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

The public records law that gets you the video

Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), N.Y. Public Officers Law Article 6, §§84 to 90

5 business days to respond

FOIL covers the records of every state and local agency, police departments included, and the Committee on Open Government says you do not have to give a reason for your request. Send it in writing to the agency’s records access officer; agencies with reasonable means must accept requests by email (§89(3)(b)). Within five business days of receiving a request for a record reasonably described, the agency must make the record available, deny the request in writing, or send a written acknowledgment with an approximate date, which must be reasonable under the circumstances (§89(3)(a)). If it cannot grant access within twenty business days of the acknowledgment, it must say why in writing and give a date certain within a reasonable period. An agency must retrieve or extract a record electronically when that takes less employee time than doing it by hand, but it does not have to create a record it does not have. Fees: up to twenty-five cents per photocopy for pages up to 9 by 14 inches, and the actual cost of reproducing any other record, such as video (§87(1)(b)(iii)). Under §87(1)(c), actual cost can include the hourly salary of the lowest paid employee with the skill to make the copy, but only once preparing it takes two hours or more of employee time, the actual cost of the storage media, and an outside service only when the agency’s own equipment is inadequate; search time and administrative costs may not be charged, and when more than two hours of employee time or an outside service is needed, the agency must tell you the estimated cost first (§87(1)(c)(iv)). Example, State Police only: their records pages list $3.00 per digital medium (CD, DVD) if requested and 25¢ per page for copies up to 9 by 14 inches.

Police body camera and dashcam video

No release statute; FOIL governs

We found no New York statute that specifically governs public release of police body camera or dashcam recordings, and none that requires a court order to get them; FOIL and its exemptions govern. Executive Law §234 created the State Police body-worn cameras program: troopers wear cameras on patrol and must record, among other things, immediately before exiting a patrol vehicle to interact with a person, all arrests and summonses, uses of force, and investigative actions involving the public, and the attorney general may investigate a failure to record. The section requires the State Police to preserve recordings but sets no retention period and says nothing about release. The State Police’s own Members Manual (Article 28, effective July 16, 2026) says all body camera recordings are retained for a minimum of 24 weeks and then automatically purged if categorized (uncategorized recordings are not purged), unless a litigation hold or other legal obligation requires keeping them; recordings that are evidence in a criminal or other enforcement matter are kept under the division’s evidence rules. Local departments set their own policies and retention periods. The old barrier, Civil Rights Law §50-a, which shielded police personnel records, was repealed by Chapter 96 of the Laws of 2020 (signed June 12, 2020), and even before the repeal the Appellate Division, First Department, held that body camera footage is not a personnel record under §50-a (Matter of Patrolmen’s Benevolent Assn. of the City of N.Y. v. de Blasio, 171 A.D.3d 636 (2019)), as the Committee on Open Government summarized in advisory opinion 19751. What can still keep video back are FOIL’s general exemptions: an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy (§87(2)(b)), the law enforcement exemptions below (§87(2)(e)), and records whose release could endanger the life or safety of any person (§87(2)(f)). If you are in a lawsuit, a subpoena is the other route; the State Police process only subpoenas so-ordered by a judge and personally served on the Superintendent at headquarters in Albany, say most must come with a $30 check, and send body camera video as a download link to the email address you provide.

When police can hold video back

Withheld if release would interfere

Public Officers Law §87(2)(e) lets an agency deny records compiled for law enforcement purposes only to the extent that disclosure would (i) interfere with law enforcement investigations or judicial proceedings, (ii) deprive a person of a right to a fair trial or impartial adjudication, (iii) identify a confidential source or disclose confidential information relating to a criminal investigation, or (iv) reveal criminal investigative techniques or procedures, except routine ones. An agency that is not itself investigating must first get confirmation from the investigating agency before denying on ground (i). The Committee on Open Government has said the exceptions most often cited for dashcam video are (e)(i) and (ii), and that they would not apply to a routine stop that involves no investigation (advisory opinion 19631, 2017). For the crash report itself, Public Officers Law §66-a lets police withhold accident records only when disclosure would interfere with the investigation or prosecution of a crime. The statute sets no date when the exemption ends; it applies only while release would actually cause that harm, so once charges are resolved, ask again. In court the agency carries the burden of proving that a withheld record falls within an exemption (§89(4)(b)).

Do traffic cameras in New York record?

