This weekend, a group supported a major parade event in San Juan Capistrano, CA. This is primarily the Tri-Cities and Mission Viejo RACES and local CERT teams--this is in Orange County. Over the last couple of years, mesh networking has been demonstrated to the point that we are now invited inside the Sheriff's Mobile Command Center as a core service. This isn't the everyday communication event for us under a tent--see attached pictures. This year we provided 6 ipCams along the parade route with 2 ipCams that have onboard 64Gb SD memory to record.
The sheriff's major activity occurs after the parade and we have on video one punch-knocked-out-cold and several ambulance incidences. In one case, video is being requested to corroborate a witnesses' testimony. None of us are lawyers... Would appreciate any comments, particularly professional experience in this area. Are there any liability issues that we should be aware of? Lessons learned for next time: We're thinking it's not a good idea to put our call signs in the corner of the video, when it's used in court to prosecute a gang violence incident :) .
Joe AE6XE
The sheriff's major activity occurs after the parade and we have on video one punch-knocked-out-cold and several ambulance incidences. In one case, video is being requested to corroborate a witnesses' testimony. None of us are lawyers... Would appreciate any comments, particularly professional experience in this area. Are there any liability issues that we should be aware of? Lessons learned for next time: We're thinking it's not a good idea to put our call signs in the corner of the video, when it's used in court to prosecute a gang violence incident :) .
Joe AE6XE
To your question, I'm not a lawyer but I have come across a similar situation. If you aren't compensated for providing this video and you aren't videoing in a location where a reasonable person would expect privacy, you should be ok. The chain of evidence could be a problem, but that isn't liability as much as it is a complication for the prosecutor. This wouldn't be any different than a convenience store manager providing video of the front of his property that happens to capture a crime occurring on the public street.
You may be called to court to confirm how the video was captured, what the intent of the video recording was for, and then to speak to whether or not the video could have been altered before being provided to the authorities.
This is a great example of using the technology....putting up cameras at a fixed location that normally has internet is one thing...providing video from random remote locations back to a command post is pretty cool.
MB
I'll improve the write up this year...
Joe AE6XE
Joe,
Thanks for sharing your story. I thoroughly enjoyed your 2015 report and will be sharing it with the local group. As a newbie into AREDN, this gives me something to aspire to! :)
Were you able to complete the 2016 write-up as you mentioned back in March?
-neal