this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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248
96,000 UK Police Bodycam Videos Lost After Data Transfer Mishap (ico.org.uk)
submitted 1 month ago by Pro@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/35959876

At the end of each shift, officers’ BWV footage was uploaded and stored to a central hub which could be accessed and managed, along with all of SYP’s digital evidence, via a secure system.

Following an upgrade in May 2023, the secure system began to struggle processing BWV data and a local drive workaround was put in place.

In August 2023 SYP identified that its BWV file storage was very low and further investigation found that 96,174 pieces of original footage had been deleted from its system.

The following month it was found the deletion had taken place on 26 July 2023 and included the loss of data relating to 126 criminal cases, only three of the cases were impacted by the loss. Of those three cases, SYP states one may have progressed to the first court hearing if BWV had been available. However, as there was no additional independent evidence to prove the offence, progression to prosecution stage was already uncertain.

Prior to the deletion, 95,033 pieces of BWV footage had been copied to a new system that SYP was implementing but, due to poor record keeping, SYP remain unable to confirm the exact number of files deleted without copies made.

top 17 comments
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[–] IllNess@infosec.pub 76 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I wonder what big trial was coming up that involved one of those videos? 🤔

[–] BrightCandle@lemmy.world 26 points 4 weeks ago

Someone was reviewing some footage and decided to hide the deletion in amongst lots of other benign videos. They seem to always loose the critical videos showing police brutality don't they!?

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 46 points 1 month ago

Oopsie. 🤭

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 30 points 4 weeks ago

This was probably done intentionally to hide one exceptionally terrible incident. Always make your own recordings of your police interactions so you don't have to hope your bodycam video request is actually fulfilled.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 27 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

So basically you had a storage full issue and nobody thought to check on that? There isn't a monitor to alert at 80% full?

And those delete files, who deleted them? You don't have any audit system?

What the FUCK are you being paid for? Because I know that these systems don't come cheap, they are fucking expensive to buy and maintain and I know that a government will pay through the nose for this to work correctly and you fuck up at step one?

This should result in millions / billion dollar penalizations.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

How can you set up a system like this without having a plan to maintain it and avoid issues like this. It doesnt make sense.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 8 points 4 weeks ago

Intentional incompetence

[–] Goldholz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 4 weeks ago

Well isnt that a strange coincidence!

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 22 points 4 weeks ago

What a mishap. A right oopsie daisy even. Officer Butterfingers reporting for duty hehe.

[–] paraphrand@lemmy.world 16 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

All they need to do is access one of the multiple backups they have. Right?

They don’t treat it like non-essential data, right?

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 weeks ago

How convenient...

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 11 points 4 weeks ago

The most important thing about your backup strategy is to implement and run it.

[–] 46_and_2@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

Oops! 🤷

[–] tekato@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

Surely judges will rule against the police on every case that involved one of the missing recordings.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

Did they forget to register their age verification?

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 4 weeks ago

i like how the post above this in my feed is about how we should give our ids to the government for age verification

[–] credo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Ah, I bet they tried to cut/paste instead of copy/paste. Rookie mistake.