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Binghamton police tell committee audits exist and detectives favor 30-day retention for investigations
Summary
Binghamton police described role-based access, hot-list notifications and a two-week auditing cadence; detectives told the committee that many serious investigations can require data that persists for weeks and that the department currently operates under a 30-day retention setting.
Police representatives described operational controls and how the city uses Flock cameras under current contracts. A police speaker summarized access levels: patrol officers may receive hot-list alerts but cannot query the system; supervisors and detectives have inquiry access and are required to enter an agency case number and justification for each inquiry. "There's an entry process where we would enter an agency case number and a narrative justification," the officer said.
On retention, detectives argued that some offenses have investigative timelines that exceed very short retention windows. The department cited national reporting metrics (NIBRS) showing mean times to clear certain serious offenses can be measured in weeks; a police speaker said, "The meantime to clear a [some serious crime type] case in the US was 32 days," and that investigators favor at least 30 days to avoid losing potentially useful evidence. Audits of queries are performed and tracked; police agreed to provide the committee with concrete audit data and counts of inquiries for follow-up review.
