I received the discs today provided by the city of Memphis in response to the FOIA request for MAS security camera footage from 7am to 7pm on April 10 and 11. Just as I did last time, I performed a spot check of the discs upon receipt. Unfortunately, there appear to be some significant problems.
For the April 10 discs:
- 4 cameras are missing entirely. No footage, no discs, no explanation.
- 1 camera contains just 1 hour and 4 minutes of footage instead of the 12 hours requested.
- 1 camera contains a 20 minute gap in the middle of the day.
For the April 11 discs:
- 4 cameras are missing entirely. No footage, no discs, no explanation.
- 1 camera contains just 2 minutes of footage instead of the 12 hours requested.
Basically, it looks like we were shorted about half the requested video. I hope the missing footage can be recovered. Otherwise, it doesn’t seem right to me. I’m not saying that the city intentionally defrauded us of our money or that the footage was edited by the city before they sent it to us. But I think it’s worth noting that the person tasked with copying this footage gets paid $50 an hour to do it. The person is obviously not some sleep-deprived teenager dropping by after school but more likely an expert in the field. And he/she spent more than 16 hours copying the discs so it’s not like it was a rush job.
I believe we deserve an explanation and considering the circumstances, “oops” isn’t going to cut it for me. The city needs to provide the missing footage promptly. Contact was made with the city attorney’s office this afternoon requesting an explanation. I will update this post if a response is received on Thursday.