How Seward Police Department Uses SkyeBrowse
At mile 127 of the Seward Highway, the road drops out of the Chugach Mountains and dead-ends at Resurrection Bay, delivering travelers to a town of roughly 2,700 year-round residents that swells to many times that number between May and September. Seward sits on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska's Kenai Peninsula Borough, serving as the gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park and a major cruise ship port of call. Exit Glacier draws hikers, the Alaska SeaLife Center anchors the waterfront, and the commercial fishing fleet keeps the harbor busy around the clock during salmon season. A single highway connects the town to Anchorage 125 miles north, meaning any serious collision on the Seward Highway can isolate the community for hours.
For a small department with limited personnel, SkyeBrowse's videogrammetry platform turns one officer and a video camera into a full scene documentation unit.
Contents
- Why Seward Police Department Chose Videogrammetry
- Accident and Crime Scene Documentation
- CJIS-Compliant 3D Evidence for Alaska Courts
- Operational Impact: Time and Cost Savings
- Get a SkyeBrowse Quote for Seward Police Department
Why Seward Police Department Chose Videogrammetry
The Seward Highway is a designated National Scenic Byway, but it is also one of Alaska's most dangerous roads. Narrow shoulders, moose crossings, ice-covered pavement from October through April, and tourist traffic unfamiliar with mountain driving produce a collision rate disproportionate to the area's population. When a crash occurs between Seward and the nearest Alaska State Troopers post, Seward PD is often the first and only agency on scene.
Traditional measurement methods are impractical here. Temperatures can drop below zero, daylight disappears entirely during deep winter, and calling in a reconstruction specialist from Anchorage means a two-hour-plus drive assuming the highway itself is not blocked. The department needed a tool that any officer could operate immediately.
SkyeBrowse's Universal Upload accepts any .MP4 or .MOV file from drones, smartphones, body-worn cameras, or 360 cameras. An officer records a video walkaround or drone orbit, uploads the file, and receives a measurable 3D model at a 1:1 processing ratio. One minute of video equals one minute of processing.
That speed matters in a place where extended road closures cut off the town's only ground transportation link and can delay emergency medical transport to Providence Seward Medical Center.
Accident and Crime Scene Documentation
Seward's crash profile is shaped by geography. Head-on collisions on the two-lane Seward Highway, rollover accidents on icy curves near Bear Creek, and moose-strike incidents that scatter debris across both lanes all require documentation that captures road geometry, vehicle positions, and environmental conditions in a single pass.
Tourist-season incidents add complexity. Rental RVs, cruise ship excursion buses, and fishing charter trailers create vehicle-size mismatches that produce unusual crash dynamics. A single officer with a drone can orbit the scene in minutes, and SkyeBrowse converts that footage into a 3D model with spatial measurements accurate enough for court.
Crime scene work in a remote Alaskan community presents its own challenges. Scenes exposed to weather degrade quickly. Snow, rain, and tidal action along the waterfront can erase physical evidence within hours. Rapid video capture preserves the scene digitally before conditions change.
The harbor district, cruise ship terminal, and Exit Glacier trailhead parking areas are all locations where incidents require documentation in environments that do not accommodate bulky survey equipment. A handheld smartphone video processed through SkyeBrowse solves that problem without additional hardware purchases.
Ready to Transform Your Department's Documentation Process? Learn how SkyeBrowse can help your agency achieve faster, more accurate scene documentation.
CJIS-Compliant 3D Evidence for Alaska Courts
Criminal and traffic cases originating in Seward are heard in Alaska Superior Courts, Third Judicial District. Vehicular homicide and assault charges require measurement data that meets strict evidentiary standards, and defense attorneys in Anchorage courtrooms will challenge any methodology that lacks precision and chain-of-custody documentation.
SkyeBrowse Premium Advanced delivers 16K resolution with 0.1 inch accuracy and AI moving object removal. Emergency responders, bystanders, and passing vehicles are automatically stripped from the final model, leaving a clean forensic record of the scene.
- AI moving object removal for clean scene models
- AWS GovCloud (US) hosting with FedRAMP Moderate alignment
- CJIS-ready workflows with audit trails and controlled sharing
- 5-year guaranteed data retention on Premium and Premium Advanced tiers
Export formats serve every downstream workflow. LAZ point clouds integrate with reconstruction software. GLB models provide courtroom-ready 3D presentations. GeoTIFF orthos layer into Alaska's statewide GIS systems for spatial context alongside road centerline and wildlife corridor data.
Operational Impact: Time and Cost Savings
Seward PD is a small department. Tying up four officers for three hours at a single collision scene effectively eliminates patrol coverage for the entire town. Videogrammetry drops per-scene personnel to one officer and cuts documentation time to roughly 10 minutes, with cost dropping from $360 to $25.
| Metric | Traditional Method | SkyeBrowse |
|---|---|---|
| Personnel | 4 Officers | 1 Officer |
| Time on Scene | 3 Hours | 10 Minutes |
| Operational Cost | $360 | $25 |
Faster highway clearance matters more here than in most jurisdictions. The Seward Highway is the only road in or out, and extended closures affect medical transport, freight delivery, and tourism access that drives the local economy. Getting the road open in minutes instead of hours has community-wide impact.
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Get a SkyeBrowse Quote for Seward Police Department
Remote policing demands tools that work in extreme conditions with minimal staffing. If Seward PD is ready to document scenes in minutes instead of hours and keep Alaska's lifeline highway open, we can help you deploy quickly.
Get a SkyeBrowse Quote for Seward Police Department
