Albuquerque Cop Confiscates Camera From Reporter

June 9, 2011 @ 3:24PM

Albuquerque Cop Confiscates Camera From Reporter

Now under investigation for possibly deleting footage

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With complete disregard for the law, an Albuquerque police officer confiscated a camera from a KOB-TV reporter as she was working on a story about a nightclub one Friday night last April.

The officer kept the camera throughout the weekend before returning it to the station the following Monday.

That was when KOB-TV realized the officer may have deleted footage from the camera, specifically a clip showing her making an arrest. Watch some of the surviving footage here.

Nearly a month after the incident, the officer, Stephanie Lopez, filed charges of trespassing against the reporter, Cristina Rodda. Her arraignment is next week.

Lopez was working off-duty, meaning she was being hired by the club, so she was most likely looking out for the interests of the club instead of enforcing the actual law.

Now she is being investigated by internal affairs for possibly deleting the footage, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

Rodda was working on a story about the Tumbleweed nightclub because six people had been arrested there in February for selling ecstasy.

She remained in the parking lot the entire time before she was asked to leave. She and another KOB-TV videographer said she was walking back to her car when Lopez called her back, demanding her camera.

Lopez said Rodda was “hiding behind a row of cars,” which sounds like typical police embellishment.

Either way, Rodda gave up the camera without a fight.

Now KOB-TV is trying to see if anybody could help them recover the deleted footage.

The camera is a Sony DCR-SR67 HDD, which means it stores the clips in an internal hard drive. I’m not sure if they have recorded on it since the seizure or whether it is even possible to retrieve the footage from a camera like this.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

Comments

Colby

11 months ago

I would suggest calling Ontrack (http://www.krollontrack.com/data-recovery/) and seeing if they can work the case. They are professional & trusted data recovery experts in the field.

Saint Ola

11 months ago

Use software name Testdisk 6.3. Will recover everything.

DavidM

11 months ago

I suggest contacting DriveSavers. Long-established company, and I've never heard anything bad about them. One of their claims to fame is having recovered a half-season of deleted Simpsons scripts years ago.

http://www.drivesaversdatarecovery.com/

Iroc

11 months ago

I suggest deleting the officer using software "your fired v1.1"

RJ OGuillory

11 months ago

...I second that suggestion,.....but they should use the old software that most American Law Enforcement Organizations use,....."come-in-on-your-friends v2.1",

They should offer this "Officer" the same deal they throw at everyone else,.."come in on ten of your crooked-cop friends, and we'll just fire you, not send you to prision for ten years".....

...that'd be fun...

Regards,

RJ O'Guillory

Happy Tinfoil Cat

11 months ago

First step is to clone the drive. Any decent law enforcement organization has access to forensic data retrieval. It would be karmic to see the double-dipping sow demanding the camera under color of law.

Ryan French

11 months ago

Remember this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWnqcQB_L_Y

Apparently APD has issues that have yet to be corrected.

Rance

11 months ago

I'm really disappointed that the reporter didn't tell the officer to piss off, go butt a stump, and stand up for her rights.

Ryan French

11 months ago

That's true, however the photog wasn't under arrest. The officer would have to have reason to believe that evidence of a crime was captured by the camera if she wanted to seize it as evidence. Then, the officer would need a warrant or reason to believe it would be destroyed. It sounds like that the reporter was just shooting some b-roll from the parking lot, so I don't think the cop can claim she seized it as evidence. The cop wanted to protect the club (probably so she can appease them and keep working off duty details there). What the problem is here is that the reporter gave it up willingly, which she shouldn't have. I'd be interested to see if the officer has been working regular details at the club and what case did the video apply to as evidence, if any. That information will tell you all you need to know.

hal

11 months ago

Stephanie has some big ones if she had done it while she was on duty, but off duty. she sure has a large pair, you sure she not a guy?!

I own a SONY HDD 80gb [HDR XR100]

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-camcorders/sony-handycam-hdr-xr100/4507-...

if they are able to find someone to help them and get all the video off the HDD, please post it here, i would love to know how they did it just incase I need to the same myself, dealing with the MBPD.
but you know that MBPD reads this, if they ever do get my camcorder, to make sure the evidence is gone, they would stick it under the tire of a dump truck or something. :(

brettski

11 months ago

I haven't tried this one yet, but maybe it will help. I read about it in another photo blog.
Zero Assumption Recovery, ZAR 9.0
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Kyle

11 months ago

It would be nice to have a camera sold that had anti-deletion protections in place. In particular, I'm thinking of having a delete feature that appears to delete a video but actually just hides it from view of the casual user. Then the informed owner can enter a password or a secret combination of keys to access the secured videos.

Aren't there any manufacturers out there willing to make something like this? That way we don't have to keep resorting to data recovery coinflips.

hal

11 months ago

@bgwillia

this is in part also what i am thinking, those sandisk's are the same as the new solid state HDD they have now, and i think they could create some software that would make it so no one could erase it. not a cop out in the field anyway. and thats what I want, right? now if the COP was able to get it back to the station, there may be PC techies that could hack it.
i think the only real solution may be an on line connection like mainstream media has, and for the video/images to be going straight to some website for all to see....etc. now that would be great. and i think the tech is already there to do this. perhaps something i saw the other day, the use of a cell phone modem. and the camcorder would be part PC, with a mini MB and all!
or a cellphone/camcorder/PC combo! what a combo that would be. LOL

hal

11 months ago

kyle:

it would not be difficult to do, would be mainly a software item and it would use the buttons..etc. that the camcorder/camera has already. now all we need is the maker of the item, or someone with the skills to do it, and to create it.

the ones that would be easier to do would be the ones that record directly to a hard drive. the ones that use tapes may be more of a problem, but i think not impossible.

now we need a volunteer with either the tools or capital to get it done.!

Ken Bankers

11 months ago

What they need to do is make so ONLY THE HOME computer can delete it not the camera. That way only the owner can delete the footage period. that would realy screw with the folks that tell you HEY DELETE THAT NOW. response " sorry no can do this camera doesnt have a delete button.

hal

11 months ago

@ken:

that would be one great idea, another would be to make a COMPACT FLASH that is writeable and not re-writeble. this way, when u use it, no one could mess with it cept of course what someone said earlier, smash the hell out of it and break it.

so if I had the luck to have a cop say, stop recording and erase what i had already recorded. stopping would be the only thing i could do.
and the cop couldnt erase even if the attempt was made.

Bergman

11 months ago

You could use a combination of these two items:

http://www.sandisk.com/business-solutions/sd-worm
http://www.amazon.com/adapter-support-Pocket-Professional-Digital/dp/B00...

Oliver Powell

4 months ago

It's doesn't matter weather the footage is deleted or the whole memory card is formatted, some softwares are always available their to recover the digital media with 100% accuracy. Stellar Phoenix Digital media Recovery(http://www.stellarinfo.com/digital-media-recovery.htm) is one of the popular data recovery software that would surely help you to recover the data back.