Chain of custody is a legal concept that asks two questions about every step a piece of evidence takes: who held it, and what could they have changed. The construction site has not traditionally framed its records this way. It should.
The handoff is the weak point
Captured footage moves through several hands before it appears in a meeting or a claim file. A site engineer downloads it. A package manager trims it. A document controller renames the file. Each handoff is a place where the record can be changed without anyone meaning to change it. The chain breaks quietly.
A practical chain on site
- The original capture is preserved in a system nobody can write to.
- Every export is logged with a user, a time, and a reason.
- Trims and clips are derived artefacts, not edits to the original.
- A chain-of-custody summary is attached when the record leaves the platform.
None of this is theoretical. When a delay claim reaches an adjudicator or an incident reaches a deposition, the first questions are about provenance. Sites that can answer those questions in writing avoid the long, expensive arguments that sites that cannot answer them eventually accept.
“Chain of custody is not a feature. It is a posture the project decides to hold from week one.”
Field notes are part of the public RDI reference. For shorter definitions, use the glossary. For full reference articles, see the knowledge base.