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

The public records law that gets you the video

Oregon Public Records Law, ORS 192.311 to 192.478

Acknowledge in 5 business days

Every person has a right to inspect any public record of a public body in Oregon, except as ORS 192.338, 192.345 and 192.355 expressly provide (ORS 192.314(1)). A public record includes any writing about the public’s business, and a writing includes photographing and “every means of recording,” including pictures, sounds and electronic recordings (ORS 192.311(5), (7)). On a written request, the custodian must give you a copy, or a reasonable chance to inspect or copy the record (ORS 192.324(1)). Deadlines: once the person named in the agency’s published request procedure receives your written request, the agency has five business days to acknowledge it (saying whether it is the custodian) or complete it (ORS 192.324(2)); it must complete its response as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay (ORS 192.329(1)), and no later than 10 business days after the acknowledgment deadline it must either complete the response or give you a written statement that it is still working, with a reasonable estimated completion date (ORS 192.329(5)). Those time limits do not apply when the staff needed are unavailable, compliance would demonstrably impede other necessary services, or the volume of requests makes them impracticable, but the agency must still act as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay (ORS 192.329(6), (8)). The Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual (2024) calls this a baseline expectation of 15 business days and says most responses should be possible within ten. A complete response must name the exemptions relied on and tell you that you may seek review (ORS 192.329(2)), and the agency must release the nonexempt part of a record that also contains exempt material (ORS 192.338). Fees: an agency may charge fees reasonably calculated to reimburse its actual cost of making records available, including attorney time spent reviewing and redacting them, but not attorney time deciding how the law applies (ORS 192.324(4)(a), (b)); it may not charge more than $25 unless it first gives you a written estimate and you confirm you want it to proceed (ORS 192.324(4)(c)); and it may waive or reduce fees when release primarily benefits the general public (ORS 192.324(5)). The clock pauses until you pay a fee you were told about or answer a good-faith request for clarification, and the agency must close the request if you do neither within 60 days (ORS 192.329(3), (4)). Each agency must publish its request procedure and fees (ORS 192.324(7)). Example, ODOT only: the first 30 minutes of staff time are free, then $25 an hour for clerical, $40 for managerial and $75 for professional staff, no charge for email delivery, and ODOT requires payment of its estimated fees before it acts further on a request. Example, Oregon State Police only: $30.00 for each video or audio recording or disc, plus $25.00 an hour if images or audio must be redacted.

Police body camera and dashcam video

Body cam exempt unless public interest

Body cameras: Oregon’s Public Records Law conditionally exempts audio or video from a law enforcement officer’s body-worn camera that records the officer’s interactions with the public while on duty, which means it is exempt “unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance” (ORS 192.345, introductory text, and 192.345(40)). When such a recording is subject to disclosure: a recording sealed in a court record or ordered by a court not to be disclosed may not be released; your request must identify the approximate date and time of the incident and be reasonably tailored to the material for which a public interest requires disclosure; and before release the video must be edited so the faces of all persons in it are unidentifiable (ORS 192.345(40)(a) to (c)). The Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual (2024, page 71) says the Attorney General has found that the public interest did not require disclosure of footage requested for personal reasons, including private litigation, but did require disclosure of portions of footage from a traffic fatality investigation that held information not documented in the other investigative records, captured no interactions with members of the public, and for which police could identify no meaningful public interest in withholding it. If you go to court, discovery is a separate route: the criminal investigation exemption does not limit any constitutional or statutory right to disclosure or discovery in criminal cases (ORS 192.345(3)), and the litigation exemption does not limit any right granted by discovery or deposition statutes to a party to litigation (ORS 192.345(1)). Retention: every law enforcement agency must have policies for body camera recordings that require keeping a recording at least 180 days and no more than 30 months when it is not related to a court proceeding or ongoing criminal investigation, or for as long as the court keeps evidence when it is related to a court proceeding; the camera must record continuously from when the officer develops reasonable suspicion or probable cause that a crime or violation has occurred, is occurring or will occur and begins contact with the person, until the officer’s part in the contact ends, subject to agency exceptions for privacy, exigent circumstances or safety; and recordings may be used only for legitimate law enforcement purposes (ORS 133.741). Dashcams: Oregon’s ban on recording a conversation without telling the participants does not apply to an officer in uniform and displaying a badge who operates a vehicle-mounted video camera that records the scene in front of, within or around a police vehicle, unless the officer has a reasonable opportunity to tell the participants the conversation is being recorded (ORS 165.540(5)(d)(A)), but we found no Oregon statute specific to releasing or keeping dashcam video, so it falls under the general Public Records Law and its exemptions, including the criminal investigation exemption below; the body camera exemption and its face-blurring rule are written for cameras worn on the officer’s person. If you are a party to a lawsuit against the public body, or have filed a tort claim notice under ORS 30.275(5)(a), send your request in writing to the custodian and, at the same time, to the public body’s attorney (ORS 192.314(2)); while litigation is pending or reasonably likely, the agency’s records about it are also conditionally exempt (ORS 192.345(1)). Example, Oregon State Police only: $30.00 for each video recording or disc and $25.00 an hour for redaction.

