How Long Do Security Cameras Keep Footage in Video Surveillance Systems?

Knowing how long most security cameras keep footage is essential for safety, compliance, and incident response, especially in schools and businesses. Storage duration depends on available storage capacity, system settings, industry regulations, and the need for long-term access. 

Understanding retention times helps ensure your surveillance system complies with security and legal requirements. Keep reading to learn more.

How Long Do Security Cameras Record?

How long security cameras record and keep footage in schools and businesses varies based on storage capacity, the number of cameras, business size, video quality, and legal requirements. 

Some businesses need only a few days of recordings, while others must retain footage for several months or even years. We’ll discuss the different retention periods and when they make sense below.

Short-term Retention Periods

Short-term retention periods span anywhere from 24 hours to two weeks. Small businesses and residential security systems with limited storage space, where monitoring activities is the primary concern, commonly use this approach. 

Short-term retention periods usually suffice in low-risk environments, particularly when there are no legal requirements to store recordings longer.

Mid-term Retention Periods

Typically, mid-term retention periods cover 30 to 90 days. To account for potential events or disputes, businesses like office buildings and retail stores choose this duration to access footage for an extended period. 

Additionally, some state and industry regulations mandate businesses—especially in finance, hospitality, and healthcare sectors—to save footage within this range. Bigger companies with greater storage space pick mid-term retention periods for sufficient security coverage.

Long-term Retention Periods

Long-term retention periods occur from six months to one year. This is typical for organizations in high-security environments, like financial institutions, government agencies, casinos, and healthcare facilities. 

Plus, this duration aligns with regulatory compliance for these industries. Some organizations may save footage for years if it involves an ongoing legal case, insurance claim, or audit.

How Long Do Coram's Security Camera Stores Recorded Footage?

Depending on your selected retention period, Coram’s security cameras store recorded footage for either 30, 60, or 90 days. During this time, you can download, archive, and share the footage, as well as process and analyze it using AI. 

After the designated retention period, older recorded footage is overwritten and permanently deleted to make room for new videos. However, if you wish to archive important recordings for a longer duration, Coram’s 10-year unlimited-capacity cloud storage prevents recordings from being overwritten. 

Additionally, Coram provides an optional cloud-based backup solution that automatically stores a copy of every recorded video in the cloud. For more personalized service, you can select between 30 to 365 days of cloud retention for your backups.

Importance of Security Camera Footage

Security camera footage has become more indispensable than ever, providing many benefits across various aspects of our lives. Let’s look at its significance in three major areas:

1. Investigations

Security camera footage plays a huge role in crime scenes with limited information about the culprit—consider them as silent witnesses. 

As real-time video recordings, they offer concrete evidence for school administrators, facility managers, security professionals, and law enforcement officers. 

This helps them understand how the events played out and track suspects or perpetrators, improving safety and protecting lives.

2. Insurance Claims

Managing insurance claims can occasionally feel complicated. However, having clear video footage can simplify the entire procedure. If there’s theft, injury, or property damage, video evidence gives a transparent account of events. 

It helps in supporting claims, guaranteeing that policyholders are fairly compensated. Furthermore, businesses adopting surveillance systems may see a decrease in insurance premiums, as insurers value proactive measures to limit risks.

3. Personal Security

Knowing that your workplace or home is being surveilled gives you a sense of safety and peace. Plus, the security footage helps you to confidently tackle any situation—theft, fire outbreak, and other emergencies. 

Beyond deterring criminals, this proactive measure aids police investigations when incidents occur.

Where Does Security Camera Footage Get Stored?

There are different ways to store security camera footage. However, your desired storage method depends on your preferences, needs, type of camera system, and its configuration. The four widely used options for storing camera footage are as follows:

1. SD Card Storage

Cameras usually have limited internal storage, so an SD card is needed for additional footage. These SD cards can range from a few hundred gigabytes to several terabytes, storing weeks or months of camera footage. 

You can save the footage forever or delete it whenever you want. This option is beneficial when there are internet connectivity issues or standalone cameras. However, one downside you'll face is its limited capacity—once the card is full, new footage could overwrite old footage.

