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Thread: Red light cameras - how much footage do they store?

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    Red light cameras - how much footage do they store?

    I've heard they only film when the light sequence turns yellow to when it turns green again. But the other day I saw footage from a camera showing an accident that occurred in the perpendicular lane of travel. The light the red light camera was enforcing was green. This was in Miami.

    Then I read that several cattle thieves were apprehended when they were caught on a red light camera as well. Apparently several thousand requests by LEOs are made annually for traffic camera footage. The footage I've seen is insanely HD. Only what is uploaded to YouTube for the public has its quality reduced.

    Thousands of cameras recording 24/7...that's a shitload of data! To the order of a gigabyte per second.

    Does anyone know how long these companies store footage for? Are only some recording 24/7? They can no longer say they aren't - there is video out there disproving it.
    Why do the loudest do the least?

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    Traffic camera or red light camera? Two different things. Lots of traffic camera's around the US, but red light camera's are, at least in Missouri, few and far between because they were ruled unconstitutional due to Missouri saying a certified LEO has to write tickets. Although there are tons of people who dont know any better and pay the fines anyway.

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    Depends on how the contract is written will determine how long or even how much can be recorded/stored.

    Some "Red Light" cameras are just that however some states/cities also have regular "Traffic" cams setup backing up the "Red Light" cams. I've seen this type of setup from El Paso to Baltimore up to Boston.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eurodriver View Post
    I've heard they only film when the light sequence turns yellow to when it turns green again. But the other day I saw footage from a camera showing an accident that occurred in the perpendicular lane of travel. The light the red light camera was enforcing was green. This was in Miami.

    Then I read that several cattle thieves were apprehended when they were caught on a red light camera as well. Apparently several thousand requests by LEOs are made annually for traffic camera footage. The footage I've seen is insanely HD. Only what is uploaded to YouTube for the public has its quality reduced.

    Thousands of cameras recording 24/7...that's a shitload of data! To the order of a gigabyte per second.

    Does anyone know how long these companies store footage for? Are only some recording 24/7? They can no longer say they aren't - there is video out there disproving it.

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    I'm specifically talking about red light cameras. They have a video camera that rolls 24/7 and a digital camera that snaps plate #s during infractions.
    Why do the loudest do the least?

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    a lot of times the cameras roll 24/7 and then store the info for a set time period per the agency using the system, as an example my in car camera rolls as long as the car has been started and 45 minutes after the car shuts off. It is not storing all the info just due to the lack of memory. As a patrol car has a finite amount that can be stored. When you look at red light cameras they are sending info to servers that store for a set time period a lot like security cameras usually only store for say 24 hours. This way if something happens it was recorded but will wipe the info unless requested in that set time period. Each state or municipality will be different on how they want info stored and for what time period.

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    Data is stored indefinitely, we may be told differently but . . .
    Last edited by Moose-Knuckle; 02-05-14 at 01:52.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moose-Knuckle View Post
    Data is stored indefinitely, we may be told differently but . . .
    This is where I was going with the thread. That's a ton of data to store, but they obviously have tons of otherwise the police wouldn't be making 3 requests a day for it.

    Quote Originally Posted by BIGUGLY View Post
    a lot of times the cameras roll 24/7 and then store the info for a set time period per the agency using the system, as an example my in car camera rolls as long as the car has been started and 45 minutes after the car shuts off. It is not storing all the info just due to the lack of memory. As a patrol car has a finite amount that can be stored. When you look at red light cameras they are sending info to servers that store for a set time period a lot like security cameras usually only store for say 24 hours. This way if something happens it was recorded but will wipe the info unless requested in that set time period. Each state or municipality will be different on how they want info stored and for what time period.
    Your patrol car records your entire 8 hour shift? Here they "record" as long as the vehicle is on but they only store data from 30 seconds prior to when the emergency lights are engaged. Is that similar to what you're talking about? I don't see how you'd be able to store 8 hours of data in one CPU. That's over 2 Terabytes of data by my math.
    Why do the loudest do the least?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Moose-Knuckle View Post
    Data is stored indefinitely, we may be told differently but . . .
    Do you truly comprehend how much data that would be? I don't know about indefinitely. An extended period of time yes, but indefinitely is hugely improbably due to the amount of data you're talking about. More than 30 days is really pushing it. You're talking over a petabyte + of data every 12 days.

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    Euro, you are correct our cameras are on but only store the recording 1 minute prior to activation. Thankfully ours do not record sound for that 1 minute playback otherwise you get a lot of people making a comment like what an ...........when you notice a violation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BIGUGLY View Post
    Euro, you are correct our cameras are on but only store the recording 1 minute prior to activation. Thankfully ours do not record sound for that 1 minute playback otherwise you get a lot of people making a comment like what an ...........when you notice a violation.
    Very true. Whats shitty is when you hit a huge pothole and it turns on and you have no idea......lol

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