When police can hold video back

Conditional; usually held while pending

ORS 192.345(3) conditionally exempts “investigatory information compiled for criminal law purposes,” so it may be withheld unless the public interest requires disclosure in the particular instance. The same subsection requires that the record of an arrest or the report of a crime be disclosed “unless and only for so long as there is a clear need to delay disclosure in the course of a specific investigation, including the need to protect the complaining party or the victim,” and it lists what that record includes: the arrested person’s name and biographical details, the charge, release conditions, the identity of the complaining party and victim, the investigating agency and length of the investigation, and the circumstances of the arrest (ORS 192.345(3)(a) to (g)). The Attorney General’s Public Records and Meetings Manual (2024) says that, as the Court of Appeals put it in Jensen v. Schiffman, 24 Or App 11 (1976), information related to pending or contemplated proceedings will ordinarily remain secret, but criminal investigatory information is generally not exempt once the criminal process concludes or is abandoned, unless disclosure would cause a particular harm such as interfering with ongoing proceedings, denying a fair trial, an unwarranted invasion of privacy, revealing a confidential source or investigative techniques, or endangering officers. The Department of Justice’s public records FAQ puts it more broadly: “Records related to an active criminal investigation are exempt from disclosure until the case is resolved.” The statute’s conditional wording and the Manual’s account are the more precise statements. The exemption does not limit any constitutional or statutory right to disclosure or discovery in criminal cases (ORS 192.345(3)). Other limits that can apply to crash files: images of a dead body that are part of a police investigation are exempt if disclosure would unreasonably invade the family’s privacy, unless the public interest by clear and convincing evidence requires disclosure (ORS 192.355(2)(b)), and information of a personal nature is exempt where disclosure would be an unreasonable invasion of privacy, again unless the public interest by clear and convincing evidence requires disclosure (ORS 192.355(2)(a)); for both, the person seeking disclosure must show it would not be an unreasonable invasion of privacy. The Oregon State Police lists open investigations, personal information, medical information and images of deceased people among the things it may redact. Whatever is withheld, the agency must release the nonexempt remainder (ORS 192.338) and cite the exemptions it used (ORS 192.329(2)).

Do traffic cameras in Oregon record?

ODOT says its cameras store nothing

ODOT answers this directly in its Public Records Center: “All ODOT-owned video traffic cameras are on a live feed into our Traffic Management Operations Centers in order to dispatch the appropriate incident responders. No images are stored or archived, so unfortunately we would have no records of that type to share.” It says the same of its still image cameras, which it says take a photo approximately every 15 minutes for the TripCheck website, each new image replacing the last. TripCheck’s own FAQ says “ODOT does not save camera images,” that each image is written over by the next, and that images are not archived because of the resources it would take and to respect privacy; it also says most cameras update every 5 minutes, a different interval from the Public Records Center’s, and that a camera’s Last Daylight Image is kept for only 4 hours. So there is no ODOT traffic camera video of your crash to request. What ODOT does keep: under the heading Archived Road Condition and Incident Data, TripCheck says archived road condition reports for a particular State or US highway are available by request from TripCheck.Support@odot.state.or.us, 24 hours after the date requested, and that in most cases a simple road report takes one to two working days; it does not say what a report contains about a particular crash. Cameras run by a city or county, or by a private business, are separate systems with their own practices; ask that owner in writing right away.

