New tool helps Phila. detectives obtain video evidence

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Philadelphia detectives have a new tool to obtain video evidence quicker than ever.

Surveillance video from August 2012 showed off duty Philadelphia Officer Moses Walker Jr. walking to a North Philadelphia bus stop after finishing his overnight shift at the 22nd district.

You can see his killers stalking him on Cecil B. Moore Avenue and surveillance video quickly led to their arrests.

It was the result of video from several local sources and the increasingly improving computers which help directly download the video very quickly to a laptop.

"On that laptop computer we are able to quickly edit the video so it can be disseminated to the media," said Edward J. Hanko, FBI special agent in charge.

The digital-imaging-video-recovery system, known as Divrt is a new tool being hailed as a tremendous step forward in gathering and disseminating critical video evidence so the public can help in investigations.

The computer was developed here in Philadelphia by the local FBI and Philadelphia Police.

It's breathtaking in its ability to cut down the time it takes to get the video edited and out the public.

"If it's a very short off load, about 20-30 minutes after the off load, we can have it edited and out on the street," said John Sermons, FBI.

Eleven units of the Philadelphia Police Department, all six detective division, plus the specialty units - ranging from homicide to special victims - picked up their Divrt computers Friday.

Training is now complete and so many detectives are handy with it.

It helps in high profile cases like the three day abduction case of Carlesha Freeland-Gaither.

A veteran detective supports the new system.

"Some of those stores are still using pretty old equipment so we have to know how to use the older stuff and the newer things are pretty user friendly," said Kert Wilson, Philadelphia Police.

The Divrt technology is already in more than a dozen FBI field offices nationwide and is being distributed to more and more major city police forces.

It's a spread of technology that is helping make sure fewer and fewer criminal are getting away with it.