Secret Service Video Surveillance Scandal
By John Honovich, Published Mar 27, 2015, 12:00am EDTThe US Secret Service has taken a beating over the last few years.
Hookers, public drunkenness and now, the newest Secret Service scandal, is their video surveillance recordings, or lack thereof.
For some reason, the US Secret Service claims they only keep / record surveillance video for 3 days.
Given the Secret Service's past indiscretions, many have immediately alleged a cover-up rather than simple incompetence in a recent barricade incident.
One Congressmen presumed they were using VHS tapes:
"It is an antiquated system to purge video after 72 hours. We know from past experience that post-incident review relies heavily on our ability to retain those tapes. There is no reason to be taping over those tapes. We need a stem-to-stern review of our technology at the White House.”
Though no source explains what type or brand of surveillance system they were using, we obviously highly doubt it was tapes or that they physically had any serious limitations in recording for more than 3 days. By contrast, industry average recording duration is 30 days or longer.
One of the obvious problems of short recording duration is that often the need to export / flag video is not known or fully appreciated until after the video is recorded over. In this case, the Secret Service Director claims he did not even learn of the incident until 5 days later.
