By MES Dispatch staff
The Briefing
• The Los Angeles Police Department proposed revising its data retention policy to allow deletion of about 11.8 million body-worn and dashboard camera video files, officials said.
• The change would permit footage older than five years to be erased unless it’s tied to shootings, investigations, or court cases.
• The Board of Police Commissioners paused a vote on the proposal, citing concerns about safeguards and unclear protections.
• LAPD Chief Information Officer John Furay presented the plan during a Jan. 27 meeting with the civilian oversight board.
LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Police Department has presented a proposed policy change that would allow the deletion of nearly 12 million videos recorded by officers’ body-worn and dashboard-mounted cameras, department officials said.
Under current policy, LAPD retains all collected footage indefinitely. The department’s chief information officer, John Furay, told the civilian Board of Police Commissioners at a Jan. 27 meeting that revised guidelines would permit videos older than five years to be destroyed if they are not tied to police shootings, ongoing investigations, court proceedings, or other designated exceptions.
Furay estimated that about 11.8 million body-worn camera files currently stored could be eligible for deletion under the new policy, and older dashboard camera recordings held on magnetic media would also be subject to purging.
Commissioners raised concerns that the draft policy lacked clear guardrails to prevent inadvertent deletion of potentially relevant records and could risk losing footage that may later be needed for legal or oversight purposes.
The commission voted to postpone a formal vote on the policy and directed LAPD officials to return with revisions addressing those concerns.
The department has said deletions would occur only after checks with investigators and its legal affairs section, but no timeline for implementation or the revised proposal has been set.