Multnomah County Sheriff | Private camera registry
A voluntary registry of residents' and businesses' security cameras, run by the Sheriff's Office, with terms that say more than most: you may refuse a footage request, and the office may seek a warrant if you do.
At a glance
- What it is
- A list of privately owned cameras whose owners have told the Sheriff's Office where they are, so investigators know whom to ask for footage [1]
- Participation
- Voluntary, and a registration can be removed at any time [1]
- Does the office get camera access
- No. The page states registration "does not mean police have automatic access or live feeds", and that the office will not use registration information to view feeds directly [1]
- Can you refuse a footage request
- Yes, and the terms say what may follow: "You may always deny a request to view your camera or footage. However, a warrant may be requested to obtain this information" [1]
- Is your registration private
- Not entirely. The terms state registrant information may be disclosed under Oregon's public records laws or a subpoena [1]
- How many cameras are registered
- not published anywhere we found [1]
How it happened
- Context
The programme, as its own page describes it
The Sheriff's Office accepts voluntary surveillance camera registrations from businesses and community members. Investigators may contact a registrant to request footage after an incident; footage containing evidence may be collected for use in criminal proceedings. The EFF Atlas has recorded this programme for some time at a URL that now returns 404; the live page is where these terms were read. [1] [2]
What a registry is, and is not
A camera registry does not give the Sheriff’s Office your video. It gives the office a map of who has cameras, so that after a crime an investigator knows whose doorbell to knock on. Multnomah County’s version says this plainly, and its terms of use are more candid than most programmes of this kind documented on this site.
Three sentences carry the whole bargain. The first is the limit on the office:
Registering a surveillance camera with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office does not mean police have automatic access or live feeds to your system; it simply means officers and detectives know where cameras are located so they may contact you to request access to the images.
The second is your right, and its edge:
You may always deny a request to view your camera or footage. However, a warrant may be requested to obtain this information.
The third is the part most registries leave unsaid:
By registering your security camera with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, however, you understand that your personal information may be disclosed in response to a request made under Oregon’s Public Records laws or under a lawfully issued subpoena.
A resident deciding whether to register should have all three in front of them. Registration helps investigations at the cost of putting your name, address and camera location in a government record that Oregon’s public records law can reach. That is a trade, and the office’s own page describes it honestly, including the sentence in its favour: the terms bar the office outright from using registration information to view feeds directly.
What we could not establish
The size of the registry is not published. The office’s whole policy manual is public and readable, and no policy in it governs this programme; the page’s terms of use are the governing document we could find.
What we do not know
- How many cameras are registered, and how that number has changed.
- The retention schedule for registrant information.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have not yet confirmed where each of them meets in Multnomah County.
What we have documented in Multnomah County →Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1. Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, Security Camera Registration page and terms of use · Primary document · accessed
- 2.
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