Questions in the interview room

When something’s a big deal, it’s natural to talk about it. Like the handling of evidence, or making what you get from witnesses or suspects stick. So why is it that something that combines all of these elements and commonly becomes the centerpiece of a case is problem prone?

We’re talking about interview room recording. But the real question is: Why isn’t hardly anyone else?

Why verify?

The importance of verifying digital video evidence before leaving the scene.

The characters and crimes in this story are fictitious, but the DVR is real.  Everything the DVR does is real, as are all the photos. 

March 17, 1840 hours: A criminal robs a convenience store.

March 17, 1930 hours: Detective Murphy arrives on scene. He learns the perpetrator was armed with just a stick, but still took away a good amount of cash.

Situation forensic science

“The adoption of technology by police agencies has been a type of 'black box' -- police have accepted such technologies, but have generally not assessed or evaluated them. They bring in new equipment or new technologies because they work in theory, but know little about how to use such technologies so that they work best."

That's how two Harvard scholars, David Weisburd and Peter Neyroud, explained the relationship of police and science in their article "Police Science:  Toward a New Paradigm".

Forensic video greatest hits re-release

Our list of free forensic video software tools and websites.

In May of last year we published our first list of free software downloads and references to help boost your video-forensic capabilities and know-how. Today we're re-releasing our list with some new hits.

Forensic video vigilante

We've certainly seen the gamut of law enforcement using social media and the web to release pictures and video of suspects from video evidence. But victims using these techniques is a newer twist. Social media puts the power of broadcasting into the hands of anyone. And one victim, Jimmy Minh Do, decided to use it.

"There's cameras everywhere and there's social media everywhere now, too", he says.