Finding a vehicle of interest from the Investigation task

2026-03-16Last updated

To quickly find a vehicle of interest, you can perform an intelligent search in Security Center SaaS using natural language search criteria and additional intelligent search filters. The investigation information can then be reviewed to build a timeline of events and to understand what happened before or after an incident.

Before you begin

What you should know

  • Some parts of this procedure require a Security Center SaaS Premium Plan. For an overview of the key features and differences between the Standard and Premium plans, see the Security Center SaaS Features Matrix.
  • Use the Investigation task when you have a description or incident details, such as:
    • Vehicle type or color
    • Approximate time range
    • Location, including one or more cameras
  • Important:
    This procedure should only be performed on stationary camera deployments. Intelligent search on a moving camera is not supported because moving cameras do not provide consistent metadata.

Procedure

  1. Click Investigation in the vertical navigation bar.
  2. In the search field, input your natural language search criteria and press Enter.
    For example:
    • “white truck entering the car park yesterday afternoon”.
    • “blue sedan parked outside HQ entrance last night”.
    • "vehicle outside two days ago".
    Natural language search quickly finds relevant footage without manually scanning hours of video.
  3. (Optional) To refine your search results, click the filter icon () and set your filters.
  4. Choose a suitable thumbnail size from the Thumbnail size list for reviewing the search results.
  5. Review the results to identify your vehicle of interest.
    1. Choose a video thumbnail to view more details and options.
      The video plays in the side pane tile with details below, such as the current video frame, vehicle type and color filters, and so on.
      Investigation task in Genetec Operation showing a vehicle of interest search with a video selected and side pane open showing more details.
      Reviewing thumbnails helps quickly verify matches quickly and prevent wasted time on irrelevant clips.
    2. (Optional) Use video scrubbing to navigate the timeline quickly, scan thumbnails, and locate relevant footage:
      Hover over the timeline
      Move your mouse across the video timeline. A thumbnail preview appears above the timeline
      Find in the timeline
      Click, hold, and drag the mouse along the video timeline.
    3. (Optional) To see how a vehicle moved within the camera's field of view, click Show trajectory ().
  6. (Optional) In the Nearby activity section, review people and vehicles in the surrounding area before and after the incident to reconstruct the scene.
    1. Click Show more to expand the nearby activity section.
    2. From the People and vehicles list, select people, vehicles, or both.
    3. From the time range list, select a time range.
    4. In the search results or the side pane, select thumbnails of any potential matches to view in the video player.
  7. (Optional) Refine the criteria and review any other thumbnails that might be a match.
Completing this investigation process creates a timeline of events, showing where the vehicle or people went, who they interacted with, and what occurred before or after. This adds context about the incident with less manual effort and helps investigators verify evidence and develop reliable leads more confidently.