The Saint Paul Police Department recognizes the use of electronic technology.  It serves to improve the delivery of police services within the City and contributes to increased public safety and livability for our citizens. The Closed Circuit Television system will be used to augment, and not replace, efforts already in place to prevent crime in the City of Saint Paul. 

The CCTV employees will monitor live video feeds; track live video for certain calls in progress; document ongoing suspicious activity; provide long term video monitoring of specific locations for sporadic criminal activity; retrieve archived video from incidents already reported; and be responsible for the handling of data from in-car cameras.

The CCTV employees also assist with technology needs of the department.  They assist in account maintenance, computer needs, and general Service Tickets.

The employees of the Closed Caption Television (CCTV) work in the Video Management Unit reports to the technology commander.   

General Policies:

  • All SPPD employees authorized to operate and utilize the CCTV system shall be familiar with the policies and procedures regarding its use.

  • The system will not be used where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.

  • Operators shall not target/observe persons solely based on race, (racial profiling) gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or any other classifications protected by ordinance or statute.

  • All data, except evidentiary recordings, but including routine recordings, activity logs maintained as a record under the supervision of the data compliance officer.These records will be kept at the district, agency and/or each monitoring station in accordance with Saint Paul Police general records retention schedules.Other law enforcement agencies participating in the CCTV system shall retain their records in accordance under with their existing department regulations

  • CCTV unit commander and/or designee shall monitor the operation of system to ensure operators are complying with all policies and procedures

  • Misuse of the system may lead to loss of access, civil and criminal remedies.

     Retention and Storage of CCTV data:

  • Video data is stored for 14 days. Data can be copied to a disc or an electronic file transfer, for investigative purposes and become part of the investigative file.

  • General requests from the public shall receive a case number and be filed in the property room, unless stored electronically in accordance with policy on data storage.

  • Routine recorded information, where viewing the information reveals no criminal activity, or where no criminal activity is reported, shall be maintained for a maximum period of 14 days.After the retention period has been met, the recorded information may be destroyed.

  • The storage of images will be in a secured area with restricted access. Only authorized SPPD personnel will have access and be able to retrieve images from the video system.

  • The Video Management Supervisor will review requests from the public to determine if any captured video will be released, in accordance with data privacy concerns.

     Revised May 4, 2018

Last Edited: May 4, 2018