This week we interviewed Steve Paxton, a long time and very enthusiastic user who is also quite active in the forensics community. After only having the opportunity to speak with him numerous times online, we finally met in person last year at the LEVA conference. His perspective is quite interesting since he is not only a sworn officer who performs daily investigations, but also a digital forensic examiner.

Martino Jerian, Amped Software CEO and Founder

Steve, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and your current role at the Everett Police Department?

I have been a police officer for 24 years. During that time, I have worked as a patrol officer, crime prevention officer, property crimes detective, and more recently, a digital forensics detective. I have also been a crime scene photographer off and on for the past 20 years.

I work within a four-person digital forensics lab. We recover and process surveillance video, examine mobile devices and handle a wide variety of digital evidence. I regularly work with other investigators, prosecutors, and administrators to review search warrants as well as examine and prepare digital multimedia evidence for court presentation. Although my work is usually very technical, presenting it in an easy-to-understand, non-geeky way is critical and extremely rewarding.

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We really enjoy hearing from our users. We want to learn about your challenges so that we can try to help you find solutions for those challenges, and we really like getting to know you on a more personal level, learning about your interests and hobbies. If you want to share your story with us, get in touch!

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Blaine Davison, from the Norman PD, has been an enthusiastic user for many years. As a former President and board member of LEVA, he strove to advance the science and practice of video forensics for all of North America. Colleagues in the forensics community have often mentioned his name, referring to him as someone who is able to get really amazing results on hard cases with Amped FIVE. He’s one of those users who is able to take advantage of the full workflow of Amped FIVE: from conversion of video formats, to enhancement, analysis, and presentation.

Martino Jerian, Amped Software CEO and Founder

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Blaine, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and your current role at the Norman, Oklahoma Police Department?

I’m currently a Detective, Forensic Video Analyst and Digital Evidence Administrator for the Norman, Oklahoma Police Department. I originally studied Communications and Technical Journalism while at University and worked for a year as a reporter for the ABC affiliate station in Rapid City, South Dakota after graduating. I then relocated to Oklahoma and started working “temporarily” as a 911 Operator for the local Sheriff’s Department thinking at some point, I would resume working in television news. I’m proud to say that “temporary” position turned into a twenty-five-year law enforcement career.

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We love learning about our users. We like to hear your views about the world of image and video forensics, what your challenges are, and also discovering your personal interests and hobbies. If you want to share your story, contact us for a chat!

Mario Ruiz Mateos, from the Spanish Guardia Civil, has been our user for many years and is probably our very first user in Spain. He’s a very skilled and enthusiastic user of Amped FIVE and a good friend who over the years has contributed with his ideas and feedback to the continuous improvement of the software. I’ve enjoyed his company in several training sessions and conferences in Madrid and other places… and also some nice evenings after the training sessions.

Martino Jerian, Amped Software CEO and Founder

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Mario, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and your current role at the Criminalistic Service in the Spanish Guardia Civil?

I am the Manager of the Forensic Image Area, one of the four areas of the Engineering Department of the Criminalistic Service of the Guardia Civil. I have been performing this duty since 2013 although I have been working in the Forensic Image Area since 2003, first as an Expert and then as Technical Director. During this time, I have been drafting expert reports and technical documents related to image and video enhancement and authentication cases, answering requests made by our investigation units and testifying in courts, here in Spain and, from time to time, in some international cases.

I joined the Guardia Civil when I was seventeen, willing to help and serve, but I soon realized that if I wanted to make a real contribution I would need to study and get some training. So I graduated with a Degree in Computing Sciences and then I continued my studies to earn a Master Degree in Forensic Sciences.

What made you decide to enter the field of multimedia forensics?

When I was in my first year of University, my unit got a call from the Engineering Dept and, since the requirements were mostly knowledge on computing, I thought that it was a good opportunity to develop my career in something really interesting. At that time, I was mostly doing static surveillance, where I could not perform any technical skill.

In my first year in the Dept. I mostly trained and worked in the forensic audio field, but since the image forensic group needed reinforcement, the Manager of the Dept. finally decided that my knowledge could be valuable to boost the development in that territory.

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We love learning about our users. We are always interested to hear your views about the world of image and video forensics, what your challenges are, and especially finding out about your interest in books, gardening and maybe even dancing!  If you are interested in sharing your story, contact us for a chat!

George Reis, an expert photographer turned forensic image and video expert, and now the owner of Imaging Forensics, tells us how many fruit trees and vegetables he has in his garden and his love for reading and dancing! But he also shares his thoughts about the challenges of DVR systems and what he thinks the future of image and video forensics will look like.

