California’s Surveillance Video Retention Policy Is Outdated

A woman slips and falls in a Vallarta supermarket in Los Angeles. She’s hurt – seriously – and tells the manager what happened. Protocol says he should have flagged the security footage right away, preserving the video as potential evidence. But that never happens. Days pass. She’s focused on getting medical treatment, trying to recover, and trying to figure out what comes next. 

By the time she gets legal help, the video is gone. 

It was automatically deleted by the store’s surveillance system, as per their surveillance video retention policy: a short 14-day loop that continuously overwrites older footage. That same store will likely keep her grocery receipt and payment record for five to seven years. But the video that could show how she was injured? Legally vanished in two weeks. And under current law, that’s totally fine. 

This case, which J&Y Law is currently litigating, reveals a much deeper, systemic issue: our surveillance data retention policies haven’t evolved with the technology, the stakes, or the expectations of justice. 

“What eats at me is hearing clients describe the domino effect,” says Stephen Lockad, Litigation Attorney at J&Y Law. “They tell me how a fall that took seconds wrecked their ability to walk, to work, to sleep. They did everything right, too. They said they reported it; they trusted the system. And still, they’re treated like they’re lying. That’s the part that keeps me up.” 

We’re Still Using VCR-Era Surveillance Rules in the Cloud-Era 

Thirty years ago, short retention made sense. Security footage was stored on physical VHS tapes. Space was limited, duplication was expensive, and storage rooms could only hold so many cassettes. 

But today? We live in a world of terabyte cloud storage, AI-powered indexing, and 4K doorbell cameras that can save footage for months – all for a few dollars a month. 

A typical retail store could easily extend its video retention to 60–90 days using current hardware and software, at a negligible cost. Cloud services offer pay-as-you-go plans. AI-enhanced surveillance systems can even flag important footage automatically, keeping only what matters and dumping the rest. The excuses have expired. But the policies haven’t changed. 

Why Do Companies Delete Surveillance Video So Quickly?

Because legally, they’re allowed to. In most of the U.S., there are no standard legal requirements for how long private companies must keep surveillance footage. Retention policies are almost entirely left up to the business – and that creates a clear conflict of interest. 

A short retention period is a safe default for most companies: 

• Short retention = less legal risk 
• Long retention = more evidence that could be used in a lawsuit 

In other words, the system incentivizes businesses to delete video fast. If a company erases video before someone formally notifies them of a legal claim, courts often treat it as “routine housekeeping,” not spoliation of evidence. 

“There’s no business incentive to preserve the truth when the system rewards you for getting rid of it,” says Lockard. “The less video you keep, the less chance you’ll be held accountable. That’s business model.” 

Why is Surveillance Footage Treated Differently Than Other Data? 

There’s a glaring double standard here: the same company that keeps your receipts, emails, employee records, and compliance logs for years may be running a 14-day auto-delete loop on security footage – even though video is often the only objective record of what actually happened. 

This disconnect feels fundamentally wrong. If businesses are held accountable for retaining written records, why not hold them to the same standard for video? 

There’s No Federal Standard, Just Company Policy 

That’s the most shocking part: there’s no federal standard for how long surveillance video should be retained by private businesses. Some specific industries (like cannabis or gaming) have state-by-state mandates, but for the vast majority of businesses – from grocery stores to office buildings to gyms – retention policies are entirely self-policed. 

And companies are incentivized to set the shortest loop possible. The shorter the loop, the less chance there is that footage will be used in a legal claim. The burden is placed on injured individuals or their attorneys to act fast enough to catch the video before it disappears. 

Why Can’t We Regulate This Like We Regulate Everything Else? 

If you’ve ever owned or operated a business, you know: there are regulations for everything. In California alone: 

• You’re required to post a sign if coffee may be hot. 
• You must provide break rooms with tables, chairs, and microwaves. 
• Restaurants must list calorie counts on menus. 
• Some cities require a permit to hang a business sign over your door. 

