Batavia police and staff on July 1 presented a Public Safety Surveillance System Policy that lays out role-based access, audit logging and a default 30-day retention period for camera recordings, with longer retention for evidentiary cases.

Staff said the vendor’s video management system (VMS) provides a detailed audit log of user actions but cannot record a justification string for every access; the department reviewed options for an additional separate justification log and concluded it would create security, sharing and administrative complications. Instead the department plans annual audits and will retain evidentiary download logs and human-resources records for any out-of-role access.

Police staff said the project will ingest nearly 50 city cameras into a new Access Camera Station Pro system; most devices (all but 22) are camera installations tied to critical city infrastructure (fire stations, electric substations, public works), while 22 camera housings will be deployed in public-facing locations. Staff said access will be role-based (administrator/operator/viewer) and limited by camera; department users will receive training and non-routine requests to view footage will be processed through human resources.

Representatives of the Batavia Community Diversity Initiative (BCDI) met with staff and the police department before the committee and said they neither support nor oppose the system but recommended operational transparency; the department agreed to an annual meeting with BCDI to review program performance and community concerns. Staff said signage will be posted at public-camera locations to notify the public.

Why this matters: the system is intended to protect city infrastructure, support public safety and improve operational response times, but it raises questions about privacy, access controls and transparency. Committee members asked for clarity on who will have access and how logs will be used; police and IT staff explained role-based access and demonstrated that the VMS records user actions, timestamps and workstation IDs.

The committee did not propose additional restrictions and staff indicated the policy is prepared for issuance pending final administrative steps and continued outreach with BCDI.