Police Body-Cam Data Storage

It is estimated that 1/3 of the 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States are now using body cams for their patrol officers. Purchasing them is the easy part; coming up with the policies and procedures for employing them and handling the data is another issue.

Here are some policy questions for departments looking to bring body cams online for their agency:

1. How much data should a department plan to store?
2. Where should body-cam data be stored?
3. How long should video be stored?
4. How should video storage be protected?
5. Will the video files be easily searchable and accessible?

And, what is the cost of doing all of the above? 

Typically, operational types of people will focus on the equipment aspect of the gear and the operational procedures. However, the devil is in the storage and retrieval system that you put in place. I'd concentrate my efforts there first, before launching a body-cam program.

Note: The questions above came from ACS, www.acsacs.com