Investigations & evidence · police and insurance exports
Laying hands on the video is only half of it; the rest is handing over something an insurer or an officer can act on. That means beating the overwrite, knowing what you are entitled to ask for, and exporting with the continuity detail that lifts a recording into evidence.
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| The requirement | What that tells you | Your move |
|---|---|---|
| Roughly 31 days, by convention | A habit, not a legal requirement — plenty of recorders wrap sooner | Ask for it to be held, today |
| SAR replies inside a month | Their deadline, which complex cases can extend | Put yours in writing straight away |
| Blurring of other people | Anyone else recognisable gets obscured before you receive it | Count on it — lawful and routine |
| Home cameras filming past the fence | Point one at the pavement or next door and data-protection law applies | They must answer a SAR too |
| Continuity of handling | Who held it, how copies were made, whether anything changed | Ours ship with hash values and a written method |
As soon as it lands with us, your device gets its own case number. An engineer works out the fault, says what can genuinely be pulled off, then puts one fixed price in writing — no charge for diagnosis, no obligation, and no chargeable work until you approve it.
Step one is a written request, sent that day, asking whoever runs the system to hold the recording, while we work out how long it really keeps.
We lift the video off the disk image and write it out twice: a plain MP4 that opens anywhere, and the recorder's own format with its player.
The video goes out with hash values, a written method and a continuity log — the gap between a file on a USB stick and something a court or insurer will lean on.
You sign off a complete list of the recovered files first; only then does the recovery fee fall due. Everything returns on fresh media, postage paid, and the job stays open until you confirm the files open at your end.
What drives the insurers' interest: in November 2025 the ABI put detected fraudulent claims for 2024 at £1.16 billion, with more than 51,000 of those being motor scams worth £576 million. Video is what gets an honest claim paid quickly and a staged one stopped — and why an exhibit-grade export beats a bare clip.
A warehouse shunt in dispute, an insurer pressing for answers, and a recorder that had long since taped over the moment — bar one export a manager made, then threw away. Pulled back off the disk, hashed, written up, and the claim settled without a hearing.
Yes — under UK GDPR you make a subject access request. The operator must answer within one calendar month, will obscure anyone else identifiable, and normally cannot charge you.
Normally you just ask the operator — most hand it over willingly. Where they won't, data-protection requests and court orders are the formal route.
No law fixes a retention period — roughly 31 days is the usual convention under the storage-limitation principle, and busy recorders overwrite sooner still. Assume every request is urgent.
It must play and it must stand up: an ordinary MP4 beside the recorder's own export, hashes, and a note of where it came from. We supply exactly that.
Loops write over themselves, traces fade, deadlines run out. Start a case early — scoping it costs nothing and stays confidential.