI detection.
Once the AI is finished redacting, we’ll be able to see all of the redactions it made in the Video Activity Panel.
The Video Activity Panel allows you to quickly review each redaction made by the system. If you find a redaction that is not needed, select the checkbox next to it and click the Delete icon 
to remove it.
Adding Manual Redactions with Object Tracking
During review, you may find instances where AI detection missed an object. For example, in this video, a laptop screen appears briefly but was not detected.
To manually redact the missed frames, select Object Tracking from the toolbar and draw a box around the object when it first appears.
Next, use the arrow keys to move forward frame by frame until the AI detection begins tracking the object. Once the object is detected, right-click the Object Tracking box and select Delete Forward to remove the unnecessary tracking frames.
Repeat this process for any other areas where additional redactions are needed.
Conclusion
After completing your review, your Body Worn Camera footage will be fully redacted and ready for secure sharing, FOIA requests, or public release.
By combining AI Detection with CaseGuard Studio’s review and tracking tools, you can create accurate redactions while reducing the time required to manually review large amounts of footage.
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