Dashcam forensics: A preliminary analysis of 7 dashcam devices

Dashboard cameras (“dashcams”) are becoming an important in-car accessory used to record audio and visual footage of car journeys. The audio/video footage produced by dashcams have become important items of evidence. This paper explores the problems related to the management and processing of dashcam evidence, and in particular, highlights challenges to the admissibility of evidence submitted online. The key contribution of this paper is to outline the results of an experiment which aimed to reveal the prevalence and provenance of artefacts created by the use of dashcams on the SD storage system of seven dashcam systems. The research describes the provenance of evidential artefacts relating to: the dashcam recording mode, GPS data, vehicular speed data, licence plate data, and temporal data which was found in at least six locations - namely: NMEA files, configuration/diagnostic files, EXIF metadata, directory structures, filename structures and imagery watermarks. •An outline of the approach by UK police forces to the consideration of dashcam evidence.•An outline of sample case studies in which dashcam evidence played a major part.•A detailed consideration of the dashcam evidence found on dashcams and the corresponding evidence repositories from which this can be recovered.•An overview of a number of tools that can be used to recover the evidence highlighted above.