Las Cruces to begin deleting mountain of archived police bodycam video

LAS CRUCES — Las Cruces police have been using body-worn cameras to film interactions with the public for over a decade. According to Police Chief Jeremy Story, most of that footage remains in storage, presenting a growing expense and burden on city resources.

“We are the only police department that retains video indefinitely, that I’m aware of,” Story told the City Council on Monday. “We’ve kept every video we’ve ever recorded going back almost 15 years with our original body cameras.”

“It has taken up a lot of room,” City Clerk Christine Rivera told the council. “I believe there are many terabytes of data, and in order for us to keep maintaining it, we would have to buy an additional server.”

The council approved a policy allowing police to destroy evidentiary videos automatically three years after a criminal or civil case is closed — including the bulk of footage that has already met that threshold, with the city clerk’s overview to ensure compliance with record management policies.

According to archived reports, body cameras were introduced in Las Cruces on a limited basis in 2012. Today, all commissioned Las Cruces Police Department officers are required to film duty-related interactions with the public, after a decade in which use of the technology has expanded rapidly.

The LCPD does not use dashboard cameras, although the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office does.

Last November, the council approved a $446,625 increase to its current five-year contact with Axon Enterprises for body cameras, Tasers and data storage, increasing the contractual limit to $2.3 million. The contract expires this November. Among the reasons for the increase, as stated then, was the need for more storage space.

While the state requires police video to be retained for 120 days and some municipalities stick to that threshold, City Attorney Brad Douglas said that time frame would worry him. With a three-year statute of limitations on tort and civil rights claims, destroying video sooner than that could lead to claims for spoiled evidence, he said.

Story agreed: “We took, I think, a fairly conservative approach at three years, which ensures that if anything comes up within the time span for civil process, the video is still there.”

Non-evidentiary video footage can be destroyed after 180 days, per a resolution the council approved in April.

Story also confirmed that police would not destroy video related to open cases, such as unsolved homicides that may remain open for many years.

An additional consideration discussed was public records requests, which require staff members to research and review video responsive to the queries for required redactions, as well as data security risks.

“It’s extraordinarily time-consuming and full of information we don’t want,” City Councilor Becky Corran said. “It’s a big and ever-growing problem.”

Monday’s vote also authorized the city to proceed with destroying video footage that has already passed the threshold.