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

The public records law that gets you the video

Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Minn. Stat. chapter 13

Prompt; 10 business days for your data

All government data collected, created, received, maintained or disseminated by a government entity are public unless a statute, a temporary classification or federal law classifies them otherwise (Minn. Stat. § 13.03, subd. 1), and that includes video. Deadline: for a member of the public, the law sets no fixed number of days; each entity must have procedures so that requests are received and complied with “in an appropriate and prompt manner” (§ 13.03, subd. 2(a)), and copies that cannot be provided when you ask must be supplied “as soon as reasonably possible” (subd. 3(c)). If you are the subject of the data, as you are when you appear in a video, the entity must comply immediately if possible, or within ten days excluding Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays (§ 13.04, subd. 3). Since 2025, if the agency tells you the data or copies are ready and you do not inspect or collect them within five business days, it may suspend further work on your request until you do (§ 13.03, subd. 3(g)). Fees: inspection is free (§ 13.03, subd. 3(a)). For copies of public data, the agency may charge the actual cost of searching for and retrieving the data, including employee time, and of making, certifying and electronically sending the copies, but it may not charge for separating public from not public data; for 100 or fewer black and white letter or legal pages it may charge no more than 25 cents a page (§ 13.03, subd. 3(c)). For data about you, it may charge only the actual cost of making and certifying the copies (§ 13.04, subd. 3). The statute sets no separate fee for video. DPS says you are not required to identify yourself or give contact information to request data, but that it may not process the request without them if you ask for private data, it needs clarification, or it cannot otherwise get the data to you. Example, Minnesota State Patrol only: its records center cites § 299D.09(b) and § 13.03, subd. 3 and lists $34.11 per hour for the actual length of video or audio requested, $34.11 per hour to review photos, $10.00 per DVD or CD, and $0.25 a page for fewer than 100 paper pages ($0.50 for commercial users); it says you usually get an invoice within a week, and that after payment video can take up to approximately four weeks.

Police body camera and dashcam video

Crash parties get unredacted body cam

Body cameras: Minnesota has a specific statute for “portable recording system” data, meaning audio or video from a device worn by a peace officer (Minn. Stat. § 13.825, subd. 1). That data is private or nonpublic, with exceptions: it is public if it documents an officer’s discharge of a firearm that requires notice under § 626.553 or an officer’s use of force resulting in substantial bodily harm, or if a subject of the video asks that it be made public, with non-consenting non-officers redacted where practicable; while it is active criminal investigative data it is governed by § 13.82, subdivision 7 (§ 13.825, subd. 2(a)). Your right as someone in the video: a subject of the video, meaning anyone whose image or voice it records, has access to it, and in a copy the other people who do not consent are redacted, but an on-duty officer responding to the call may not be redacted unless the officer is undercover (§ 13.825, subd. 4(a), (b)). Your right as a crash party: notwithstanding § 13.82, subdivision 7, anyone entitled to the crash report under § 169.09, subdivision 13 must on request be given copies of unredacted video from all body cameras used in the collision investigation, including data on others in the recording; the request must be in writing and accompanied by the crash report; you may use the video only to process a claim or as evidence in a proceeding about the collision, may not disseminate it, and are subject to the remedies and penalties of § 13.08 if you do, which the agency must tell you. The agency may deny the request if it finds a compelling reason the release would interfere with an active investigation (and must then give you a prompt written reason and notice that you may seek relief in district court), if the data is clearly offensive to common sensibilities, or if it is classified as not public by another provision of chapter 13. This paragraph does not apply to the Minnesota State Patrol (§ 13.825, subd. 4(c), added by Laws 2025, chapter 35, article 9, section 5; the Data Practices Office gives its effective date as July 1, 2025). Retention: body camera video that is not criminal investigative data must be kept at least 90 days, and at least one year if it documents a reportable firearm discharge, force causing substantial bodily harm, or a formal complaint against an officer; if you are a subject, a written request makes the agency keep it up to 180 more days for possible evidentiary or exculpatory use (§ 13.825, subd. 3(a), (b), (d)). Court: anyone may ask the district court in the county where the video is kept to order release of private or nonpublic body camera data (§ 13.825, subd. 2(g)). Dashcams: the Data Practices Office says § 13.825 covers only body-worn devices, so squad car video and other police video are classified under § 13.82, the general law enforcement data section. We found no statute setting a minimum retention period for squad car video. State Patrol: it takes body camera requests in person with government-issued ID, or in writing on its notarized Body Worn Camera Video Request Form (which cites § 13.825 and offers free inspection at an office or copies for a fee), and all other requests, including squad video, through its online Records Request Center. Its records center describes body camera video as generally private or nonpublic, and squad video as video to the front of the car, plus the rear camera if there is an arrest. Any agency may release otherwise closed investigative or body camera data if it decides that doing so will aid law enforcement, promote public safety or dispel widespread rumor or unrest (§ 13.82, subd. 15).

