An 18 year old kid was shot on my street last friday. I live in a pretty violent part of this hell hole country and despise the cops. I have a camera in front of my house over-looking the street, and the cops have came over twice asking to see the footage and both time I've refused (even though there is nothing on our camera).
I am feeling kind of guilty because if my camera had something on it that could catch the murderer i'd feel bad for withholding it for the families sake, but on the other hand cops here barely ever catch murderers and have basically gone on 'protest leave' after the BLM protests and my city voting in a 'progressive' DA so they pretty much let crimes happen in front of them and don't do shit. All in all I am pretty conflicted on this and can use some advice. btw my camera didn't catch anything, so now I'm just worried of the cops retaliating against me since I said no to them.
Also as I was typing this i just saw a news story on it that says the murderer was spotted ducking out into someones front yard on their camera two blocks away from me (he wouldn't have passed my house) and then getting into a car and heading away from where I live (again wouldn't have passed my house). The first officers who came by an hour after the murder wouldn't have known that when asking for the footage, but the one who came by today definitely would have so wtf.
It's probably just standard procedure to canvas for surveillance footage now that everyone has one. I doubt they gave your no a second thought.
The first guy was really pissed I said no and tried to make himself seem like i was a roadblock to him being a huge hero who was just trying to sweep crime off the streets, he was arguing with me for like a good few minutes trying to get me to show my footage. The main thing I didnt want to happen was for them to mis-identify someone else and end up putting the wrong person in prison. The second guy my wife answered and was pissed he woke up our 6 year old kid who currently has covid and she just slammed the door in his face lol.
If they ever ask, just tell them you'll call back if you find anything. Don't give them free reign of your stuff unless you're sure it's helpful.
And only if you're helping with a murder or something where someone really hurt someone else.
I had two people knock at my door one time, one knocked while the other took a position on the stairs that was unusual. The second person also kept their hands close to their body but didn't let their arms hang naturally at their sides.
Very suspicious. Looked through my camera and decided, no I'm not going to answer.
They dropped a card in my mailbox.
Turns out they were plain clothes cops, and the second officer was definitely taking a position to cover his partner.
I assume they were going to ask for my camera footage since I went back and looked at the footage before they knocked and they were casing the block and noticed my camera, looked at it and walked back and forth a couple of times.
Never called them, because frankly if you're standing at my doorstep, do not identify who you are, and are telegraphing with your body that you have a gun and are thinking about it, I'm just not going to be interested in answering the door or helping you.
You did the right thing. Don’t volunteer information, don’t tell them nothing’s on it, just refuse and move on. Worst case they review the footage and use it as evidence of some bullshit crime and end up citing you.
Up to you I guess, like you said there's nothing on there so it's not that big a deal. Knowing for sure that whatever area your camera covered from X time to Y time captured nothing probably helps the investigation a tiny bit more but they probably already marked down that you said it captured nothing
If it doesn't have anything on it, did you tell them that? I get you don't like the police but there's no reason to withhold that information. If they still persist after you tell them then yeah fuck em. Your cam didn't catch anything so don't worry about getting hung up on the "what ifs". I might've misinterpreted it but the way you worded it makes it sound like if your cam had got something, you'd still be reluctant to hand it over, in which case no matter your opinion on the cops, is fucking stupid.
