Steps to take after a burglary

[JohnAJohnson]

I'd like to learn the proper way to handle cameras and my NAS storage after a burglary. We are in the country and have a fairly unsophisticated Sheriffs department that might not have the equipment and skills necessary to harvest and process the NAS video.

I'm looking for the technical steps to take after the burglary. I have Hikvision IP cameras writing to a local NAS and emailing snapshots (to a gmail account) when motion is detected. The NAS would survive the burglary along with the emailed snapshots (on google's servers), but the cameras may or may not survive - They could be damaged or stolen.

If you have been through this before or have thought it through, I'd appreciate learning the process.

 

[bp2008]

Thankfully I have never been through the process myself. There are any number of ways to get videos to the police. They could be posted to youtube, burned to a CD, written to a USB flash drive, emailed, uploaded to dropbox, or whatever. Which way is best will depend on how tech savvy the local sheriff's department is. Maybe youtube is blocked by their firewall. Maybe their email servers haven't been updated since the 1990s and can't take large attachments. Maybe their email spam filters would throw away your email. Maybe policy demands they do not open email attachments, but maybe they would accept a CD or USB drive. You never know with government agencies. Best to ask them when they come to investigate.

I suggest you look around in the camera captures section of this forum. There are several 1st-hand accounts in there which you could learn from, if you can find them between all the random non-crime captures or links to news sites.

 

[JohnAJohnson]

Thanks bp2008. I just finished reading through Camera Captures. Lots of info there but really nothing in detail. Specifically, with my Hikvisions recording to a NAS, I am very concerned about getting video off the NAS if the camera is damaged or stolen. My NAS cannot be connected directly to a computer (ethernet only) and "Local Playback" will only fetch from a drive directly connected to the computer it is running on. So I am looking for ways to connect the NAS to a computer via RJ45 and have the computer recognise it as a connected drive, suitable for Hikvisions Local Playback software. Optionally, if anyone knows of any other software that'll pull videos off the NAS (by date/time) without a camera, that would be great too.

Hopefully, someone that has been through this (or has thought it through) can offer suggestions.

 

[alastairstevenson]

My NAS cannot be connected directly to a computer (ethernet only)

The whole point of a NAS (Network Attached Storage) is that you have it as a device on your LAN, providing storage services and applications. So I 'm a bit confused by your statement above.
The NAS when on your network will offer shared volumes for devices such as a camera or PC to connect to, and access the files, permissions permitting.
The files that a camera places on the 'NetHDD' storage destination configured in the camera should be accessible to a PC.
The main downside is that the files are organised to suit the camera, not the way a human being would organise them, but that does not stop them being accessible and playable.
Apologies for not understanding what the problem is here.

 

[JohnAJohnson]

You are right in that the video files are available on the shares and accessible. Problem is the directory/file structure Hikvision is using. At initialization, they create (in my case) directories datadir00 through datadir44. In each of these directories are files hiv00000.mp4 thorough hiv00253.mp4. With Hikvision's VPlayer, or Media Player Classic/Windows Media player (with the proper codec) you can play any of these mp4 files. The video files themselves may contain 20 minutes of video or 20 hours of video, and there is no way to tell what date and time it contains unless you placed a date/time stamp on the video (which I do) and play the file. The file's date and time stamp (as seen from Windows Explorer, for example) probably will not tell you when the video file was last written to and you can't just go to the file with a date and time stamp that is close to the date/time you are looking for and expect to find the right footage.

Conditions:
Camera stolen or destroyed
NAS is available and working
I am hospitalized or dead

1. The police or relatives (assume none are computer savvy) must set up a video player that has the right codec to view the Hikvision mp4s. Yep, they are different than standard mp4s.

2. Someone must view possibly hundreds of mp4s while looking at time/date stamps to find what they are looking for.

If the camera is available there is no problem. The Android or iOS iVMS 4500 software allows you to go directly to a day or range of days and rapidly review video that has been saved (I save when motion is detected). The web interface also allows this type of review. But I am making an assumption that the bad guys will spot at least some of the cameras and will either destroy or steal them to get rid of the evidence.

Hikvision's Local Playback software would be fine if it would access a NAS, but it will only recognize a local, attached hard drive.

So if I were to write instructions on how to review the video on the NAS in the event I was unavailable, what steps should I write down? The procedure described above seems sort of Micky Mouse for the amount of $$$ I have invested. There has to be a better way, and that's what I'm looking for.

 

[nayr]

if your hospitalized or dead you got bigger problems than this, if the police think for a moment your cameras cought your murder on camera there techs will find your storage device and analyze the data.. you could simply leave a README-IF-I-AM-DEAD.txt on the root with some basic information on the filestructure and encoding types, but dont go any further than that.

