The Seattle Police Department Blotter, a website maintained by the department’s Public Affairs Office, just published an astonishing bit of news on August 30. They stated that more than 2,000 digital in car video (DICV) recordings—2,283 to be exact—were lost due to a technical error. Two thousand, two hundred and eighty-three. In July. As in, more than a month ago.
The data loss occurred when a storage system error prevented the writing of DICV to long term storage. Our analysis limits the loss to 2,283 digital in car video (DICV) recordings primarily recorded during July 13 and 14, 2016.
After conducting an analysis of records for this two day period, the department has determined less than 25-percent of the videos (or 537 of the 2,283) were of an evidentiary or investigative nature. The lost DICV recordings also included 89 arrests, 138 traffic citations, 95 oral warnings, 35 police street “Terry stop” contacts, 60 crisis contacts, and five incidents involving low-level type-one uses of force. However, the overwhelming majority of the videos contained officers’ beginning of shift in-car video tests, or low-level disturbance calls.
Technicians believe the video is irretrievable as it has been confirmed to have been overwritten. We do not believe any other data is missing.
Let’s recap, shall we? Seattle PD informs the public, more than a month later, that more than 2,000 videos are lost; and that the majority of them contain neither use of force episodes, nor are they of an “evidentiary nature.” And we’re supposed to believe that?
The Seattle Police Department could be given the benefit of the doubt if this was the first time something like this has happened. But it ain’t. Local station KOMO sued the department back in 2011 for not releasing public records. That’s when they found out that tens of thousands—TENS OF THOUSANDS—of dash-cam videos had simply vanished. Just … gone.
It should be clear that national efforts to increase police transparency and accountability must include some type of checks and balances, as well as fail-safe measures, when it comes to policing the police. Relying solely on body cameras and dash camera footage alone from officers in the field will only frustrate efforts toward change.