Video Surveillance Management: A Different Point Of View

By King Rogers, president, and Craig Thrane, director of the Digital Multimedia Analytics Lab, KRG Analytics, Inc.

Video surveillance management begins with the needs assessment and objectives study which precede the written camera purchase order and continues along a continuum which includes installation, networking, recording, accessing, storing, and archiving and often culminates in the courtroom in either a criminal or a civil trial. While the process along the continuum typically begins at the beginning, think about looking at it from the perspective of the video forensics examiner. Think about the pixilation, the depth and field of view, the influence of lighting, the compression, and all of the other nuances with which the examiner must deal. Do you wonder if the examiner ever thought, "If only they had placed this camera eight inches over to the right and down six inches, the subject would have been far more recognizable or the scene captured would have shown exactly what led up to the slip and fall." Actually, examiners frequently have those thoughts and, unfortunately, sometimes even have to testify to that effect.