Can Anyone Get Copies Of City Surveillance Video?

JH
John Honovich
Aug 08, 2016
IPVM

There is a fascinating case in California where a news station was granted 5.7 million surveillance images over a 90 day period.

I have never heard of anything this broad. Certainly if there is a specific incident / crime, clips are sometimes released but releasing a mass of images generally seems uncommon to me.

For those of you who work on city surveillance systems, what is your experience with city surveillance video being released to the public?

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #1
Aug 08, 2016

Some cities sign agreements with news networks and share videos. For tourism propouses or general views. Or even live streams.

JH
John Honovich
Aug 08, 2016
IPVM

For surveillance / security cameras?

I know traffic cameras are often made public.

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Ross Vander Klok
Aug 08, 2016
IPVMU Certified

I'll bet their policy would be different if it was actually video instead of still pictures. Not because of their concern for privacy or anything but because it would be such a hassle to give out that much video footage.

Avatar
Kevin Nadai
Aug 08, 2016

In the United States, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) allows the public to obtain copies of information from the executive branch of the federal government. Most state and local jurisdictions have similar laws.

There are exceptions to FOIA requests, one of which is if disclosing that information would result in an invasion of privacy. Recording license plates at a public intersection is not an invasion of privacy. That is the entire point of a license plate -- to be able to publicly identify a vehicle. Neither is taking pictures of people in the public space.

There are other exceptions, such as in the interest of national security or during a criminal prosecution if releasing that information could interfere with the case.

It is up to each jurisdiction how to provide the information. For instance, the clerk's office might allow you to peruse their birth/death records in person. In other cases, you might have to submit a request in writing and receive the information at a later date.

The jurisdiction may charge a reasonable fee for obtaining the information, representative of the effort needed to produce it. Fees are waived for news media.

So, yes, anyone can get copies of city surveillance video, although it may cost you to obtain it.

If a jurisdiction claims a "policy" of not releasing such information, your recourse would be in court.

A grey area might be information the government never had in the first place. For instance, if they were leasing traffic cameras from a private entity that views the images and only forwards potential violations for possible prosecution. If you filed a FOIA act for ALL footage or LPR reads, the government could argue it cannot release information it does not have.

This issue was central to the Hillary Clinton email scandal. The response to a FOIA request for her email regarding Benghazi was "no records responsive to your request were located." This was because the government did not have her email, which was on her private server instead. The story goes on from there. I am not trying to argue the scandal in this post, but merely giving an example of where a FOIA request might be denied.

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JH
John Honovich
Aug 08, 2016
IPVM

Kevin, you are saying I can FOIA the NYPD and get every video surveillance recording from every camera in Times Square?

That's what I am getting at. The 'every' / 'all' aspect.

I can certainly believe if there is a rationale of the public interest given but I've yet to see (outside of this case) any city just export ALL of their surveillance images / video and give them away en masse.

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Ross Vander Klok
Aug 08, 2016
IPVMU Certified

I am guessing you could John, but they would charge you a kerbillion dollars for the time it took the officers /techs to pull it and the cost of the drives they dumped it on.

Back to my comment about the difference between stills and video. If it were video they would not be so eager to hand it out, but legally they have too. This is the same type of deal where you see stories of the government charging $850 to photocopy 30 pages of documents.

Avatar
Kevin Nadai
Aug 08, 2016

John,

I am not familiar with the New York City or State version of FOIA. However, assuming it is similar to the federal FOIA, you certainly could request all video from the cameras in Times Square. NYPD's responses might be:

  • It is their "policy" to not release such information
  • Your request is denied through homeland security, "privacy," or other exemptions
  • Disagree that you (IPVM) is a news medium and charge you an outrageous fee for preparing your request (for instance, requiring you to pay for the storage medium and hours of IT staff support).

You might then choose to seek recourse in court.

For instance, the sports network ESPN was conducting an investigation into whether college sports players are given special treatment when accused of wrongdoing. They filed FOIA requests with ten universities, requesting police records. The University of Notre Dame refused as a private university and thus not bound by Indiana's version of FOIA. ESPN sued and Notre Dame prevailed at trial. ESPN filed an appeal, arguing that Notre Dame's police department operated as a public entity and not a private security force (certified by the State, arrest powers, sworn as police officers not security guards, etc). The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's decision and ruled in ESPN's favor. It is now headed to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Obviously, you might need a lot of money to prevail.

In the OP's linked article, it might be that the jurisdiction:

  • Didn't disagree with the request; or
  • Didn't want a legal fight with a local news organization; or
  • As Ross noted above, since the request was for still images, not video, it did not require a ginormous amount of storage or bandwidth to comply with the request.
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