Request to Release Footage to a Police Officer
At 14:20 a police officer in uniform attends the control room and asks you to copy the last 40 minutes of camera 12 footage, which shows an assault in the car park. The officer says it is urgent and asks you to put it on a USB stick they have brought. Your site policy says footage releases require authorisation from the security manager, who is in a meeting and not answering. The DVR overwrites footage after 14 days and the incident is already 6 days old. A second officer is waiting outside.
1. What should you do about the request, and how do you balance urgency against policy?
Read the worked answer
The correct approach is to secure the footage first, then handle the release properly - urgency justifies preservation, not skipping authorisation.
- Preserve immediately. Export or lock the relevant 40 minutes of camera 12 now, before anything else. This protects against overwrite and satisfies the genuine urgency. Record the export time, camera, and time range.
- Do not hand over a copy yet. Policy requires the security manager's authorisation. A uniform alone does not prove authority to receive evidence; the request should come with a formal request or be authorised internally.
- Contact the manager by other means - mobile, deputy, or duty manager. If nobody is reachable, explain politely to the officer that you can preserve the footage and will release it as soon as authorisation is given, and offer to take their details and incident reference.
- Record the request in the log: officer name, number, time, what was asked for, and what you did.
The judgement is that refusing to preserve would be a serious failure, but handing evidence to an unauthorised person on an unverified USB stick would also be a failure. Separate the two steps.
2. The officer becomes impatient and says, 'Just give me the file, it's evidence in a crime.' How should you respond, and what should the release record contain if authorisation is later given?
Read the worked answer
Respond calmly and factually, without being obstructive. For example: 'I've already preserved the footage so it can't be lost. I'm not authorised to release it myself, but I'm contacting my manager now and will make sure you get it with the proper record.' This shows cooperation while maintaining the control.
If authorisation is given, the release record should include:
- What was released: camera, date, start and end times, file format, and hash or checksum if available.
- Who received it: officer name, number, station, and signature.
- Who authorised it: manager's name and time.
- When and how: date, time, and the physical medium used.
- Condition: whether the original was retained and where the working copy is stored.
- Chain of custody entries for every transfer.
A USB stick brought by the officer should ideally be replaced with a site-issued, scanned medium, but if theirs is used, record its serial number. The reasoning is that evidence is only as good as its documented continuity, and an undocumented handover can undermine a prosecution.