Welcome to another edition of It’s in the Details, a short newsletter intended to provide helpful information for those in the litigation industry who deal with forensic engineering experts and their work.
Reconstructing Events from Digital Imagery – from Novelty to Necessity
The proliferation of digital imagery from smart phones, dash cameras, body-worn cameras, and CCTV cameras in recent years has been a boon to those investigating and reconstructing loss events. The analysis of such imagery has gone from being an occasional occurrence to a basic staple of forensic reconstructionists.
The importance of considering all possible sources of digital imagery when evaluating a loss incident can’t be overstated:
- At-scene photography by law enforcement officers, parties involved in the incident, or even witness bystanders
- At-scene videography in the form of law enforcement body-worn video files or smartphone videos taken by witness bystanders
- CCTV video files from security cameras mounted to buildings and structures near the incident location
- Dashcam video files from involved or even witness vehicles
- Vehicle-integrated video files and/or still imagery such as the many cameras present on a typical Tesla when being operated in “dashcam mode”, or still imagery recorded in the advanced driver assistance systems in recent models of Toyota or General Motors vehicles
- Traffic camera video files such as those found in some local municipalities which record video, or from the state-operated traffic cameras monitoring freeway traffic, archival footage from which is now available through subscription services such as RoadProof
Hopefully the checklist above can serve as a handy guide for identifying sources of digital imagery to be preserved in relation to a loss. Don't forget: by their nature, many of these sources have a short shelf life and need to be acquired as soon as possible after an event.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out to us with any technical questions you might have about this or other topics related to forensic engineering.