Techdirt has already reported on one attempt to get around this problem, based on smartphones and crowdsourcing. The other obvious approach is to automate the process. That is, to develop systems that can be trained to analyze CCTV streams — perhaps in real time — in order to try to spot activities that look „suspicious“ in some sense, which can then be passed on to human operators for further evaluation and possibly action.

That‘s exactly the aim of the European Commission‘s INDECT research project — short for the rather unwieldy „Intelligent information system supporting observation, searching and detection for security of citizens in urban environment.“