How to get police and traffic camera video of a crash in Maryland

The public records law that gets you the video

Maryland Public Information Act, Md. Code, General Provisions §§4-101 to 4-601

Written request; answer in 30 days

A “public record” includes any documentary material made or received by a State or local unit in connection with public business, in any form, including film, a photograph, a recording or a tape (General Provisions Article §4-101(k)), so police video is covered. A custodian must let any person inspect public records except as otherwise provided by law (§4-201(a)), and a custodian generally may not condition a request on your identity, affiliation or purpose (§4-204). Submit a written application to the custodian (§4-202(a)); if you send it to someone who is not the custodian, that person must tell you within 10 working days and name the custodian if known (§4-202(c)). Deadlines (§4-203): the custodian must grant or deny the application promptly, but not more than 30 days after receiving it, and produce an approved record immediately or within the reasonable time needed to retrieve it, but not more than 30 days. If the custodian reasonably believes production will take more than 10 working days, it must tell you in writing or by email within 10 working days how long it expects to take, the range of fees it may charge, and the reason for the delay. A failure to produce on time counts as a denial. A custodian who denies the request must, within 10 working days of the denial (the Attorney General’s Manual reads it that way), give you a written statement with the reasons, the legal authority, a brief description of what is withheld and notice of your remedies, and the custodian must let you inspect any part of the record that is not exempt. With your consent the time limits can be extended by up to 30 days, and they are extended while a dispute is before the Ombudsman or the Compliance Board. Fees (§4-206): a reasonable fee bearing a reasonable relationship to actual costs, including the search, preparation and reproduction of the record and media and mechanical processing costs; staff and attorney review time is prorated by salary; there is no charge for the first 2 hours of search and preparation; and the custodian may waive a fee if you ask and are indigent (with an affidavit) or if a waiver is in the public interest. The Act has no separate fee rule for video, but review time counts, so redaction of a long recording can cost money. Example, State Police regulation: copies are 25 cents a page, media that cannot be photocopied cost the actual cost of reproduction, no fee is charged if the total is $1 or less, and the first 2 hours are free (COMAR 29.01.02.13). Example, Maryland Department of Transportation: it recovers staff time at actual rates after the two free hours, retrieval, review and legal advice, duplication, postage and supplies such as DVDs and flash drives, before records are provided.

Police body camera and dashcam video

Body cams required; PIA decides release

Body cameras are required by law, but we found no statute that specially regulates their release. Public Safety Article §3-511 required the State Police, the Anne Arundel County and Howard County Police Departments and the Harford County Sheriff’s Office to require body-worn cameras by July 1, 2023, and every other county law enforcement agency by July 1, 2025, for each officer who regularly interacts with the public, under the agency’s own written policy (§3-511(c), (d)); a camera with the capability must automatically save at least 60 seconds of video before the officer presses record (§3-511(e)). The Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission had to publish a policy addressing, among other things, access to and confidentiality of recordings, retention, and dissemination and release (§3-511(b)). Its model policy (adopted January 8, 2016, revisions approved February 16, 2022) leaves retention periods to each agency’s written policy and says body camera recordings will be released as required by the Maryland Public Information Act or other governing law. We found no Maryland statute that sets a retention minimum for body camera or in-car (dashboard) camera video, requires a court order for its release, or otherwise treats it differently from other police records. A 2025 bill that would have required custodians to deny inspection of body camera recordings, subject to exceptions (HB 669), received a House hearing and was not enacted. So the general Act governs: a custodian must deny inspection where another law makes the record confidential (§4-301), and may deny investigation records of a police department or sheriff (§4-351, see the next section) or other parts of a record whose inspection would be contrary to the public interest, as the Act provides (§4-343). Ask for the specific recording by date, time, location, report number and the officers or vehicles involved, and ask the agency in writing to preserve it while your request is pending. Example: the Maryland Department of Transportation says body camera, dash camera, CCTV and dispatch recordings from the police it names (the Maryland Transportation Police, the Maryland Transit Administration Police Force and the MVA Police) all require a Public Information Act request, and asks for the report number, location, date, time and direction of travel.

