How Accessing and Preserving Video Evidence With The Right Solution Is Critical To Investigations
One of the biggest challenges facing investigators today is Moore’s law. Or more precisely, the rapid growth of disk capacity.
We are getting far more data now than we were 10 years ago. Examiners must be able to sift through this enormous amount of evidence quickly and efficiently. Moreover, they must be able to maintain the quality and safety of this digital evidence as it is interacted with by a growing number of digital intelligence stakeholders in the field of digital forensics.
Video has been playing a larger role in investigations over the last few years because it has become ubiquitous in the day-to-day lives of people around the world. We have now gone beyond just Digital Video Recorders (DVRs). We now have body-worn cameras on police officers, every mobile phone is equipped with a camera, and a lot more dash cams are being used in cars.
Video has now become a great source of data in all investigations both in traditional means such as surveillance or CCTV recordings through to less traditional avenues such as pedestrians casually recording video on their mobile phones of a crime scene.
In my field of video forensics, digital intelligence is about getting raw data from a video recording to provide critical answers during an investigation. For example, digital video evidence can be useful when trying to rapidly locate a certain vehicle, link videos together by suspect, or answer an array of different questions that examiners might have surrounding a case.
Gaining access to this critical raw video data is something that DME Forensics specializes in.
However, accessing the raw data is not just about preserving the evidence. It is also about acquiring the relevant data fast enough to be useful. If a video forensics method cannot quickly access the hours, days, or even weeks of footage required, then that missed data could be as detrimental to the case as not preserving the data.
DME Forensics mostly works with DVR’s. This is a need that has not been addressed for some time in digital forensics as people have concentrated on the file systems in traditional computers. What DME Forensics does is apply some of the same principles employed in mobile and computer forensics to DVRs which often have their own proprietary systems as well as unique ways of recording and storing video files.
It is well-known that video evidence can have a significant impact on court proceedings because of the power of “seeing is believing.” Of course, we must be careful with how visual media is interpreted. As eyewitness accounts are not always the most reliable, video footage can help identify the facts with more conclusive evidence.
I won’t say, “the camera never lies”, but at least the camera has a very good memory.