When police can hold video back

Confidential while the case is active

Investigative data a law enforcement agency collects or creates to prepare a case against a person for a crime or other offense are confidential or protected nonpublic while the investigation is active (Minn. Stat. § 13.82, subd. 7). That excludes arrest data, request for service data and response or incident data, which stay public (§ 13.82, subds. 2, 3, 6). When it ends: an investigation becomes inactive when the agency or prosecutor decides not to pursue the case, when the time to bring a charge runs out under the statute of limitations (or 30 years after the offense, whichever is earlier), or when a person convicted on the basis of the data has used up or let expire all rights of appeal; inactive investigative data are public unless release would jeopardize another ongoing investigation or reveal a protected identity, and video or photos in an inactive file that are clearly offensive to common sensibilities are private or nonpublic, though the agency must tell you they exist (§ 13.82, subd. 7). Investigative data presented as evidence in court are public. While the investigation is active, any person may ask the district court in the county where the data are kept to order disclosure, and the court weighs the benefit to you or the public against any harm, after reviewing the data privately (§ 13.82, subd. 7). Crime victims: on written request, the prosecuting authority must release investigative data to the victim of a criminal act or alleged criminal act, or the victim’s legal representative, unless it reasonably believes release will interfere with the investigation or that the request is prompted by a desire to engage in unlawful activity (§ 13.82, subd. 13). Body camera exception for crash parties: the right in § 13.825, subdivision 4(c) applies notwithstanding subdivision 7, so an active investigation alone is not enough; the agency must find a compelling reason that release would interfere with it and tell you in writing (it does not apply to the State Patrol). So if your crash leads to an investigation or charges, expect squad video and other investigative video to be withheld while the investigation is active; ask again when one of the events above makes it inactive, and note that video presented as evidence in court is public. A denial must cite the specific statute it relies on, and on request the agency must certify the denial in writing (§ 13.03, subd. 3(f)).

Do traffic cameras in Minnesota record?

MnDOT records many highway cameras

MnDOT keeps recorded video from many of its highway cameras. It publishes a tool titled “MnDOT Cameras with Recorded Video,” described as a way to view all MnDOT-operated cameras that have recorded video; when we checked its public camera list on October 28, 2026, 1,285 of the 1,779 cameras listed carried a “Recorded” tag. Its Freeway Operations (Regional Transportation Management Center) page offers “Traffic camera data requests” to “review footage from our system of highway traffic cameras,” through an online form that asks for the camera ID, the date and time, the highway and direction of travel, who you are (attorney, insurance company, law enforcement, media or private citizen) and an email address to receive the footage; the form says footage is offered only electronically by email and that MnDOT cameras are only on some state highways and cannot read license plates. MnDOT’s data practices page says that data about you is provided within 10 business days and other requests within a reasonable time, generally within 30 days unless they are large or complex. We found no MnDOT statement of how long recorded camera video is kept, so submit the request the same day; the live feeds are on 511mn.org. The State Patrol’s records center lists traffic management cameras among the “other video” it may hold, so a request to the Patrol for a trunk highway crash can ask for that too. City and county traffic cameras are separate; ask that city or county.

