Banner County sheriff reports nine-month body‑camera backup loss, seeks costly storage fixes

Sheriff Zane told the Banner County Board of Commissioners on Aug. 5 that about nine months of body‑camera video footage could not be located after a server folder was deleted and a vendor backup window was missed.

The sheriff said he contacted the vendor, Bytes, and was told backups could not be recovered because the county did not contact the vendor within four days of deletion. “I have lost all confidence in Bytes to maintain my evidentiary video footage,” he said, and added he would pursue other storage options and stop using Bytes for evidence storage once a replacement is in place.

The sheriff described possible short‑term and long‑term fixes. He said an on‑site server installation for a small kit (two body cameras) was quoted at a little over $13,000, and he had at least one cloud‑storage quote that he described as “a hundred and more” (the transcript did not specify an exact figure). He said cloud storage costs were “almost cost prohibitive” because the office must retain many terabytes of video and follow a retention schedule that requires keeping videos a minimum of nine months and, for some cases, indefinitely: “Because we're talking several terabytes of cloud storage… we have to keep videos for I think… a minimum of 9 months and or until the case isn't resolved,” he said.

Commissioners and county staff discussed interim steps and budgeting. The sheriff said his immediate interim plan was to direct evidence downloads to an external hard drive while he researches a permanent solution: “I'm gonna external hard drive backup, and that'll be the interim fix until we get something put together.” Commissioners asked the sheriff to work with Treasurer Kathy Natale on budget implications and noted the county may need to include a recurring amount in next year’s budget. No formal motion or vote was taken on procurement or budget adjustments at the meeting.

The sheriff explained the operational impact: lost administrator indexing, time spent manually locating recovered files scattered across server folders, and risk to court evidence and the sheriff’s office accreditation. He estimated it could take four to six months to implement a permanent system but said he would continue vendor meetings in the meantime.

Ending: The sheriff asked the board to be aware of the issue while he researches options and potential budget requests. Commissioners said they wanted him to continue exploring solutions and coordinate with county finance staff to identify funding options before the next budget decisions.