Frustrations of Being a Magistrate: Episode 9: Poor Quality CCTV Evidence

A picture really does paint a thousand words, which is why CCTV and body worn video (BMV) footage is often such valuable evidence before the court.

You'd be amazed how many people have a CCTV system, but lack either the technology or knowledge to download the footage as a video file.

For that reasons almost every piece of CCTV footage we see at the Magistrates' Court is obtained by a police officer using either their mobile phone or phablet device to record the footage directly from a monitor.

Making a copy of a copy as it were usually provides adequate audio, but the imagery often leaves a lot to be desired. The resolution is often very poor and the footage can be shaky, particularly if the officer has to record with their own device for any length of time.

Another problem is that you can hear background noise from the room in which the CCTV monitor is located. Background coughing, spluttering, phone ringing and door closing is fairly typical, but you do get occasions where the officer decides to chat to others in the room.

I think half the problem is that footage needs to be available for the Magistrates' Court at fairly short notice. If a person is accused of a particularly serious offence, there is every chance they will appear before the court within one or two days. The police simply do not have the time to spend hours faffing on to download thirty seconds of video footage.

The Crown Court generally has the luxury of time, so there is more opportunity to download any valuable footage correctly. Even so, you do get absolutely abysmal footage being shown during Crown Court proceedings.

In an ideal world every piece of footage would be downloaded correctly. In the real world, it would be nice if it was always copied with a steady mobile phone or phablet and zero irrelevant background noise.