Time is really critical. Alot of police investigative work is about stitching camera footage together in a timeline.
I served on a jury where a case was built around camera evidence immediately before and after an event. Of about a dozen relevant data sources, only one had verifiable, correct time. The defense was able to impeach that evidence, and the whole case collapsed. A dude got away with manslaughter.
"A dude got away with manslaughter."
He got away with it only if he did it.
If the presented evidence failed to prove his guilt (brd), then he didn't so much 'get away with it', as sufficient proof was not presented to prove his guilt.
Sorry to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you thought he did it?
Which, isn't necessarily a bad thing, as there are balances in the system that prevent you from being the sole judge, jury and executioner regarding the situation.
Absolutely true in theory and I accept the outcome, although it bothered me for some time. It didn't meet the standard of proof; however the family successfully obtained a civil judgement later. But there is no doubt in my mind that the guy was guilty of hitting a fallen pedestrian, probably by accident, and driving off.
The thing that broke the case was a rhetorically talented defense attorney breaking down a (poor) expert witness who was inexperienced and unprepared. Certain traffic control devices use NTP to set their clock, and the expert wasn't able to articulate responses to the questions competently... so the video was admitted into evidence, but the metadata was not.
The loss of the time source placed events depicted on a series of cameras from different sources, all with incorrect clocks, into a 10-minute window (as opposed to a 2 minute window), which broke the case and led to a dismissal. The attorney did a good job by her client, I'd hire her in a second.
I served on a jury where a case was built around camera evidence immediately before and after an event. Of about a dozen relevant data sources, only one had verifiable, correct time. The defense was able to impeach that evidence, and the whole case collapsed. A dude got away with manslaughter.