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Fish & G. Code, § 856.5 · Article 1. State

Fish & G. Code, § 856.5

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) The department may install patrol vehicle mounted video and audio systems, commonly known as dashboard cameras, in patrol vehicles used by peace officers described in Section 856. A peace officer described in Section 856 may use the patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system to record any communications or other actions involving the officer while the officer is in uniform and acting within the scope of his or her authority.

(b) The department shall adopt a policy to establish standards regarding the activation of patrol vehicle mounted video and audio systems and the preservation and retention of recordings from patrol vehicle mounted video and audio systems, subject to the following requirements:

(1) Once a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system has been activated pursuant to standards established by the department pursuant to subdivision (b), the patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system shall record the duration of an encounter.

(2) The department shall retain a recording from a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system for a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of one year, except if the recording is necessary for a pending, or reasonably foreseeable civil or criminal action, or for training or administrative purposes.

(3) The department shall provide access to a recording from a patrol vehicle mounted video and audio system in accordance with all other provisions of law.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 629, Sec. 1. (SB 1454) Effective January 1, 2015.

Source of truth

Edition
As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Official file
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=FGC&sectionNum=856.5.
Text hash
sha256 12177ce63162bbf6b85e2f7ee5670600fe741be6f05d0f336b436bb43bf79060
Composed by
compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section

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