And yet… we don’t have a standard national requirement for retaining security footage in case someone gets seriously injured? 

When the law tells you to print bathroom signage in specific fonts but says nothing about preserving potentially life-altering video evidence, we know something is broken. 

Can My Ring Doorbell Really Save Footage Longer Than a Supermarket? 

Actually, yes. Most consumer home cameras (like Ring, Nest, or Arlo) come with cloud plans that store 30–180 days of footage, searchable by event, with easy clip downloads. Compare that to many retail stores that purge video every 7–14 days unless manually saved. 

We’ve officially reached the point where your front porch camera may protect your legal rights better than a multimillion-dollar retailer’s entire surveillance system. 

What Are the Consequences of Short Video Retention? 

If you slip and fall or suffer another injury on someone else’s property, the best proof is often the video. It shows how the hazard occurred, how hard you fell, whether employees responded, and whether safety protocols were followed. 

If that video is gone, your entire case may rely on conflicting eyewitness accounts, security reports, or memory. And even when the injured person notifies the business, it may be too late if the footage wasn’t flagged and preserved properly. 

Bad Policies Reward Bad Behavior 

Businesses that routinely fail to preserve video may face no legal consequences – as long as the footage was deleted before they were officially “on notice.” 

This creates a perverse incentive: 

• Companies are rewarded for setting retention policies as short as possible. 
• The system punishes those who retain longer, because it increases their exposure to legal scrutiny. 

That’s backwards. Our legal system should incentivize transparency and truth, not the rapid destruction of evidence. 

Is It Really That Easy to Extend Video Retention? 

Yes, and it’s gotten easier every year. 

• Hard drives are cheap. An 8TB surveillance-grade drive costs a few hundred dollars – enough to store 90 days of HD video from several cameras. 
• Cloud storage is scalable. Businesses can choose plans that store only flagged incidents long-term, reducing costs. 
• AI can help. Smart systems can detect unusual behavior, tag incidents, and auto-save important footage while discarding the rest. 

Put simply, the technology isn’t the barrier anymore. Surveillance video retention policy is. 

What Should Companies Be Doing Instead? 

1. Extend Default Retention to 60–90 Days

Most incidents take time to surface. A 2-week window is often not enough. If you care about customer safety, you should care about preserving the records of what happens in your store. 

2. Use AI and Motion Detection to Save the Important Clips

Modern systems can be trained to flag incidents – slips, falls, confrontations – and save them automatically, even while erasing uneventful footage. 

3. Create Formal Incident-Based Archiving Policies

If an injury, complaint, or dispute is reported, video should be pulled immediately from the deletion cycle and preserved indefinitely, just like emails and HR files. 

4. Treat Surveillance Like Any Other Critical Data

If companies are investing millions in cybersecurity, customer analytics, and data governance, they should do the same for physical security data. Video is not disposable. It’s evidence. 

5. Be TransparentWiththe Public 

Letting customers and employees know how long footage is retained can actually increase accountability and trust. It also encourages better compliance internally. 

Injured and Looking for Surveillance Footage to Prove Your Case? 

We live in an age where every step you take in public may be captured on video, but whether that video is saved long enough to matter is another story. 

If you’re injured on someone else’s property, the only reliable witness may be a camera. That witness’s “memory” might be erased before you even know what happened. 

At J&Y Law, we’re fighting to hold companies accountable. It starts in the courtroom, but extends to how all companies collect, retain, and preserve the truth. Our team is actively litigating cases that shine a light on broken systems like this. 

“If a coffee cup gets more regulatory protection than a human being slipping on an unsafe floor, something’s gone sideways in our priorities,” argues Lockard. “We have the tech. We have the storage. What we don’t have is the will, until someone like my client makes noise.” 

The solution isn’t complicated: we have the tools. We just need people willing to stand up and do the right thing.