Digital storage CCTV systems: a guide to the effectiveness and evidential usage of digital CCTV
A Wooller · 2005
In recent years the CCTV industry has embraced digital technology and the speed with which digital CCTV systems have been adopted within the market place has been phenomenal. This increase in digital storage systems has not killed off the humble VHS tape but has tended to free up older equipment for reinstallation in small retail premises so that, often, digital and analogue systems exist side by side, either along the high street or under the same roof. This means that the range of video evidence available to the investigator now varies from domestic 'long play' surveillance systems through commercial, multiplex, time lapse systems to state of the art digital systems and all of these may be present within the evidence for one inquiry. The clarity of digitally created and stored CCTV images is far more variable than that of their VHS predecessors. In many cases the download provided by the CCTV operator to the Police as the 'master' recording is neither the master nor indeed the best quality image available from the CCTV system in question. This paper highlights some of the problems associated with digital CCTV evidence. It addresses some of the issues to be considered when seizing digital video evidence and some of the limitations in its use.