New Jersey cannabis · Surveillance records
Your license says thirty days. Your recorder might say twenty one.
Nobody notices the day a recorder starts keeping less. You add a camera, someone raises the resolution, the drive fills faster than it used to, and the oldest day quietly moves closer. The footage looks fine on the screen, so there is nothing to see, right up until somebody asks for a date that is no longer there.
This is the check we would run first, written out so you can run it yourself in about ninety seconds, on your own equipment, without talking to anybody.
Run this yourself
The oldest day check
- Open your recorder or your video software, the same way you would to pull a clip for a manager.
- Go to the playback calendar or the archive list, and scroll back as far as it will let you.
- Write down the oldest date that still has footage on it, then count the days between that date and today.
31 or more. Good. That is the answer you want, and it is worth writing down with today's date so you have a record of when you last checked.
Between 25 and 30. Worth watching. A single new camera or one resolution change can take a number like that under the line, and nothing will tell you when it happens.
Under 25. Your archive is shorter than the 30 days the rule describes, and a gap like that has usually been there a while. What it means for your license is a question for you and your attorney rather than something this page can answer. It is fixable, and it is much easier to fix before somebody asks for a date you no longer have.
What the rule actually says
Here it is in the regulation’s own words, not ours. We do not paraphrase a rule, because a regulation in our own words is not the regulation:
“A video surveillance system shall be installed and operated at the cannabis business premises to clearly monitor all critical control activities of the cannabis business and shall be in working order and operating at all times.”
“The original tapes or digital pictures produced by this system shall be stored in a safe place with a 30-day archive.”
“The security alarm system and video surveillance system pursuant to (b) above shall be continuously monitored, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
“The cannabis business shall provide access for remote viewing by the Commission.”
That last sentence is a duty on your camera system, and it is satisfied by your camera or recorder vendor. We do not provide it, we do not touch it, and nothing we do makes it happen. We say so here because it sits in the same paragraph as the archive duty and the two are easy to blur together.
The same chapter also carries requirements around testing your alarm system, reporting a security system failure, and documenting your inventory audits.
N.J.A.C. 17:30-9.10, security and surveillance requirements. The chapter is public. Please read it yourself at nj.gov/cannabis rather than taking our word for any of it.Two things make this different from most rules a business owner deals with. The first is that it does not wait for you to be ready, the requirement is running right now, whether or not anyone has looked. The second is that the failure is invisible from the inside: a recorder holding twenty one days looks exactly like a recorder holding thirty five until the day you go looking for day twenty six.
What we do about it
We are a private tech innovations organization in New Jersey, and this is one of the things we do. Plainly, without jargon:
We check the window, monthly
You send us an export or a sample from your own system, and we confirm in writing how far back your recordings actually reach on the day we look.
We keep the record dated
Each month is logged and stamped so the file builds into a continuous history, rather than a folder of screenshots nobody can put in order later.
We help you find things faster
When a request lands, we help authorized reviewers find and organize the relevant footage faster, so an afternoon of scrubbing becomes something much shorter.
Nothing is installed
Nothing installed and no credentials. We work from a copy you send while your original stays in place, and what you send stays on one machine rather than going to cloud storage.
What this will not do
- It does not watch your cameras for you, and it does not send live alerts. This is documentation of what your system already recorded.
- It does not identify people, and it will never tell you who somebody is.
- It does not prove theft, and it does not decide what happened. It organizes the record so the people whose job that is can look at it.
- It is not legal advice, and we are not your attorney. We document what your recordings show and what your own file contains. What that means for your license is a conversation for you and your lawyer.
- Where a recording is too dark, too small, or too far away to support a conclusion, we will tell you that in writing rather than dress it up.
We would rather lose the work than have you find out one of these limits later. An owner who has been sold to before is usually more reassured by the limits than by the promises.
How it goes
- You tell us what happened last time. Not a form. A short call where you tell us the last time somebody asked you for footage and how long it took to find. If the honest answer is that it has never happened, that is useful too, and it might mean you do not need us yet.
- We look at what you actually have. You send exports from your own system. We go through them against the rule that applies to your license, and we tell you where you stand.
- You get it in writing. A short written read on what we found and what we would do about it, yours to keep whether or not we work together after that.
- Ongoing, only if you want it. Some owners take the written read and handle the rest themselves, and that is a complete engagement as far as we are concerned. If you would rather we kept checking every month, we stay.
Tell us the last time somebody asked you for footage.
That one answer tells us more than a long form would, and it tells you fairly quickly whether this is worth your time.
Send an inquiryPolarity Management LLC, a registered New Jersey company. We work from what you send us, nothing is installed, and NDAs are optional from the first conversation.
Or write to inquiries@polarityagc.com and a person will answer you. Upon request, we can travel to you.
Buying scrap, precious metals, or secondhand goods instead? The rules that bind you are per transaction rather than per day, and they are written by your town. We wrote that one up separately: New Jersey dealer records, and the clock you are on.