I record 24/7/365 and keep 3 weeks of video archived, if for some reason someone cant be bothered to examine the video within 3 weeks it must of not been that damn important.. I have SD cards in my cameras configured to act as a backup storage only in the event the NAS is unavailable, snapshots get emailed to me so if the whole house goes up in flames or the storage device and cameras were also somehow also taken (not that they really could be, not without ladders I dont own) I at least have some still images to go on, not perfect but its better than nada in that unlikely scenario.

 

[Kawboy12R]

You're the expert on your system. Get a "fresh" laptop and try to get it to access and play your NAS files given a worst case scenario. Write down everything from cable locations (label them), NAS location, etc to where/how you loaded the codecs, what software you needed to load, any IP addresses needed, etc. Set up a GMail account to email snapshots to of everybody entering the house, cars entering the driveway, etc and include the email address and password in your notes. Then give the instructions to your next of kin, best friend(s), and your lawyer with instructions to open only in case of your incapacitation. If there's an ongoing case where you think there's a real reason you might be incapacitated or dead, give the cop handling the case the instructions as well. Set aside some money with instructions to your lawyer to spend it on the GeekSquad, Nerds4Hire, or whatever is local and convenient for video retrieval. Hell, if you've got a spare laptop, why not set it up ahead of time to read your NAS and give IT to your lawyer or next of kin that don't live with you. You could even have a README_IN_CASE_IM_DEAD.TXT file front and center on the desktop with detailed instructions as well. Gotta love swatting murderers from beyond the grave.

 

[alastairstevenson]

2. Someone must view possibly hundreds of mp4s while looking at time/date stamps to find what they are looking for.

I do understand where you are coming from. But that's what these people do - and they have tools to help them.
The index files maintained by the camera hold all the 'metadata' that the raw video file does not have.
However - the 'last modified date' as shown in Windows does show when the file was last written, and a Windows search from the top level share for files changed on a specific date works OK.

1. The police or relatives (assume none are computer savvy) must set up a video player that has the right codec to view the Hikvision mp4s. Yep, they are different than standard mp4s.

It's just the standard H.264 compression standard - which Windows media player doesn't support natively, unlike many other media players.
This will not be an obstacle to anyone trying to view the recordings.
Here is what VLC makes of the media:

 

[automag928]

I've actually been in a position to meet with the local sheriff's office when a crime occurred at a facility where I installed the nvr and cameras. Basically, the two detectives walked with me to a workstation, where I accessed the NVR, and exported the video to their thumbdrive. I asked if they wanted anything done as far as conversion, editing, anything and they said , no just give us the raw data, and as much as you can.

From this, they were successfully able to identify the perp, and make an arrest, which in turn led to him rolling over and the cops nabbing a ring of burglars that had been targeting the area.

 

[alastairstevenson]

Excellent! I bet that brought a nice sense of satisfaction.

 

[Eddie Current]

You would think that if they saw a bunch of cameras hanging off a house or building they would go for a easier target.

 

[snik]

Being in law enforcement, I can tell you most jurisdictions will not want you to edit any of the video. It has to do with maintaining the chain of custody and the use of the video as evidence in criminal court.

The agency I work for can take the video from any means, whether that is USB drive, email, or CD. It all gets uploaded to a server in the case file.

 

[Warsaws]

Eddie, Yes. Unless you have something specific they want.

 

[JohnAJohnson]

Thank you all.

 

[Razer]

I have video turned over to the police all the time, literally a weekly occurrence and this is going to police over a 5 state area in the USA. With 100 locations that means a lot of town/city, sheriffs, and even state police needing to see video. In the last couple of years I have run into one lonely department that did not even have email for the officers and little to no IT at all so that one was worse than most. Still got the arrest made though!

In my case I use Exacq for my software and I can export video to a self contained .exe file that launches a video playback too for up to 16 cameras at once with frame by frame, digital zoom, time stamps and all they need in one tidy file. The cops love it, I have been told many times that they cannot believe how good the video is, then how easy it was to play and use. I provide all the video via dropbox, just sent them a direct link to the file so there is no logging in or anything just click a link and download.

If they have security policies on the laptops where they cannot download .exe files (happened twice now) they usually have a dedicated evidence guy or detective that has all access. Worst case they then get a .mov or .avi whatever they prefer but then that is camera by camera which sucks when I'm providing views from 6-12 cameras for an event.

Overall dropbox has been a great solution for providing files, or you could use skydrive or whatever you want as they all work the same. The vast majority of departments will be able to access the files easily and I have little to no issues providing video in this way. Just ensure the video provided is in a standard video format that windows media player can play by default and not a .dav or similar odd format and you will be fine.

 

[Kawboy12R]

Sendthisfile.com is very simple and works well for big files for those without Dropbox or who don't want to use it. They do speed throttling for free accounts though so Dropbox is probably better for frequent users.