LAWYER: How to Stop Cops From Taking Your Home Security Footage

How and when can the police legally seize your security footage? You might be surprised at just how easily law enforcement can get their hands on your videos—and no, it doesn’t always require your permission.

In this video, I’m breaking down three main ways police can legally take your home security footage, what you can do to protect yourself, and whether federal agencies have to follow the same rules. Trust me, you’ll want to know this.

❗️DISCLAIMER❗️

This is not legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! All content provided is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

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[StArFuRyZz]

As someone who works in IT - keep your private stuff on local storage only. If you're really worried - use encrypted drives. If it's on the cloud those companies will give it up without a 2nd thought.

[easyrider]

Computer security engineer here. The US government is still trying to make a master decryption key manidtory for all data encyption. Glad I can make my own encyption key pair.

[goldwinger]

The police aren't in a hurry to return stuff for a number of reasons:
1. Teach you a lesson because you stood up for your rights
2. Establish dominance
3. Create an environment of fear to encourage future compliance

The job of the police is not "protect and serve" it is to ensure compliance with the whims of the government.

[bearb.]

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

~B. Franklin

[NotAffiliated]

A buddy of mine did I.T. for a map company who turned out to be abusive and "slave driving" so he quit. They were so bitter that he left them after he refused to put up with their abuse, they reported to the police that he had their intellectual property on his personal computers. They had no reason to think this and no evidence to prove it. The police showed up at his house with a warrant and commandeered all 10, 000 dollars of his personal equipment including monitors and other items that didn't store data. Two years later they returned it to him, all scuffed up and drilled 3 holes thru all of his hard drives as 3 drill holes is the standard for data destruction as per the DOJ apparently. No charges were filed. No apologies were made. I told him he should sue, but he said that they actually told him that if he did, they would investigate him relentlessly and threatened him physically. He said he just wanted to move on and let it slide.

I love law and order. I love my country and the constitution. I would be a lot more positive and cooperative with the police if they weren't such a bunch of incompetent fascists!

[CraquedEggs]

Cloud storage smells like big brother... Don't step in it.

[gazoontight]

In other words, having a security system is essentially spying on yourself. Then you end up helping the corrupt police even if you want to stay out of it.

[gixxerclay]

All footage from my home security system gets stored locally, and gets deleted at the end of the day. It never sees the internet. 'Cloud' just means somebody else's hard drive. No thank you.

[Itsthatoneguy]

I had started to notice a strange pattern with the local police. An emergency on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on theirs.
Had a possible armed person who was an addict on work property. Call the cops, and they said “we’ll get someone out as soon as they’re available”. I watch cruser after cruser dive by. Some stopped in a parking lot near by to chat with each other for a few and then drove off. The person left after 45 minutes of being asked to. I left 15 minutes later and drove to the other side of town. An HOUR rafter I got to the other location, I get a call. “The officers are at “X” location in the back at the end of the parking lot. They don’t see anyone, can you come out?” I was like, I lift over an hour ago! The person already left before I did. And, I said they were in the front of the building not the back of the lot. Did you even listen to want I said? The response was “so they can leave the area then?”
I should have said no, wait till I get there.
This person shows up again a few nights later after we have been closed for hours, and starts shooting up in the front step. Called the cops three times and me saying if he OD’s, it’s on you, I know this is being recorded, before they finally said they would “make it a priority.
Cops really don’t want to work. Just sit in a lot and chat with another cop. Until their boss makes them do something.

[SofaKingSkilled]

This video should be mandatory viewing for anyone buying a cloud based home camera system. Great info!

[PADon]

Never sign up to volunteer information to the police. Store your footage locally and do not use the cloud. Make them get a warrant if they want to violate your privacy.

[stephengreen]

"I'm sorry officers, my cameras haven't worked in years."

[MatthewDouglas-nw]

In a security seminar I once attended the speaker addressed the use of a 3rd party holding your data by saying, "If it isn't in your personal possession, it ain't your's to control. And control of data is EVERYTHING."

[scottstoddard-zz]

People who give some of their rights for more security will
eventually have neither rights nor security. Paraphrase of
Benjamin Franklin

[MaydayAggro]

It's not security vs privacy. It's security vs liberty.

[John_Conner]

I've been in I.T. security for decades. The amount of trust people have in these companies is appalling. Like a Cow literally hanging out in a slaughterhouse saying "whats up guys". Apple by far is the worst offender. All my home security is custom and home made. You can make your OWN cloud, its not that hard to do, plenty of youtube videos to show you how to do it. All my CC are closed circuit AND wired. I do NOT do wireless unless its absolutely necessary and even then only for non essential stuff. I have hidden server caches for any recorded data like home and vehicle cameras. So even if the main drive is stolen or erased by law enforcement I have copies and those copies are hidden and distributed. I even have dummy devices with fake data on them. Same thing I do with my wallet. I literally have an extra wallet with fake credit cards and about 10 dollars in 1 dollar bills. If a thief tries to get me ill just drop them the fake wallet unless I have my freedom fry dispenser on me or I can't really get to it. Great distraction tool.

[dustclouds]

Software engineer with some experience in cybersecurity here. A few suggestions:

1. Separate indoor and outdoor security systems. You may use video camera doorbell of any well known brand and even enroll in those neighborhood watch programs that allow police to view its feed 24/7. The chances are that, unless you're running a small profitable drug smuggling operation from your home, this footage is not going to incriminate you.

NEVER use indoor security cameras with cloud storage

2. Indoor (that includes cameras facing your property, backyard and other private/fenced areas) security cameras shall use either encrypted local storage or encrypted cloud storage, but never standard mainstream cloud storage. Nobody except of you and your spouse, if any, shall have access to it

3. Custom encrypted cloud storage is preferred, as it cannot be easily accessed, seized or destroyed

4. Use Scrypted NVR and suggested PoE cameras. Pay your monthly fee for a cloud server and automatically upload your encrypted video feed there

5. You can employ a robust AI model to detect events of interest and retention policy to ensure that important data is not wiped in case if you're unable to access the system in days, months or years

[danfruzzetti]

i do surveillance for a living. i'll tell you two things to remind your viewers:
1. you have no expectation of privacy in a public or publicly accessible area.
2. it is possible to create a separate user account on most systems which only grants access to feeds and records from the public-view-only subset of your cameras.
The two points come together to clarify that there already is no privacy under a camera facing into a public area (like on the front of the house looking out onto the street). so trading such a view to anyone does not affect the privacy there, only the incorrect emotional sense of having privacy, which has nothing to do with privacy.

you did a good job explaining why on-premise storage is safer against police grabby-grab.

[matthewdavis]

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin

[jasonbrannen]

Encryption is definitely the way to go, and set it up so even a file transfer can't happen without a password. That way, them having a warrant and getting your footage doesn't help them, because they can't force you to provide passwords or decryption keys. Many district courts have ruled that you MUST divulge passwords or decryption keys, but on every case I'm aware of, that was overturned on appeal as a violation of the 5th Amendment.