[ardani]

Charge the requesters a review fee, per minute of footage?

That way you can categorize the video on demand, and release it as a public good after. The categorization would need an appeals process.

Categorization would be akin to: release now, release in a year (for embarassment), release in 30 years (for crimes) and perhaps never release (murder scenes etc., but let it bitrot in a cabinet for 30 years first).

If you're poor you can ask a privacy and open governance charity to buy a block of footage encompassing the footage you need.

Perhaps someone could write an RFC for this and send it around police departments. It should be framed as a minor source of income and that it may be a fun occasional distraction to some agents - if the tooling has a sufficiently powerful playback and fast-forward function.