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RELEVANT LINKS: League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 12/15/2017 Use of Body-Worn Cameras Page 4 Practical and economic considerations, as well as philosophical ones, come to bear on deciding which option to choose and how much (i.e., when) to record. Once video data is recorded, it must be administered and retained in accordance with legal requirements. Agencies should expect that data storage costs and the time it takes to administer data will increase commensurately with the amount of data they choose to collect and store. Desires for accountability and transparency may weigh in favor of mandatory, broad, and encompassing recording requirements. But considerations of cost and practicality may point toward less mandatory recording and more reliance on officer judgment. Deciding which approach is best involves weighing these competing factors in the context of the prevailing social, political, and economic considerations within each community. This is a determination particularly suited to elected officials acting on input from law enforcement professionals. Agencies should consult with their city councils or county boards to develop a community-specific approach. V. Data administration issues Minn. Stat. § 13.825. Body-Worn Cameras, LMC Model Policy. Part of the new legislation treats data collected through the use of BWCs differently than most other forms of data. While most government data is presumptively public, BWC data is presumptively private. A specific provision, applicable only to BWC data, delineates who is a subject of the data. The new laws also establish unique access rights to BWC data. The model policy contains a multi-page section under the heading of “Administering access to BWC data” to address these issues. There are ambiguities in the new law, and agencies are encouraged to consult with their city attorneys or legal advisors for guidance. A. Labeling data for retention purposes Administering BWC data under both the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act and the Records Retention Schedule is complicated. In very general terms, the Records Retention Schedule indicates how long entities need to keep data, and the Data Practices Act describes who is to have access. But BWC data is unlike other kinds of law enforcement data because retention is governed both by the Data Practices Act and the city’s or county’s records retention schedule.