A couple of years ago I did a series of posts on aspect ratio correction of DCCTV recordings; more specifically DCCTV recordings captured by analog CCTV cameras, and correcting Display Aspect Ratio (DAR) for forensic interpretation. I pointed out in my posts and the subsequent Video & Display Standards Chart, that the one exception that I'm aware of where a DCCTV recording captured by an analog CCTV camera shouldn't be displayed 4:3, was the relatively new 960H format.

Imagine the following scenario:
You're the first responding officer to a crime scene and have just completed taking the victim's statement. You then tell the victim you have to leave for another call. Before you go you politely ask the victim to take photos of the scene and their injuries, collect all of the DNA and fingerprint evidence, and note that you'll either be back later in the day or maybe tomorrow or the next day to pick it all up. You note that they can just leave the evidence at the front desk for you.

This is exactly how many agencies have chosen to deal with the overwhelming amount of DCCTV evidence available to them today. "Oh, there's video? Okay, have someone export it and we'll come back to pick it up."

CCTV cameras across London help solve almost six crimes a day, the Metropolitan Police (Met) has said.

Det Ch Insp Mick Neville, who heads the Met's identification unit, said CCTV images were "treated like fingerprints and DNA" by the force.

The number of suspects who were identified using the cameras went up from 1,970 in 2009 to 2,512 this year.

Full story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12080487

* Updated with Corrected Images & Explanations. 

After the break you'll find several images of a bogus Person of Interest (PoI) that were recorded by a DCCTV system. Two different analog CCTV cameras with built-in IR illuminators were connected to the black-box, h.264 DVR. These JPG images were exported from the DVR’s proprietary player. All of these images exported at 704 pixels by 480 pixels. When the recorded video is played back via the proprietary player it is displayed at 630 x 455; however, analysis of the proprietary file and exported AVI files reveals both of those contain a 704 x 480 video stream.

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to:

• Describe the PoI’s clothing items from these images as you would for producing a BOLO. Note any issues that may affect your description.
• Identify the single most important correction that should be made to these images prior to printing. (BONUS - Why does this correction need to be made, and what tipped you off to it?)

If you’ve taken one of my recovery classes or attended one of my presentations on the topic at a LEVA conference or other event, you may have seen these examples.

I probably should’ve just dropped the mic after the last post, but we’re going to continue on. I’m not one for dropping names, and in this case I don’t have to either. Everyone has gotten this wrong at some point, and I mean everyone. The people working on related standards; the people making the world’s leading non-linear professional editing systems; the people who make a living professionally processing and transcoding video; the people making multimedia playback software; the people making DCCTV systems; the people making operating systems; and yes, even forensic video and digital evidence technicians and analysts. We’re all human, my friends. It is a long, convoluted, complex process with its very foundation based on sampling an analog signal.

If someone uses the phrase "DVD Quality Video" in their marketing literature it usually means one of three things; (1) their product is crap, (2) they haven't the slightest clue about DVD-Video standards, or (3) they do understand the standards and are simply trying to mislead you...and their product is crap.

Now maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but I take offense when companies attempt to mislead the "typical" consumer by using generalizations. The fact of the matter is that there are several standards for DVD-Video, along with other variables that can impact DVD-Video picture quality.

Let me start by saying that I am by no means trying to imply that DVR, NVR or any other digital or IP based video system cannot produce good quality video evidence. There are even 2 or 3 high-end, mega-pixel quality digital surveillance cameras and systems on the market today whose capabilities far exceed those of a traditional analog based system. However, to my point, it seems more often than not digital based systems are producing very poor quality video evidence regardless of the system's actual capabilities.

So why do DVRs typically provide poor quality video evidence? Here are a few of the common reasons:

CHICAGO (AP) - When the body of Chicago's school board president was found partially submerged in a river last fall, a bullet wound to the head, cameras helped prove it was a suicide.

