what can be determined from low-quality video

[cam235]

I saw that Tampa PD wants to locate a person that they show walking and running on some low-quality, heavily compressed video clips.
It seems to me possible , if they have some people walk along the same track at night and look at the same camera output and compare the results, they ought to be able to (for example) figure out the person's height to within at least an inch, and an upper limit to their weight (not sure how baggy the clothing is). Sounds like they're throwing some resources at this, given the situation there (possible serial killer) but I haven't seen that they did so. Is this something that would be routinely done?

 

[mat200]

I saw that Tampa PD wants to locate a person that they show walking and running on some low-quality, heavily compressed video clips.
It seems to me possible , if they have some people walk along the same track at night and look at the same camera output and compare the results, they ought to be able to (for example) figure out the person's height to within at least an inch, and an upper limit to their weight (not sure how baggy the clothing is). Sounds like they're throwing some resources at this, given the situation there (possible serial killer) but I haven't seen that they did so. Is this something that would be routinely done?

Hi Cam235,

That is fairly poor quality images - best they can do is ask for a subpoena of cell phone records from the phone company asking for the number(s) of strangers in that part of the cell network.

 

[framednlv]

Send the video to Hollywood...

 

[looney2ns]

The police, rightfully so, don't tell everything to the press they are doing.

All those vids have been digitally zoomed into, is one reason they look so bad. That's not a PTZ following the perp.
All good examples of why pixels are important for ID faces, and not just to see what happened.