When police can hold video back

Discretionary; weaker once case closes

A custodian may deny inspection of records of investigations conducted by a police department or a sheriff, the Attorney General, a State’s Attorney or a municipal or county attorney, and of any other investigatory file compiled for a law enforcement, judicial, correctional or prosecution purpose (General Provisions Article §4-351(a)). The exemption is discretionary. If you are a “person in interest” (generally the subject of the record, §4-101(g)), the custodian may deny you only to the extent inspection would interfere with a valid and proper law enforcement proceeding, deprive someone of a fair trial or impartial adjudication, be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, disclose a confidential source or an investigative technique, prejudice an investigation, or endanger someone’s life or safety (§4-351(b)). The Attorney General’s Public Information Act Manual (20th edition, October 2026) says that for anyone else a custodian must still disclose investigatory records unless disclosure would be contrary to the public interest; that while an investigation is ongoing or a defendant awaits trial the reason for withholding is obvious; and that once an investigation is closed, disclosure is less likely to be contrary to the public interest and courts require a more particularized factual basis for withholding (citing City of Frederick v. Randall Family, LLC, 154 Md. App. 543 (2004), and Prince George’s County v. Washington Post Co., 149 Md. App. 289 (2003)). The Manual notes that courts have generally limited “person in interest” under this exemption to the person investigated, though the Appellate Court held in Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services v. Proctor, 269 Md. App. 698 (2026), that the victim of a prison assault, who died, was a person in interest in surveillance video of the assault, and that it is not settled how far that reaches. No statute sets a date when the exemption stops applying, so ask again once charges are resolved. Separately, if a custodian believes releasing a record the Act would otherwise open would cause substantial injury to the public interest, it may deny inspection temporarily but must petition the circuit court within 10 working days for an order to continue the denial, and you are entitled to be heard (§4-358).

Do traffic cameras in Maryland record?

CHART live cameras store no video

The State’s CHART traffic camera site, run by the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, says: “The Live cameras are for viewing current traffic conditions only. We do not store any images or video from the live cameras; therefore we are not able to provide historical video or images for any reason.” So do not expect recorded highway camera video from CHART. Toll facilities are different: the Maryland Department of Transportation treats CCTV video footage held by the Maryland Transportation Authority Police as a Public Information Act request, and its own example request is for tunnel CCTV footage of a crash in the Fort McHenry Tunnel; we found no official statement of how long such footage is kept, so request it at once through the MDOT PIA online form, choosing the Maryland Transportation Authority. For State Highway Administration records, the MDOT page lists the SHA PIA representative at 707 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202, (410) 545-5691. Electronic toll images are restricted: a custodian must deny inspection of photographs, videotape or electronically recorded images of a vehicle, and vehicle movement records, created for or submitted to the Maryland Transportation Authority for its electronic toll collection system, except by an individual named in the record or that individual’s attorney of record, and certain toll and enforcement staff (General Provisions Article §4-319). City and county cameras are not CHART’s; ask that government’s records custodian in writing immediately.

Red-light and speed cameras

Authorized; images only to those cited

Maryland authorizes camera enforcement by statute, including red-light cameras (traffic control signal monitoring systems, Transportation Article §21-202.1, civil penalty up to $100), speed cameras used by local jurisdictions under a local law enacted after notice and a public hearing, and in listed corridors by the State Highway Administration and the Maryland Transportation Authority (§21-809), work zone speed cameras (§21-810), and school bus, stop sign, railroad crossing, bus lane and vehicle height cameras (§§21-706.1, 21-707.1, 21-704.1, 21-1134, 24-111.3). Chapter 285 of 2026 (SB 487), effective October 1, 2026, added safety corridor speed monitoring systems (§21-810.1); the General Assembly’s online code did not yet show §21-810.1 when we checked on October 28, 2026. Access is closed to most people: a custodian must deny inspection of recorded images from these systems, except as those sections require, by a person issued a citation under them or that person’s attorney of record, or by agency staff in a proceeding about the civil liability (General Provisions Article §4-321, as amended by Chapter 285 of 2026). Under Transportation Article §12-113.1, added by Chapters 463 and 464 of 2025: an agency must immediately remove and destroy any recorded image or data that does not constitute evidence of a violation, and may keep violation images only until the earlier of 1 year after the investigation or adjudication ends or 5 years after capture (§12-113.1(d)); the systems must be aimed, to the maximum extent possible, so they do not capture identifying images of the driver, other drivers or vehicles, or pedestrians (§12-113.1(f)(2)); and an agency or contractor may not share the images with anyone other than the person alleged to be liable, a court adjudicating liability, or another law enforcement agency for an ongoing investigation after it obtains a warrant, subpoena or court order (§12-113.1(f)(4)). That list does not include another driver in a crash, so for a crash the camera did not cite, expect no image to exist or to be released.