Red-light and speed cameras

Pilot only: 2 cities, MnDOT work zones

Minnesota allows camera traffic enforcement only through a pilot program that runs from August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2029, and only the cities of Minneapolis and Mendota Heights and MnDOT (with the commissioner of public safety, in trunk highway work zones) may run it (Minn. Stat. § 169.147, subds. 1(f), 2, 17, 19). Cameras must be in a trunk highway work zone, or within 2,000 feet of a school, school zone or postsecondary institution at a location with an identified safety concern (subd. 6(c)). Penalties: a red-light camera violation is a petty misdemeanor with a $40 fine, and a speed camera violation a petty misdemeanor with a $40 fine, or $80 at 20 mph or more over the limit; the first offense gets a warning, and a second offense is eligible for diversion through a traffic safety course (Minn. Stat. §§ 169.06, subd. 10, 169.14, subd. 13). A citation requires a traffic enforcement agent’s review of the recorded images, and a speed citation requires a speed at least 10 mph over the limit (§ 169.147, subd. 9(b)). In the work zone pilot, MnDOT may issue only warnings, with no fine (subd. 17(b)). What exists now: Mendota Heights announced in March 2025 that its speed enforcement would begin August 1, 2025; Minneapolis says it began using speed cameras at five locations on October 1, 2025 and plans to add red-light enforcement at some locations in 2026; and although the statute told MnDOT to start work zone enforcement by August 1, 2025 (subd. 17(d)), MnDOT says its first work zone cameras begin on I-35W in Burnsville in October 2026, with warning letters and no fines. Access to the images: all data collected by a traffic safety camera are private or nonpublic unless public under § 13.82, and they are “not subject to subpoena, discovery, or admission into evidence” in any proceeding other than a camera citation case (§ 169.147, subd. 14(a), (d)). The cameras may record only when they identify a potential violation, must not record so as to identify any individual, and the data must be destroyed within 30 days of collection unless they are criminal investigative data about the violation (subds. 15, 16(a)). A person facing a pending criminal charge may ask in writing that the data be preserved as possible exculpatory evidence (subd. 16(b)). So these cameras are unlikely to hold usable crash video, and if one did, ask the city or MnDOT within days.

If your request is denied

Opinion, $1,000 complaint, or court

First, ask the agency to certify the denial in writing with the statute it relied on, which it must do on request (Minn. Stat. § 13.03, subd. 3(f)). Advisory opinion: if you disagree with an agency’s data practices decision, you may ask the commissioner of administration, through the Data Practices Office, for a written opinion on your right of access; the commissioner must say within five business days if no opinion will issue and otherwise issue one within 50 days, and while opinions do not bind the agency, a court must give them deference (§ 13.072, subds. 1, 2). The statute sets no fee for the opinion. Contact: Data Practices Office, 200 Administration Building, 50 Sherburne Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55155, 651-296-6733. Administrative complaint: you may file a complaint asking for an order to compel compliance with the Court of Administrative Hearings (still called the Office of Administrative Hearings in the text of § 13.085; the legislature renamed it in Laws 2025, chapter 39, article 2, section 68, see § 14.48), in writing and under oath, within two years of the act or failure to act, with a filing fee of $1,000 or a bond (§ 13.085, subd. 2). An administrative law judge reviews it for probable cause, and if it goes to hearing may order the agency to release the data by a deadline and impose a civil penalty of up to $300; a complainant who substantially prevails gets the filing fee back less $50 and is presumed entitled to reasonable attorney fees of up to $5,000 (§ 13.085, subds. 3, 5, 6). The complaint is dismissed and the fee refunded if a request for a commissioner’s opinion on the same matter was accepted before you filed (§ 13.085, subd. 2(e)). District court: you may instead sue to compel compliance; the court may award costs and reasonable attorney fees and impose a civil penalty of up to $1,000, and must award reasonable attorney fees to a prevailing plaintiff if the agency did not follow a directly related commissioner’s opinion (§ 13.08, subd. 4). For video that is closed, separate court actions let any person ask for release of body camera data (§ 13.825, subd. 2(g)) or active investigative data (§ 13.82, subd. 7). You may want to ask a lawyer before filing.

What to do now

1. 1

   Get the crash report, then ask for body cam

   Send the police agency a written request for all body camera video from the crash investigation with a copy of your crash report. For the State Patrol, use its notarized BWC form.

2. 2

   Ask the agency to keep the video

   Most body camera video must be kept at least 90 days; as a person in it, ask in writing that it be kept up to 180 days longer. Ask for squad video in the same request.

3. 3

   Request MnDOT camera footage today

   Use MnDOT’s traffic camera data request form with the camera ID, date, time, highway and direction. Post the crash on the bounty board for dashcam and business footage.

4. 4

   Challenge a denial

   Ask the agency to certify the denial, then request a Data Practices Office opinion, file a complaint with the Court of Administrative Hearings, or go to district court.

Frequently asked questions