I have known George for many years. He helped us a lot during the development and testing of our tools. Not only did he request a lot of useful features that have been added to Amped FIVE and Amped Authenticate, but he also tested the software thoroughly, reporting bugs and various little details that we had missed during development. To tell you the truth, to implement all the features he asked for means we would need to double or triple our team… but it’s good to be pushed to the limit. Thanks to George and people like him, we have a very rich roadmap for the next few years.

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George, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and can you tell us about your company?

I am the owner of Imaging Forensics, a company that provides forensic video analysis, photography analysis, and photography. Imaging Forensics also provides training in these disciplines.

Prior to entering forensics, my background was in photography, primarily in the field of photojournalism. I was then hired by the Newport Beach (CA) Police Department as a forensic photographer. My duties expanded into the areas of photographic enhancement and video analysis in the early to mid-1990s, when all security video was analog on VHS tape.

I retired from the police department in 2004 to make Imaging Forensics a full-time venture.

What made you decide to enter the field of multimedia forensics?

I got into forensics in general, and forensic video analysis specifically, by accident. In the late 1980s, I was a freelance photographer and business was slow. I answered a newspaper classified ad for a “police photographer” with the intention of using it to stabilize my income, then returning to the freelance field. But, I found forensics much more interesting and rewarding than I expected.

In 1992 I began experimenting with digital photography and enhancement of fingerprints. And, around 1995, our video producer asked me if I’d like to work on some security camera video and I then took over those duties.

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This is the second in a series of interviews with a number of our users that will share their story. If you are interested in being profiled, let us know. We would love to hear from you!

In this post, we feature Tomislav Prijanovič, from the Slovenian National Forensics Lab. We have known each other since 2006 where we happened to be in the same hotel for the ENFSI Digital Imaging Working Group meeting in Rome. He’s actually one of our first customers and, given the proximity between Trieste and Ljubljana – little more than one hour by car – we meet at least once per year to exchange ideas and share interesting cases. I must say that quite often he amazes me with his skills. Many times, he is able to get incredible results on license plates that at a first glance I deemed impossible. 

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Tomislav, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and your current role at the National Forensics Laboratory?

I am a forensic expert and court witness, working in the Physics Examination Department at the National Forensics Laboratory in Ljubljana, since 1990.

What made you decide to enter the forensics field?

After finishing technical school for electronics, I started working as a video technician. I basically worked on video documentation (video recording and editing) for police purposes,  capturing and analyzing images from CCTV.  At that time I also had the opportunity to do some work related to photography, like darkroom photography and working as a minilab operator. Due to the rapid development of digital technology (cameras, computer hardware, and software), we started to look for new technical solutions to make our work more effective (less time consuming and higher quality results).  After digital cameras and digital video editing systems, getting forensic software was just a matter of time… and money. Continue reading →

This is the first in a series of interviews with a number of our users that will share their story. If you are interested in being profiled, let us know. We would love to hear from you!

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In this first post, we speak with Marco Fontani from FORLAB, one of the main laboratories in Italy specialized in image and video forensics. We started working together in the European project MAVEN and since then, we cooperate with FORLAB on several fronts, including the technology transfer from the world of research into practical applications.

Marco, tell us a bit about yourself. What is your background and your current role at FORLAB?

My background is mostly in academics. I have a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering and a PhD degree in Information Engineering and Sciences. I’ve authored and co-authored several publications on novel image, video and audio forensic algorithms. My current role at FORLAB includes a mix of consultancy and training plus some research activity (mostly carried out by following master/PhD students).

What made you decide to enter the field of multimedia forensics?

I’ve always been interested in multimedia security because multimedia content is much too easily trusted/relied upon. When I began my PhD in 2010, an important research project funded by the European Commission (REWIND project) was about to start, and I joined the research group of professor Barni to take part in this project. After the PhD, I thought it would be interesting to put my studies to work in practical cases. Hence I, together with other colleagues, pushed the growth of FORLAB, where the scientific and technological innovative results are transferred to the real needs of the forensic environment.

What would you say are the biggest challenges with multimedia digital evidence and investigating crimes?

In the age of terrorism, I believe the main challenges are related to: a) analysis and interpretation of massive data (e.g. images/videos shared through social networks, but also video surveillance footage captured by cameras spread in a city); b) poor quality of CCTV cameras, that makes recording useless in so many cases. Continue reading →