To get an applied sense of what Forensic Architecture does, consider again the murder of Harith Augustus. As part of its early response to the shooting, the Chicago PD released a statement that included this sentence: "The decision to use lethal force is made in a split second and is based on the safety of the officer and also the surrounding community." 

On its face, that statement seems to reduce Augusts' killing to a singular and impenetrable moment. But in collaboration with the Invisible Institute, Forensic Architecture (FA) took the opportunity to dig deeply into that split second — a second that could be split into somewhere between 25 and 30 frames depending upon the camera.

By culling imagery from a body cam, street surveillance, and dashboard video, the team was able to create models of the events leading up to and directly following the moment Officer Dillan Halley fired his weapon. The models are played backward and forward, from angles uncovered by the cameras on the scene, and at various speeds. With help from a neuroscientist, a narrator takes exhibit guests through various interpretations of the "split second" theory, deconstructing a seemingly impenetrable moment toward understanding its larger context. 

Despite Chicago PD's implication that we'll never "know" enough about what happened during the fatal incident, Forensic Architecture's video is a strangely calming reassurance of our instincts: that we're being lied to by the very people who are supposed to protect us.

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