CCTVCam
Known around here
- Sep 25, 2017
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I'm sure you can elaborate without giving your identity away or too much detail. Without it there's little point in posting a story that's not a story.
The fact SWAT were involved makes me believe it was probably gun or drug related.
Cameras are always a double edged sword. As for footage, why anyone would keep 6 years is beyond me as is how you could afford the storage to store it. I'm 1/2 way between believing you and thinking this is someone baiting the forum.
Most commercial premises, at least in the UK, retain between 2 weeks to 1 month before overwriting. Usually, if you haven't realised there's been a crime within 4 weeks, you're probably not going to notice it. If you wanted to be really anal about it you could extend it to a couple of months, but as you appear to have found, the longer you retain data, the more chance there is of it containing something you don't want it to contain. The other answer is to stay the right side of the law, although everyone breaks some minor law at some point.
Finally, whereas I wouldn't encourage you to delete footage agencies have requested as that would be a serious crime in itself, if you want to get permanently rid of non requested old footage beyond overwriting then a Government standard secure erase utility can be used to permamently delete footage on HD's or on SSD's you can reset the drive (erasers don't work on SSD's), although then you lose the whole drive and not just selected files. The former also wears your drive quicker as it overwrites the areas selected or the whole drive multiple times reducing it's lifespan with every use. For most people though simply setting video recording to loop with enough storage to make it overwrite itself every 2-4 weeks is sufficient. The data will still be there but it will become less and less retreivable with every overwrite.
The fact SWAT were involved makes me believe it was probably gun or drug related.
Cameras are always a double edged sword. As for footage, why anyone would keep 6 years is beyond me as is how you could afford the storage to store it. I'm 1/2 way between believing you and thinking this is someone baiting the forum.
Most commercial premises, at least in the UK, retain between 2 weeks to 1 month before overwriting. Usually, if you haven't realised there's been a crime within 4 weeks, you're probably not going to notice it. If you wanted to be really anal about it you could extend it to a couple of months, but as you appear to have found, the longer you retain data, the more chance there is of it containing something you don't want it to contain. The other answer is to stay the right side of the law, although everyone breaks some minor law at some point.
Finally, whereas I wouldn't encourage you to delete footage agencies have requested as that would be a serious crime in itself, if you want to get permanently rid of non requested old footage beyond overwriting then a Government standard secure erase utility can be used to permamently delete footage on HD's or on SSD's you can reset the drive (erasers don't work on SSD's), although then you lose the whole drive and not just selected files. The former also wears your drive quicker as it overwrites the areas selected or the whole drive multiple times reducing it's lifespan with every use. For most people though simply setting video recording to loop with enough storage to make it overwrite itself every 2-4 weeks is sufficient. The data will still be there but it will become less and less retreivable with every overwrite.
