Chickens Come Home to Roost When Covert Videos Alleging Animal Mistreatment are Ruled Admissible
Covert video recordings taken at the behest of an animal rights organization provide potentially valuable evidence in a prosecution alleging animal cruelty. In R. v. Elite Farm Services Ltd., 2021 BCSC 1583 (British Columbia Supreme Court), the defence challenged the admissibility of video evidence that the Crown sought to tender at trial. The purpose...
Case Study: Failure to Authenticate Surveillance Video Leads to Exclusion of Evidence
Authentication is a prerequisite for the admissibility of video evidence. As discussed in several articles on this website, failure by the tendering party to lead sufficient reliable evidence to prove authentication will result in a ruling of inadmissibility. Such was the case in the May 21, 2018 ruling in State of New York v....
Peer Review: The Obligations of the Peer Reviewer and the Expert
Peer review is an often overlooked but important step in the finalization of an expert report. Once an expert has completed his/her expert report, especially one in which the expert has formed an opinion or conclusion, it should be given to another expert for peer review. This article will discuss the purposes of...
Narrating Video Evidence: Helping to Tell the Story
Rarely can we expect the trier of fact to watch video evidence and fully understand both the overall picture of what happened and specific pertinent details. The trier of fact does not have the luxury of relevant training and ample time to examine the media. It is for this reason that forensic video...
Case Study: Expert Witness Claims Expertise Not Actually Present
In a previous post entitled “Interpreting Video Images: The Role of the Forensic Video Analyst,” I discussed the important role that a forensic video analyst can play in providing expert interpretive evidence in court. The analyst’s job is to assist attorneys and the court in drawing informed and correct conclusions regarding the video...
Interpreting Video Images: The Role of the Forensic Video Analyst
Do you see what I see? Looking at video evidence does not mean that you will actually see all that the video has to offer. Expert interpretation of video evidence is often required in order to properly evaluate and understand the images. Relying on video evidence without expert interpretation risks the failure to...
Frame Rate: Understanding the Impact of Frame Rate on Video Interpretation
Surveillance video does not always have a frame rate that allows for continuous or near continuous recording of an event. Frame rates may be reduced to account for multiple camera feeds, rotating camera activation, reducing the amount of data that is captured, etc. When the frame rate is reduced, the viewer must be...
Image Compression: Are Our Eyes Deceiving Us?
Digital compression of video images is a common occurrence. There are legitimate and laudatory reasons for such compression. Among those reasons are the fact that more data can be stored in a smaller amount of storage space, data can be easily transmitted electronically, and data can be searched more readily. However, the first...
Editing of Images: When Do You Cross the Line?
Related to concerns with authentication, one of the most pervasive suspicions regarding digital image evidence is that the images have been surreptitiously edited in such a manner as to present a false picture of what really happened. Such editing may include deletion or insertion of images, changing the order in which images appear,...