How to review DUI / DWI video footage efficiently

June 2025

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4 min read

Updated by: Riya Thapa
How to review DUI / DWI video footage efficiently

According to a RAND Corporation study, defenders often receive multiple videos of the same DUI/DWI incident, one from each responding officer.

From the start of the year to March 2025, there have been 1,036 DUI arrests in Las Vegas alone, all contributing to a growing volume of digital evidence.

While this increase in video evidence offers more concrete evidence for the justice system, it also means attorneys are routinely overwhelmed by mountains of footage.

To prepare an effective defense, they must listen and watch every angle, review the same segments repeatedly to determine who is speaking what, and whether the footage helps or harms their client’s case.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to efficiently review large volumes of DUI/DWI video footage using Reduct—so you can catch every critical detail without getting overwhelmed.

How to review DUI/DWI video footage efficiently

Reduct is an AI-powered tool that helps public defenders transcribe, search, organize, redact, and stitch together key moments from large volumes of audio and video evidence.

Get transcription you can rely on, case after case

With Reduct, there's no limits on file size or video length, you can ingest all your recordings in one go with a simple drag and drop.

Once your recording is imported into Reduct, you will get an editable AI transcript within about 15 minutes, regardless of the recording's length.

Every word in the transcript is timstamped and you can click on any word to jump directly to that moment in the video.

transcription for a dash-cam video

If the DUI stop footage has distorted audio—like heavy background noise, overlapping voices, or strong accents—you can upgrade to our human transcription for a higher level of accuracy.

Note 💡

Silences in the recording are denoted by gray boxes in the transcript—denoting long pauses, background noise, or quiet moments in dashcam videos.

This makes it easier for lawyers to skip the silent parts and quickly jump to the actual events or incidents that matter.

📄 Case study:
The office of the Colorado State Public Defender adopted Reduct in mid-2021 to solve their pressing need for rapid transcription of increasing volumes of audio and video evidence. Since then, they have rolled out Reduct across 21 locations, enabling over a thousand users to transcribe more than half a million minutes of digital evidence.
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Reduct supports transcription as well as translation in 90+ languages making it easier for you to handle cases where your clients speak foreign languages.

Review, search, and analyze the recordings to narrow down the important incidents

Once your footage is transcribed in Reduct, you can search through the text for specific words or phrases.

Reduct supports exact searches when you type the specific word or phrase you’re looking for but if you want to explore related words or terms, you can run our fuzzy search.

This helps you find what was said, even if you’re not sure of the exact wording.

For instance, when you search for a specific word—like 'drug'— Reduct gives you exact mentions of that word across all recordings in the case.

fuzzy search in Reduct

But if you click on our fuzzy search, Reduct finds all the mentions of related words like 'methadone,' 'substance,' or 'prescription

📄 Case study:
Reduct has been a game-changer for Angles Law. Chris Angles has run a small criminal defense practice in Kansas City, Missouri, since 1996. He defends cases ranging from DUI/DWIs to financial crimes and federal criminal charges. With seamless transcription and organization of video evidence, Angles law has been able to navigate and present key information from hours-long volumes of videos in ways that were previously unimaginable. This efficiency has not only made his office more effective but has also led to better legal outcomes for his clients, who appreciate the streamlined process and enhanced preparation for trials.
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Uncover critical insights with synchronized multi-camera review

One major challenge while reviewing DUI/DWI incidents is stitching together fragmented footage from multiple officers’ body cams.

Keeping this in mind, we built a multicam sync feature where you can view multiple body-worn cameras in a single view.

In scenarios like DUI/DWI checkpoints where several officers capture overlapping angles (e.g., driver close-ups, vehicle interiors, or perimeter views), Reduct eliminates the need to review each angle separately.

multicam sync in Reduct

You will see the transcripts side-by-side along with all the recordings, making your review process quicker.

This cuts review time dramatically (e.g., from 4 hours to 1 hour for a 4-camera scenario) while ensuring no detail is missed.

Sometimes one camera doesn't pick up what someone is saying, maybe because they're too far. But with Reduct's synced multicam, all the cameras play together. If one camera misses it, another one might catch it. This helps you understand the full story, without missing anything important.

Turn your raw footage into compelling video exhibits for court

Once you've identified the key piece in the DUI/DWI recording that you want to present in court, Reduct makes it super easy to clip out captioned video exhibits; just select the part of the transcript that you want and turn that highlighted portion into a reel.

You can combine multiple clips into one reel and download a captioned video exhibit with a single click.

You can also add title slides to your video exhibits to present a more powerful and impactful presentation to the court.

multicam sync in Reduct Separator Icon

You build the case. Let Reduct handle the footage overload.

Reduct offers valuable solutions to the challenges criminal defense lawyers face with the growing volume of audiovisual evidence.

Reduct can be your go-to assistant to help you with all that, allowing your team to concentrate on defending your clients only.

Don't let the flood of digital evidence drown you. If you’d like to explore more about Reduct, we are happy to jump on a call and understand you and your use case better.

Build a strong defense for your clients.