2. Local Storage Options (DVRs) & (Coram Point - NVRs)

DVRs (digital video recorders) are traditional systems that operate with analog surveillance cameras connected through a coaxial cable. These devices turn camera signals into digital data for storage. 

Small and medium-sized businesses that don't require high-resolution video or long-term storage often choose this affordable option. On the other hand, NVRs (network video recorders) such as Coram Point NVRs work with a network of IP cameras connected to a digital network.

These NVRs are cloud-connected with an intuitive and modern user interface, allowing remote access. They are more advanced than DVRs and have more storage for longer video data retention and high-quality digital footage.

3. Cloud Storage Solutions

The cloud-based storage solution is a modern approach for storing security camera footage. Today, IP cameras now come with cloud storage, allowing you to purchase more storage as needed. 

Interestingly, their storage capacity is unlimited because they store video data in the cloud rather than on on-site devices. Although this option can be expensive for long-term high-resolution storage, it is flexible, reliable, and scalable. Overall, it offers high security and convenience.

4. Hybrid Storage Solutions

Some security cameras have both local and cloud storage. This hybrid approach allows you to enjoy the flexibility of short-term local storage and the scalability of long-term cloud-based storage solutions.

Best Practices for Storing Security Camera Footage

Storing security camera footage ensures you have solid evidence when you need it most. From selecting the right retention solution to protecting your data from cyberattacks, following best practices can save you from headaches in the future. Let’s go over some smart ways to secure your footage.

Balancing Storage Capacity and Footage Retention Needs

When storing security camera footage, you must consider how much storage space you need and how long your cameras should keep the footage—you must balance both. Your storage needs depend on how many cameras you have, the quality of videos (higher quality consumes more space), and their frame rate. 

Therefore, you must evaluate these needs and pick a suitable solution for your school. Simultaneously, your footage retention needs are essential. To ensure your school’s safety, you must understand and plan how long you want to preserve your recordings before deleting them. Plus, you must consider any internal rules and legal requirements when storing security camera footage.

Ensuring Data Security and Privacy Through Encryption and Access Controls 

To protect your security camera footage, you must control who can see it and how they access it. The three most common ways to access video recording are: post forwarding, cloud services, and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). 

However, the issue is that others on the same network can see your passwords and videos if the footage is not encrypted. That’s why you must deploy solid security measures like encryption (which scrambles data to protect it) and access controls (which restrict who can view the footage).

A Smarter Surveillance Solution

There’s a smarter solution if you struggle to retain your security camera footage. Coram is an improved and secure type of security camera system. It is:

• Modern - Uses the latest NVRs and DVRs
• Fully Managed - Your IT staff don’t have to maintain servers
• Scalable - Works whether you need a small or large system
• Easy Set Up - Set up requires only ten minutes and you don’t need to modify your IT infrastructure.

Coram stores and manages footage in the cloud. You can control everything from one simple dashboard, making it easier to find and manage your footage. 

FAQs

Do security cameras keep footage forever?

Typically, security cameras can retain footage from three months to one year. However, this depends on the specific industry. For instance, banks can store security footage for six months up to one year. Remember, every security camera has a different storage capacity.

Do security cameras delete old footage?

Yes, most security cameras often delete old footage automatically (when the storage capacity is reached) to make space for new recordings. This process is called overwriting or loop recording.

Can I get CCTV footage from 2 years ago?

This largely depends on the system’s retention policies, legal obligations, security protocols, operational requirements, and whether the footage has been deleted or overwritten.

How long does the average security camera store footage? 

The average security camera stores footage for 30 to 90 days. This is very common for retailers, car dealerships, hotels, and any business. However, you can still store footage for longer periods but this can be expensive and less useful since older footage may not be needed anymore.

How long do business security cameras keep footage?

Most businesses keep camera footage for 30 to 90 days. However, industries like banks and casinos can keep footage for a minimum of 6 months due to industry regulations and standards.

Conclusion

Understanding how long most security cameras keep footage is crucial for maintaining safety and compliance in schools and organizations. Having a defined retention policy guarantees that your recordings are stored appropriately and available when needed. 

Some industries can store video footage for a few days or weeks, while others retain recordings for months or even years. It all depends on organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and storage capacity. 

Need expert advice on how long your organization’s security cameras should keep footage? Contact our security camera professionals at Coram today!