The DESPP commissioner and POST must jointly evaluate and approve minimal technical specifications for dashboard cameras with a remote recorder as well as guidelines on their use and retaining and storing their data. They must also add guidance on the types of detective work that should not be recorded to their guidelines on body and dashboard camera use. The law will also prohibit the DESPP-POST guidelines on retaining body and dashboard camera data from requiring law enforcement units to store that data for longer than a year except in cases where units know the data is pertinent to any ongoing civil, criminal, or administrative matter (CGS § 29-6d(b) & (j), as
Under CGS § 29-6d(j), the police officers are required to follow the DESPP-POST guidelines on retaining body camera data and storing the data safely and secure ly (i.e., POST General Notice 15-05). The officers’ agencies and any other employees within those agencies with access to camera data must follow the guidelines as well. The guidelines incorporate several CGS § 29-6d provisions, including on officer review of recordings.
By law, the police officers are prohibited from using body cameras to intentionally record the following occurrences or situations, unless an agreement between the officer’s agency and the federal government provides otherwise:
By law, the police officers must (1) inspect and test their body cameras before each shift to verify proper functioning; (2) notify their supervisors of problems found during inspection; and (3) inform supervisors, as soon as practicable, about lost, damaged, or malfunctioning cameras. When notified about lost, damaged, or malfunctioning cameras, supervisors must ensure they are inspected and repaired or replaced, as necessary (CGS § 29-6d(i)).
State law concerning the use of and the retention of data from dashboard cameras and electronic defense weapon recording equipment is currently much more limited than it is for body cameras.
Hidden cameras: The state's voyeurism law prohibits knowingly photographing, filming or recording in any way another person's image without consent in situations where the person is unaware of the filming, not in plain view and has a reasonable expectation of privacy. Conn. Gen. Stat. §53a-189a. (A dash cam should not be hidden)
Yes, Connecticut is NOT a dash cam friendly state, but since the driver of the car obviously consents, most situations should be OK. However, two parts of the current law concern me: