OSHKOSH – The Oshkosh City Council on Tuesday voted to amend the city’s retention schedule to allow the Oshkosh Police Department to destroy body camera footage after 120 days if it’s not needed for “evidentiary or other specific purposes,” the Oshkosh Northwestern reported. The department previously kept records for seven years, in accordance with state law.
Cities have the option of setting their own retention schedules, with approval from the Wisconsin Public Records Board.
Officials said the reason for the rule change was due to the amount of space necessary to store the video, reported the Northwestern‘s Josh Sadler.
Records show the city licensed 8 terabytes of data for storage but is currently sitting at 20 terabytes, wrote Sadler. The company in charge of storage isn’t currently charging the city for the additional space, but the city estimates the cost would be $1,000 per terabyte.
