How to Get Traffic Camera Footage After a Las Vegas Crash

Kathleen Gallagher · September 4, 2026 · 6‑min read · Leer en español

Las Vegas has more than a thousand traffic cameras, and anyone can watch them live. Almost none of them record. The Regional Transportation Commission and the Nevada Department of Transportation both keep their cameras for real-time traffic management and do not save the video, so there is usually nothing for the police or your insurance company to pull after a crash. Footage does exist in a few other places, and this guide covers where to watch the cameras, why the agencies cannot give you a recording, what you can actually request, how fast you have to move, and what a lawyer does with all of it.

Need traffic camera footage from your Las Vegas crash? If we represent you for your injury claim, we will obtain the footage your case needs. Call (702) 381-3770 or contact Gallagher & Lipshutz before it is overwritten.

The Nevada Department of Transportation streams more than 600 cameras statewide on Nevada 511 (nvroads.com and the Nevada 511 app), including the Las Vegas freeways and major streets, and its “My Cameras” feature lets you save the cameras along your route.

After a crash, the live map is worth a few minutes even though it cannot show you the past. Find the camera closest to where you were hit, note its name and which way it points, and check whether the intersection or the stretch of road is in the frame at all. That tells you whether any recording of the crash could exist and which camera to ask about, and it is the same first step a lawyer or investigator takes.

Because the agencies do not keep it. NDOT does not record the video from its cameras; it uses the feeds in real time to monitor traffic, run and maintain the roads, and coordinate with police and other first responders during an incident, and it posts the same live video for the public. The Nevada 511 cameras do not record, and no video from them is available. The RTC’s traffic management center does not record the footage from its cameras either.

That is why a public records request does not work here. Nevada’s public records law, NRS 239, gives you the right to inspect and copy government records, and the agency has to answer within five business days, but it can only hand over a record that exists. Ask the RTC or NDOT for camera video of your crash and the answer is a letter saying there is no such record. A police officer cannot get it either, because there is nothing to get; the officer who investigated your crash can watch the same live feed you can, and no more.

Four kinds of video can exist after a Las Vegas crash. Only one of them comes from the traffic cameras, and it does not come from the government.

• The paid traffic camera archive. A private company, Traffic Cam Archive, records the public live feeds from hundreds of Las Vegas cameras and sells the video by the hour at $250 an hour, with no refunds: pick the camera on its map, pick the date, preview the hours available, and download. It keeps about 90 days of video per camera, not every intersection has a camera, and the picture is only as good as the live feed, so preview before you pay. This is the only recording of the traffic cameras that exists.
• Police body camera video. The officers who came to your crash wore cameras, and that video shows the scene, the cars and what people said, though it almost never shows the crash itself. For LVMPD crashes, request it through the LVMPD public records portal or the Body Worn Camera Request Line at (702) 828-7485. LVMPD charges $89 an hour to prepare, review and redact the video, so expect a bill of over $350. Henderson and North Las Vegas take requests through their police records units. The crash report is a separate request, covered in our guide to getting your Las Vegas crash report.
• Red-light and speed cameras. There are none. Under NRS 484A.600, a Nevada government agency cannot use a camera to gather evidence for a traffic ticket unless an officer is wearing or holding it, it is in a police vehicle or building, or it is privately owned; the only exception is stop-arm cameras on school buses. There is no red-light camera video of a Las Vegas crash to ask for.
• Cameras owned by businesses and homes. Gas stations, casinos, banks, apartment gates, doorbell cameras and RTC buses record far more crashes than the traffic cameras do. Getting that video means asking the owner the same day, before it is recorded over.

Faster than the two-year lawsuit deadline suggests. The archive holds traffic camera video for about 90 days. Business and home cameras record over themselves in days or weeks. Police body camera requests take time to process, so the request should go in as soon as you have the event number.

Under NRS 11.190, you have two years from the crash to file an injury lawsuit in Nevada, and the Nevada statute of limitations page explains the exceptions. A claim with the video in hand is a very different claim from one without it, so the footage work comes first.

For a client, we order camera footage when we need it, and when we do, we start immediately: we identify every camera that could have seen the crash, buy the archive hours the case needs, request the officers’ body camera video and the crash report, and contact the businesses and homes with cameras pointing to where the crash happened. We pair whatever the cameras show with the other evidence the case needs: the crash report, the other driver’s insurance information (see our guide on whose insurance to call), and, if the driver left, the hit-and-run report and investigation. Video that shows the other car running the light, or shows which car was where, settles arguments about fault that otherwise come down to two drivers’ word. Our Las Vegas car accident page explains how we handle the claim from there.

This post is general information, not legal advice. For guidance on your specific facts, consult experienced personal injury counsel.