The U.S. Department of Justice is creating a catalogue of information about police body cameras that can be used by local police departments contemplating launching body camera programs.

As reported on Route Fifty:

At this time, Justice expects that, at a minimum, the guidebook will cover five broad areas of information on each device:  a) vendor, b) camera, c) video storage software, d) ease of use, and f) installation.

• Within those categories, there will be specs on optics, audio, data transmission and battery power, as well as numerous data validity elements, like GPS-recording options, facial recognition, and information storage security.
• The optics section asks about “means to authenticate and validate the integrity of the time/date stamp” to prevent evidence tampering.
• A safeguards section includes “privacy masking” — a feature that blurs or completely blocks certain images to protect personal privacy and sensitive information. Justice also wants information on each camera systems’ video redacting and editing capabilities.
• A part titled Export Capabilities asks whether there is “a traceability feature” that can identify who exported video or other data from the system.
• The department also wants to know about “weapons detection capabilities,” or the device’s ability to discern guns and knives from other objects.
• Under Video Security and Authentication, there is a space titled “encryption” features, for rendering data incomprehensible if intercepted by a hacker “while in transit and during storage.”
• Other product functionalities that will be outlined: the availability and cost of software updates to patch security weaknesses discovered after purchase.

For more information read the full article on Route Fifty.