Pueblo police explain how long they keep body cam footage

Pueblo police have recorded more than 23,000 videos since they began wearing body cameras in mid-January.

Deputy Chief Troy Davenport said most of those videos will eventually be deleted.

“The majority of things are innocuous. They can be deleted and nobody would ever need them again,” Davenport said.

At the end of every shift, officers upload their body camera footage into a database. Each video is assigned a category that determines how long it will be retained. Davenport explained that recordings of misdemeanors, for example, would be kept, on average, for 18 months while felonies would be stored longer.

“Every video that we take of a felony crime that’s been recorded will be retained for a minimum of three years. There are some exceptions to that,” Davenport said.

There are cases where video would be stored indefinitely, as in the case of officer-involved shootings. Davenport said that determining how long video is retained is based on the statute of limitations.

“The statute of limitations has a correlation with the seriousness of the offense,” said retired judge Victor Reyes.

“If there’s somebody who is shot and killed, or injured, they always have an option, depending on the circumstances, of filing a lawsuit against the police department, against the officer,” Reyes said.

Even though turning on the cameras is as simple as pushing a button, Davenport said only two administrators have the authority to delete the videos they capture: him and an IT employee.

“No officer has the ability in and of themselves to delete anything,” Davenport said. “All deletions are preset.”

Davenport said keeping all the video that is recorded is not possible given the amount of storage that would be required. The department has a contract with Taser International that allows it to store 9.9 terabytes of video every year. If the department exceeds that limit, Davenport said that cost would be passed down to taxpayers.

“The more you store, the more expensive it gets,” Davenport said.

So far this year, the department has recorded about 3.5 terabytes of video. Davenport said he’s not worried about exceeding the allotted space.