NSW Are Police Allowed to Access GoPro Camera Content?

[Bob Abbott]

Hi

My son was stopped for speeding on his motorcycle - 45kms over the limit and was wearing a GoPro camera on his helmet. It was filming when he was pulled over.

My question is, are the police allowed to view and remove the filmed information on the camera without his consent, as they have removed footage of the incident?

 

[Rod]

Short answer - No.

Police should not destroy evidence prior to any court hearing and it can be trespass and destruction of property depending on circumstances.

If you query the police it will likely be, ohh, we didn't meant to delete anything, or there was nothing there, or we didn't delete anything.

 

[Bob Abbott]

Short answer - No.

Police should not destroy evidence prior to any court hearing and it can be trespass and destruction of property depending on circumstances.

If you query the police it will likely be, ohh, we didn't meant to delete anything, or there was nothing there, or we didn't delete anything.

Thanks Rod I thought it would be something like that.

Cheers

 

[Iamthelaw]

When you say they "removed the footage", are you saying that they deleted the footage or made a copy of it?

In your particular case:

Can they seize the Gopro? Yes, if the police 'reasonably suspect' that evidence of an offence may be found on the device.

Can they destroy/delete the footage? No.

 

[Gorodetsky]

Hi Bob Abbott,

If deleted, there's quite reasonable chances it's not actually gone. There's software which searches empty space on a device for data which looks like pic or vids...it then "undeletes" it...

I'm not sure if this link will get through, but if it doesn't, just Google "undelete from memory card".

How to recover deleted photos from a memory card

I hope this helps

Regards

 

[Bob Abbott]

Hi

Thanks for response, I believe they copied it and removed it from the device. My son is not sure if he gave permission as he was rather stressed at the time. The reason I am asking is that I have the GoPro and wanted to view it myself but found it to be missing.

My son was speeding - we accept that. All other previous footage ( unrelated ) was still there.