Buffalo, NY (WBEN) As the search for Nancy Guthrie continues, the issue of doorbell camera footage and access to it by law enforcement are coming into light. Former police brass say there are two ways to get it.
"When you look at the cameras, law enforcement does not have the ability to go in and proactively obtain video, it would have to be shared," says former Buffalo Police Commissioner Joe Gramaglia. "So if the homeowner had video footage that was still in their cash, if you will, they have the ability to send that to law enforcement, and they can share that. If they did not want to share that for one reason or another, then law enforcement would have to obtain a subpoena or a warrant to then send that subpoena warrant to the manufacturer, whether it be ring or nest, to then get that video by demand.
In the case of Nancy Guthrie, Gramaglia says since Guthrie wasn't a subscriber, it was tougher to find the footage. "That footage would auto delete after a certain short amount of time, but it obviously stays longer with the company itself. So it would have taken a little bit of time for law enforcement to get the proper subpoenas, then get them to the manufacturer, and then at that point, the manufacturer is going to have to go into the system," explains Gramaglia. "Why it took a little longer? I can't answer that question. I don't know the steps that were taken and when they were taken, but once that subpoena is issued and it goes through the process, then the manufacturers will then have to abide by that, and they're gonna have to get their engineers on it and start searching for that video. So sometimes that can be certainly time consuming."
Retired Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo there's one important thing subscribers should know. "This is a technology that you don't own," notes Rinaldo. "Even the fine print may not fully divulge the fact that if this device is somehow recording or has the ability to record video for future playback, that you really don't have control of that video that's leaving that device and hitting a cloud based server at some point." He adds these are cloud-based devices. "They're Wi Fi enabled, which means they can be hacked, and people should be careful to know that depending on where you're placing these cameras, there is a possibility that that footage could wind up in someone else's hands, whether or not you approve them."