Full Story:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/06/cameras-make-chicago-closely-watched-city/

Jonathan Lewin, Chicago’s managing deputy director of public safety, believes that video cameras help officers protect citizens — and he has numbers to back up his claim. The Chicago Police Department says that Operation Virtual Shield, the city’s network of public and private surveillance cameras, has led to more than 5,500 camera-related arrests since 2006.

Full Story

Those who have been recovering video evidence from CCTV systems for any length of time know that every case starts as a research project. In some cases DCCTV evidence is submitted with little or no information about the recording device. In other cases the entire device may be submitted, but more often than not it’s submitted without any manuals or documentation.

Magnet Forensics launched the evolution of DVR Examiner today, Magnet WITNESS.  WITNESS includes all of the capabilities of DVR Examiner plus many new features, essentially creating a single solution to acquire, review, analyze and report on all of the video evidence from your case, regardless of source.  Proprietary DCCTV systems and files, cloud CCTV sources such as Ring & Arlo, MP4 & AVI exports from other sources such as in-car and body worn systems.

Unlike DVR Examiner, WITNESS includes the ability to create sub-clips, create synchronized previews, convert proprietary DCCTV files and more.  Learn more at https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-witness/

You don't need to own a Ring device, and no subscription fees for just their neighborhood service. See alerts from Ring users in whatever size area you'd like. View a newsfeed for your area or a map, and customize your alerts. Three suspicious events reported within a 3 mile radius from me within the last month, and one crime at a Ring user's next-door neighbor.

Manufacturers often skew their specification sheets to make their product seem better than it really is, typically by providing confusing references and the like. Not cool, but what’s worse than that? When they don’t know what the hell they're talking about, then convince the majority that they do. This is the case for a lot of Digital CCTV (DCCTV) manufacturers. If you’re going to reference a video specification and plaster it all over your video output, AND you’re one of the world’s leading manufacturers of IP-based CCTV equipment, you should probably have your shit together. Here’s why you don’t.

Someday very soon, if you stroll through Piedmont Park, travel the Downtown Connector, hit one of the bars or restaurants in Midtown or visit the Georgia Dome or Philips Arena, you'll have an invisible companion: the Atlanta Police Department.

This spring, the department will open a video integration center designed to compile and analyze footage from thousands of public and private security cameras throughout the city. Images from as many as 500 cameras in downtown and Midtown are expected to be flowing into the center by mid-summer.

Full Story

At the request of the public safety community, UL has begun development of a performance standard for tactical (e.g., hand-deployed, covert placement, robot-mounted) and operational (e.g., body-worn) video camera systems. We are seeking input from end users to determine your needs and requirements: who uses which systems, when and how they are typically used, and what features are used.

We would appreciate your completing a questionnaire using the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/tacticalcamera

Your input is requested by June 30th so that it can be used to guide the path forward and help to ensure that the standard meets the needs of end users.

Come on, you knew this was coming.  Looks pretty cool, I must say...

Next-Level Autonomously Flying Indoor Security Camera | Ring Always Home Cam 

(Video embedded below in full post)

"Who designed this user interface, Stevie Wonder?" Actual statement from a LE technician and point well taken when it comes to proprietary DCCTV players. They're often horribly designed, and like all multimedia players/editors/tools regardless of who makes them, they are time & resource dependent (e.g. hardware resources, drivers, frameworks, codecs, etc.).

The Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) recently made their flip-book "Best Practices for the Retrieval of Video Evidence from DCCTV Systems" available electronically as a PDF file.  Visit the URL below to access the PDF and other TSWG resources:

http://www.tswg.gov/subgroups/isf/electronic-evidence/products.html

You can just press play if you want to, but if you're forensically processing evidence, I wouldn't advise it. Know the playback software, as it is just as important to proper playback and interpretation as the hardware. Take Windows Media Player, for instance.

In the following video I discuss a few quirks about Windows Media Player v12, a shortcoming of the popular metadata tool MediaInfo, and more.