Insights · Evidence

Body-worn cameras and the timestamp problem

April 2026 · 4 minute read

Body-worn cameras have changed how incidents are documented, but they have not escaped the oldest problem in video evidence: the clock.

When multiple officers' cameras, dispatch logs, and other systems all have to line up on a single timeline, even a small synchronization error becomes a real problem. A camera a minute or an hour off can appear to reorder events, and a case built on that footage inherits the discrepancy. The footage still has to satisfy the authentication standard of Federal Rule of Evidence 901 as a fair and accurate depiction.

Accuracy is not automatic

It is tempting to assume professional equipment keeps perfect time. It often does not. The same daylight-saving and configuration errors behind the finding that more than half of all security-camera systems display the wrong time apply to any device whose clock is not actively verified.

Reliable body-worn-camera evidence depends on tying each clip's time back to its source rather than trusting the overlay, so that when several recordings are assembled into one account, they actually agree.