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Amid hours of body-worn camera footage, the moments that matter most are often hardest to find. Investigators can spend too much time reviewing footage to help solve a case - particularly when it comes to searching for the moments when individuals related to an incident appear.
Smart Detection aims to help solve this challenge by speeding up video evidence review. Manual Smart Detections have been possible within Axon Evidence since 2024, but the new Unlimited Smart Detection capability is now available as part of the Axon AI Era Plan.
What makes Unlimited Smart Detection a giant leap forward? This upgrade eliminates the need to manually trigger detection, allowing investigators to access and review videos faster. The process of detecting and tracking human forms will now happen automatically upon upload for all Axon Body 3 and Axon Body 4 videos inside of Axon Evidence.
With this detection solution, investigators can now quickly scan videos and jump to a 30 minute-mark of a specific video when a human form first appears, rather than searching amongst a number of videos and spending 30 minutes watching the footage until reaching the right moment.
As Dan Hecht, a Senior Product Manager of Axon Evidence, explains: “You might be looking for a single suspect interaction across eight videos. Unlimited Smart Detection helps surface human forms immediately, so investigators can jump to the key footage in seconds.”
Purpose built for law enforcement
Unlimited Smart Detection uses AI purpose built for law-enforcement. This solution is developed to support the efficiency and accessibility of video review, as well as the privacy of detected human forms.
Key features include:
Detect human forms in video evidence using an AI model with object detection technology.
View human forms in a thumbnail layout within the evidence search and detail pages.
Review timestamps of detections and sort by duration, first appearance or via video timeline.
Automatic logging of every interaction within a clear audit trail.
Designed for privacy, built for speed
While Unlimited Smart Detection reduces the manual effort of sifting through body-worn camera footage, it still keeps humans in the loop. Investigators are essential to reviewing key moments and tying identities to the human forms detected to determine who suspects, victims or witnesses are.
This is an intentional safeguard designed to preserve privacy and is in alignment with Axon’s Responsible Innovation Framework.
Unlimited Smart Detection does not use facial recognition, but instead uses object detection technology to distinguish human forms. This works by grouping similar objects based on factors such as position in the video, body shape, and clothing color to detect when a human form appears and reappears throughout the video. It does not associate the detected human form with a specific person or identity.
Hecht emphasizes the balance between automation and human oversight: “Human review remains critical — we’re helping officers and investigators get to the right place faster. It’s about finding the signal in the noise.”
Ideal use cases include:
Pinpoint key moments, like when an officer begins interviewing a witness, to hear their account first and easily log timestamps for reports.
Export detected human form images to issue BOLOs, increase officer awareness and support faster identification for case leads.
Quickly locate and follow a human form in video evidence to better understand their actions and build a clearer incident timeline.
A smarter way to search
Unlimited Smart Detection is optimizing the way investigators find key moments. By automating the detection of human forms and drastically cutting down review time, it empowers teams to act faster, uncover insights sooner, and build stronger cases.
And the evolution of detecting smarter and faster continues. Later this year, Unlimited Smart Detection users will be able to search across evidence by using descriptive language - like “red jacket” or “blue backpack” - to detect human forms.
Request a demo of Unlimited Smart Detection and start exploring the additional AI solutions as part of the Axon AI Era Plan.