No official recording statement found

We found no official New York State DOT statement on whether its traffic cameras record. NYSDOT’s traffic monitoring cameras page says its staff use closed-circuit television to monitor and collect information on traffic conditions and that NYSDOT policy requires that CCTV systems not be used to collect personal identifier information; it says nothing about recording or keeping video. New York City is clearer: NYC DOT says its traffic cameras only provide live feeds and do not record any footage. Because FOIL reaches only records that exist, a request for traffic camera video will produce nothing if no recording was made, so if a NYSDOT, Thruway, county or city camera covered the crash, send a FOIL request to that agency at once naming the camera location, the date and the time window, and ask whether any recording or still image exists. NYSDOT takes FOIL requests through the FOIL web page linked from its records access page.

Red-light and speed cameras

Local programs; images to owner only

Red-light and speed cameras are authorized only where the Legislature has passed a section for that place, each a time-limited demonstration program. Red-light cameras, among the sections we read: New York City (VTL §1111-a, repealed December 1, 2027 unless extended), Nassau County (§1111-b), New Rochelle (§1111-d), White Plains (§1111-e), Pelham Manor (§1111-f), Syracuse (§1111-g), the Town of Greenburgh (§1111-h), Peekskill (§1111-i) and Poughkeepsie (§1111-j). Speed cameras: New York City school speed zones, up to 750 at a time (§1180-b), Poughkeepsie (§1180-c), and school-zone programs in Albany (§1180-f), Kingston (§1180-g), Mount Vernon (§1180-h) and the Village of Pelham (§1180-i), plus work-zone speed cameras run by NYSDOT, the Thruway Authority, the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Bridge Authority (§1180-e). New York City also runs bus lane cameras (§1111-c). These programs make the vehicle’s owner liable for a civil penalty, and the notice of liability goes to the owner. The red-light sections we read (§§1111-a, 1111-b) say the photographs or recorded images must be available for inspection in any proceeding to adjudicate liability and must not, to the extent practicable, identify the driver, passengers or contents of the vehicle. The speed camera sections are stricter: under §1180-b(a)(5)(ii) (New York City) and §1180-e(a)(6)(ii) (work zones), the images are for the exclusive use of the program for adjudicating liability, are available for inspection and copying by the vehicle’s owner and operator, are not open to the public nor subject to civil or criminal process or discovery, and are furnished otherwise only on a search warrant or a subpoena duces tecum signed by a judge, each tied to a misdemeanor or felony; they are destroyed after the notice of liability is finally resolved or one year after it was issued, whichever is later. So unless you are the owner or the operator of the ticketed vehicle, you generally cannot get a speed camera image by FOIL or by a civil subpoena; the law releases it to others only in a misdemeanor or felony matter.

If your request is denied

Written appeal within 30 days

Appeal a denial in writing within thirty days to the head, chief executive or governing body of the agency, or the appeals officer it designates (§89(4)(a)). The agency must, within ten business days of receiving the appeal, either explain in writing the reasons for further denial or provide the records, and it must forward a copy of your appeal to the Committee on Open Government. An agency that misses FOIL’s response deadlines has denied the request, so you can appeal without waiting (§89(4)(a)). Example, State Police only: appeal through its GovQA portal or by mail to Attn: Records Appeal Officer, 1220 Washington Avenue, Building 22, Albany NY 12226-2252, within 30 days of the written response. After the appeal, you may bring an Article 78 proceeding in court; the agency has the burden of proving the exemption applies, and the court may award attorney’s fees if you substantially prevail and the agency missed its deadlines, and must award them if the agency had no reasonable basis for denial (§89(4)(b), (c)). The Committee on Open Government (opengovernment.ny.gov) gives free advisory opinions, which state the Committee’s views and do not bind agencies or courts. You may want to ask a lawyer about the court filing deadline.

What to do now

1. 1

   Send FOIL requests today

   Email the records access officer of the police agency that worked the crash and of any agency that runs a nearby camera. Name the date, time window, location and report number, and ask for body camera, dashcam and any other video.

2. 2

   Ask for preservation in writing

   State Police body camera video can be purged after 24 weeks and other agencies set their own retention periods, so ask each agency in the same letter to preserve the recordings while your request is pending.

3. 3

   Appeal any denial within 30 days

   Send a written appeal to the agency’s appeals officer. It must decide within ten business days, and silence past a deadline counts as a denial you can take to court.

4. 4

   Look beyond public cameras

   Traffic cameras in New York often keep nothing, so private video matters most: nearby businesses, buses, and other drivers’ dashcams. Post the crash on the bounty board to reach dashcam owners who passed by.

Frequently asked questions