New technology aims to provide evidence in assault, abuse cases

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A new piece of technology is being added to emergency departments to help provide evidence of strangulation in abuse and assault cases.

Strangulation had not been a felony offense in Ohio until April 2023.

Domestic Violence Prosecutor Connor Wood says it can be hard to provide the proof needed to get justice for a victim, which is where the Cortex Flow Camera comes in.

“We’ve had some difficulty with just standard picture taking, convincing juries, convincing judges that dark spots on an already dark-complected person are actually an injury caused by this defendant,” Wood explains.

The new contrast software technology provides better visualization of an injury, things a typical camera or the naked eye can’t see.

The Cortex Camera can pull out bruises and scratches to reveal injuries to their true extent.

Wood says this new technology will stop the perception that a person isn’t “injured enough.”

“Because I hate hearing the phrase that a person wasn’t ‘injured enough to have been abused.’ That’s a statement,” says Wood. “That’s a statement I’ve heard now in two consecutive juries I have done with persons of African-American descent. What they could see on the surface did not match up with what they believed an abused victim would look like.”

Prosecutor Wood says she hopes to use evidence from the Cortex Camera to prosecute cases where survivors can’t or won’t participate in the prosecution.

The Cortex Camera has been added at Good Sam and every other Tri-Health emergency department since the start of 2023.

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