If your request is denied

Ombudsman, then Board, or circuit court

You have three routes, and you need not use the first two before suing (General Provisions Article §4-1A-10(a)). 1. Public Access Ombudsman: an independent office, housed and staffed by the Office of the Attorney General (§4-1B-02), that tries to resolve disputes over exemptions, redactions, delays, fees and fee waivers (§4-1B-04(a)). The Ombudsman cannot compel disclosure (§4-1B-04(d)) and must issue a final determination that the dispute was resolved or not within 90 calendar days unless both sides agree to extend (§4-1B-04(b)). During that dispute, the custodian must show that the exemption clearly applies and, for a discretionary exemption such as §4-351, that the harm from disclosure outweighs the public interest in access (§4-301(b)). The Attorney General’s Manual says to send the Ombudsman your original request, the custodian’s 10-day letter or response, a brief description of the dispute and related correspondence, by email to pia.ombuds@oag.maryland.gov, through the website, or by mail to Public Access Ombudsman, c/o Office of the Attorney General, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202; the Ombudsman’s own site lists the same email and address and the phone number (410) 576-6560. 2. State Public Information Act Compliance Board: after the Ombudsman’s final determination says the dispute was not resolved, you may file a signed written complaint within 30 calendar days (§4-1A-05). The Board decides complaints that a custodian wrongly denied inspection, charged an unreasonable fee of more than $350, or missed the response deadlines, and can order production, a fee reduction and refund, or a prompt response (§4-1A-04(a)); it generally decides within 30 days after the custodian’s response (§4-1A-07). Either side may appeal a Board decision to the circuit court (§§4-1A-10(b), 4-362(a)(2)). 3. Circuit court: file a complaint in the circuit court for the county where you live or have your principal place of business, or where the record is located (§4-362(a)). The agency must answer within 30 days, bears the burden of sustaining the denial, and the case is to be expedited; the court may review the record in camera and order production; it may award statutory damages of up to $1,000 plus actual damages if the agency knowingly and willfully failed to disclose, and reasonable counsel fees and costs if you substantially prevail (§4-362(b) to (f)). The Manual says the Appellate Court has applied a two-year limitations period to these actions (Kline v. Fuller, 56 Md. App. 294 (1983)).

What to do now

1. 1

   Send written PIA requests today

   Write to each police agency that responded. Name the date, time, location and report number, ask for body camera, dashcam and dispatch recordings, and ask that they be preserved.

2. 2

   Ask MDTA for tunnel or bridge CCTV at once

   If the crash was at a toll highway, bridge or tunnel, request MDTA CCTV footage through the MDOT PIA online form. CHART live highway cameras store no video, so there is nothing to request there.

3. 3

   Watch the 10-working-day letter

   If the agency needs more than 10 working days, it must tell you in writing how long it will take and the fee range. The outer limit is 30 days unless you agree to more.

4. 4

   Contest a denial

   Ask the Public Access Ombudsman to mediate, then file with the Compliance Board within 30 days of an unresolved result, or go straight to circuit court.

5. 5

   Look for private footage now

   Enforcement camera images go only to the person cited. Post the crash on the bounty board: nearby dashcams and business cameras often hold the only footage.

Frequently asked questions