96,000 UK Police Bodycam Videos Lost After Data Transfer Mishap

The UK’s South Yorkshire Police lost 96,000 bodycam videos in a data transfer mishap, impacting 126 cases. Poor backups and IT failures led to the deletion.

South Yorkshire Police (SYP) has been officially reprimanded by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after an investigation revealed the force deleted over 96,000 pieces of body-worn video (BWV) evidence. The incident, which happened on July 26, 2023, was a result of serious failures in the force’s IT systems and record-keeping.

In its official statement, the ICO, the UK’s data protection regulator, announced it had reprimanded SYP because the force “did not have the appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to keep the evidence secure.”

The investigation highlighted several key issues, including a delay in creating IT backup policies and poor record-keeping, which made it impossible for SYP to confirm exactly how many videos were permanently lost.

****How the Data Was Lost****

The issue started in May 2023 after an IT system upgrade. The main system, which officers used to upload their BWV footage, began to struggle with the data. To fix this, a temporary solution was put in place where the videos were stored on a local drive.

However, a few months later, on August 7, 2023, an SYP IT manager noticed a huge number of files were missing. A deeper inspection found that the mass deletion of 96,174 original video files had happened on July 26, 2023.

The deletion was part of a data transfer being done by a third-party company. While some of the footage had been copied to a new system (95,033 pieces), the police force’s poor record-keeping meant they couldn’t confirm exactly how many files were permanently lost.

An example of a South Yorkshire bodycam video

****Impact and Recommendations****

The lost data was connected to 126 criminal cases, but only three of those cases were directly affected. SYP stated that one case might have gone to court if the video evidence had been available.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has given SYP several recommendations to prevent this from happening again, including making sure they have a good backup solution and improving how they handle data with outside companies. SYP has since stated that they have implemented all of the recommendations.

According to Sally Anne Poole, the Head of Investigations at the ICO, this incident is a major lesson for all police forces using this type of technology. She emphasized that the public expects police forces to protect the personal information they handle. As Poole stated, “This incident highlights the importance of having detailed policies and procedures in place to mitigate against the loss of evidence.”

The full reprimand can be read here (PDF).