Policy Text
Page 1 of 3 7/11 (NEW 8/18)
GENERAL ORDER
Air Operations Audio/Video Media and Media Review
The purpose of this General Order is to establish departmental policy and procedures
regarding the request, use and rel ease of media that is capture d by the Air Operations
Unit. I. General
A. Aircraft that are routinely used for patrol or surveillance operations are
equipped with gyro stabilized ca mera systems capable of operati ng in
daylight, lowlight and thermal im aging modes. The video signal s can also
be recorded and are temporarily s tored in the aircraft’s digita l video
recorder (DVR).
II. Video Recording
A. Whenever feasible, aircrews shoul d make an effort to record calls for
service which are critical in nat ure, or involve crimes in prog ress where
video could prove beneficial for criminal prosecution, document ation or
training.
III. Review of Recorded Media
A. Department policy requires tha t officers prepare complete an d accurate
reports detailing actions taken by the reporting/involved offic er(s). It is
recommended that officers review a ll evidence reasonably availa ble to
ensure the most accurate accoun t of the event is documented. R eview of
materials should include any ava ilable audio, video or photogra phic
material collected by the Air Operations Unit.
B. Officers involved in an inci dent that was captured by Air Op erations Unit
aircraft shall have an opportunity to review the recorded media at the
conclusion of the incident. The review will take place at the Air Operations
office. The purpose for allowi ng a review of the media is to a ssist the
officer in documenting the mos t accurate account of the event. The
review of available media is fo r informational purposes and sho uld not be
a replacement for an officer’s independent, first-hand account of the
incident.
Page 2 of 3 7/11 (NEW 8/18) C. Review of recorded media and subsequent documentation shall be
conducted in accordance wit h SSD General Order 1/34.
D. Due to the highly sophistica ted imaging capabilities of the camera system,
the equipment may have captured det ails and images not ordinari ly visible
to the human eye. This is particu larly true if viewing any ima ges produced
by the lowlight or ther mal image sensors.
E. The following information will be provided to officers prior to the review of
available media:
1. As an SSD officer involved in an incident that may have been
partially or completely captured by an Air Operations Unit airc raft,
you will be afforded the opportuni ty to review any available me dia
captured by Air Operations per sonnel. The media may include
daytime, lowlight, thermal and/or b lended video camera recordin gs
of the incident, and may include related radio transmissions.
2. It is entirely possible tha t images captured on the recordin g could
not feasibly have been seen by an officer on the scene.
3. These recordings are for offi cial use only. Videos may not b e
copied, duplicated, or distri buted without the express permissi on of
the Chief Deputy of the Service Area.
IV. Storage, Management and Retrie val of Audio-Visual Media
A. It is the policy of this agency to collect and store media-b ased evidence in
the best manner possible within t he limitations of the equipmen t used to
capture, transfer and archive t he files. While the original me dia used to
collect evidence is considered the best evidence, storage capac ity
limitations necessitate the need to transfer the media from the aircraft to a
more suitable storage server.
V. Storage
A. On or around the first day o f each month, but no later than the fifth day of
the month, the Air O perations Unit Supervisor, or his designee, will
remove the SATA drive from each aircraft and copy the video fil es from
the previous month to the shared folder created by SSD Technica l
Operations. Once the files have been successfully copied to th e shared
folder, the files will be deleted from the aircraft’s SATA driv e.
B. The designated SSD Arbitrato r Technician will manually uploa d the video
files into the Arbitrator progr am for storage. The files will be maintained in
the Arbitrator system for 405 days before bei ng automatically a nd
permanently deleted. Any file t hat has been ident ified as havi ng
Page 3 of 3 7/11 (NEW 8/18) evidentiary value, or otherwise as required by law, can be appr opriately
tagged as evidence and st ored indefinitely.
C. Air Operations per sonnel only have aut horization to upload t he video files
into the shared folder on the SSD server. Personnel shall not possess the
attributes to copy, retrieve or edit files stored in the Arbitr ator program.
D. If an aircrew determines tha t a file needs to be immediately imported into
the Arbitrator system, it may be copied to the shared server up on the
termination of the flight. The aircrew will notify SSD Arbitra tor Technician
regarding the urgent video reque st and the need to flag the fil e as
evidence.
VI. Request for Recordings
A. All routine evidentiary reques ts for media recordings shall be made in
writing to the SSD Custodian