Red-light and speed cameras

Cities may run red-light, photo radar

Red-light cameras: any city may, at its own cost, operate cameras that photograph drivers who disobey a traffic control device (ORS 811.265) or who exceed the speed limit or posted speed by 11 miles per hour or more (ORS 810.434(1)). A citation from those photos requires signs on major routes into the city and before each camera intersection, a yellow light at least as long as the Institute of Transportation Engineers standard, mailing to the registered owner (or the driver if identifiable) within 10 business days, 30 days to respond, and review and signature by a police officer or authorized traffic enforcement agent; the owner is presumed to be the driver and may answer with a certificate of innocence (ORS 810.436, and ORS 810.437 for speeding citations from the same cameras). Photo radar: a city may operate photo radar on streets in residential areas or school zones, and elsewhere if its governing body finds speeding has hurt traffic safety there, but not on controlled access highways, and only with a “Traffic Laws Photo Enforced” sign 100 to 400 yards ahead (ORS 810.438, with citations under ORS 810.444). ODOT may operate photo radar in highway work zones on state highways while workers are present or the road layout is temporarily changed, or ask a city or the Oregon State Police to do it (ORS 810.441, 810.442). Using the images: photo red light images may be offered in a criminal case to prove or disprove a felony or a Class A misdemeanor (ORS 810.435(1)). We found no Oregon statute that specifically governs public access to red-light or photo radar images, so ask the city that runs the camera under the Public Records Law, and expect these systems to photograph violations rather than record continuously. School bus stop arm cameras: a school district or other education provider, with a police agency, may contract for cameras that record drivers who pass a stopped school bus, and an image or video from a stop arm camera “may not be used for any purpose other than the investigation of a violation or a crime” (ORS 811.156(2), (10)), so if a school bus was at your crash, tell the investigating police agency the video may exist. License plate readers: since March 31, 2026, Oregon law limits police use of automated license plate recognition systems and conditionally exempts captured plate data from public disclosure, with faces blurred in any released image (2026 Oregon Laws chapter 77, adding ORS 192.345(44)); the act’s definition excludes photo red light cameras and photo radar used for traffic enforcement.

If your request is denied

AG for state, DA for local, then court

State agencies (for example the Oregon State Police, ODOT and DMV): if you are denied, petition the Attorney General, who must issue an order within seven days of receiving the petition, and the agency bears the burden of justifying its denial (ORS 192.411(1)). The Department of Justice takes petitions through its online Petition for Public Records Order, and the Manual says there is no filing fee. Local bodies (city police, county sheriffs, other local agencies): petition the district attorney of the county where the body is located, under the same procedure (ORS 192.415(1)). A petition can be on the statutory form or in any form that gives your name, the records sought, the public body, the date you asked and who denied it (ORS 192.422(1)). If the Attorney General or district attorney does not rule within seven days, the petition is treated as denied (ORS 192.418(1)). You may also petition over an unreasonable fee waiver denial (ORS 192.324(6)) or over a missed deadline, an unreasonably long estimate or other noncompliance with ORS 192.329; an order granting that kind of petition may require release within seven days and a $200 penalty paid to you for undue delay or no response (ORS 192.407). Elected officials: if the record is held by an elected official, or an elected official claims the right to withhold it, you cannot petition the Attorney General or district attorney and instead file in circuit court (ORS 192.427); a sheriff is an elected county officer (ORS 204.005(1)(a)). Court: if your petition is denied, you may sue in circuit court; the court decides the matter anew, the public body bears the burden, these cases take precedence on the docket over all but more important causes, and if you prevail you are awarded costs and reasonable attorney fees (ORS 192.411(2), 192.415(1)(b), 192.431). If the Attorney General or district attorney orders release, the body must comply within seven days or give notice that it will sue, and then sue within seven more (ORS 192.411(2)). The Manual says a requester must petition the Attorney General before suing a state agency. We found no deadline in ORS 192.407 to 192.431 for filing a petition, but act promptly: agency policies need only keep body camera video 180 days when it is not related to a court proceeding or ongoing criminal investigation (ORS 133.741). Free help: the Public Records Advocate offers facilitated dispute resolution for requests to state agencies, completed within 21 days, and for requests to a city when you, the city and the Advocate all agree (ORS 192.464); contact PublicRecordsAdvocate.PRC@pra.oregon.gov or 503-871-9036.

What to do now

1. 1

   Skip ODOT camera video; ask for road reports

   ODOT says its traffic cameras store no images. TripCheck says archived road condition reports for a State or US highway can be requested from TripCheck Support.

2. 2

   Request body cam and dashcam video in writing

   Send the agency that responded a written request giving the approximate date and time, the location and the case number, as ORS 192.345(40) requires for body camera video.

3. 3

   Explain the public interest

   Body camera video is released only when the public interest requires it, and the Attorney General has said private litigation alone did not qualify. Say what the video shows that other records do not.

4. 4

   Petition the AG or DA if denied

   Petition the Attorney General for a state agency or the district attorney for a city or county agency. Any fee over $25 needs a written estimate first.

5. 5

   Post the crash on the bounty board

   Dashcam and business camera footage is not in any public agency’s files and is often overwritten within days.

Frequently asked questions