AB 69, as amended, Rodriguez. Peace officers: body-worn cameras.
Existing law makes it a crime to intentionally record a confidential communication without the consent of all parties to the communication. Existing law exempts specified peace officers from that provision if they are acting within the scope of their authority.
This bill would require law enforcement agencies to follow specified best practices when establishing policies and procedures for downloading and storing data from body-worn cameras, including, among other things, prohibiting unauthorized use, duplication, or distribution of the data, storage periods for evidentiary and nonevidentiary data, as defined.
Vote: majority.
Appropriation: no.
Fiscal committee: begin deleteno end deletebegin insertyesend insert.
State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 832.18 is added to the Penal Code, to
2read:
(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to establish
4policies and procedures to address issues related to the
5downloading and storage data recorded by a body-worn camera
6worn by a peace officer. These policies and procedures shall be
7based on best practices.
8(b) When establishing policies and procedures for the
9implementation and operation of a body-worn camera system, law
10enforcement agencies, departments, or entities shall consider the
11following best practices regarding the downloading and storage
12of body-worn camera data:
13(1) Designate the person responsible for downloading the
14recorded data from the
body-worn camera. If the storage system
15does not have automatic downloading capability, the officer’s
16supervisor should take immediate physical custody of the camera
17and should be responsible for downloading the data in the case of
18an incident involving the use of force by an officer, an
19officer-involved shooting, or other serious incident.
20(2) Establish when data should be downloaded to ensure the
21data is entered into the system in a timely manner, the cameras are
22properly maintained and ready for the next use, and for purposes
23of tagging and categorizing the data.
24(3) Establish specific measures to prevent data tampering,
25deleting, and copying, including prohibiting the unauthorized use,
26duplication, or distribution of body-worn camera data.
27(4) Categorize and tag body-worn camera video at the time the
28data is downloaded and classified according to the type of event
29or incident captured in the data.
30(5) Specifically state the length of time that recorded data shall
31be stored.
32(A) Unless subparagraph (B) or (C) applies, a law enforcement
33agency shall retain nonevidentiary data including video and audio
34recorded by a body-worn camera for a minimum ofbegin delete one yearend deletebegin insert 60
35daysend insert, after which it will be erased, destroyed, or recycled pursuant
36to Section 34090.6 of the Government Code.
37(B) A law enforcement agency shall retain evidentiary data
38including video and audio recorded by a body-worn camera under
P3 1this section for a minimum of three years under any of the
2following situations:
3(i) The recording is of an incident involving the use of force by
4a peace officer or an officer-involved shooting.
5(ii) The recording is of an incident that leads to the detention
6or arrest of an individual.
7(iii) The recording is relevant to a formal or informal complaint
8against a law enforcement officer or a law enforcement agency.
9(C) If evidence that may be relevant to a criminal prosecution
10is
obtained from a recording made by a body-worn camera under
11this section, the law enforcement agency shall retain the recording
12for any time in addition to that specified in paragraphs (A) and
13(B), and in the same manner as is required by law for other
14evidence that may be relevant to a criminal prosecution.
15(6) State where the body-worn camera data will be stored,
16including, for example, an in-house server which is managed
17internally, or an online cloud database which is managed by abegin delete third begin insert third-partyend insert vendor.
18partyend delete
19(7) If using a third-party vendor to manage the data storage
20system, the following factors
shall be considered to protect the
21security and integrity of the data:
22(A) Using an experienced and reputable third-party vendor.
23(B) Entering into contracts that govern the vendor relationship
24and protect the agency’s data.
25(C) Using a system that has a built-in audit trail to prevent data
26tampering and unauthorized access.
27(D) Using a system that has a reliable method for automatically
28backing up data for storage.
29(E) Consulting with internal legal counsel to ensure the method
30of data storage meets legal requirements for chain-of-custody
31concerns.
32(F) Using a system that includes technical assistance capabilities.
33(c) (1) For purposes of this section, “evidentiary data” refers
34to data of an incident or encounter that could prove useful for
35investigative purposes, including, but not limited to, a crime, an
36arrest or citation, a search, a use of force incident, or a
37confrontational encounter with a member of the public. The
38retention period for evidentiary data are subject to state evidentiary
39laws.
P4 1(2) For purposes of this section, “nonevidentiary data” refers
2to data that does not necessarily have value to aid in an
3investigation or prosecution, such as data of an incident or
4encounter that does not lead to an arrest or citation, or data of
5general activities the officer might perform while on
duty.
6(d) All recorded media, images, and audio from body-worn
7cameras are property of their respective law enforcement agency,
8and shall not be copied, released, or disseminated in any form or
9manner outside the parameters of this section without the written
10consent of the head of the agency, unless otherwise authorized by
11law.
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