Arizona State Cannabis Security Requirements
Here are the requirements for Arizona state as listed in as listed in "Arizona: R9-17-318. Security: Security Camera System Requirements for Cannabis Farms and Dispensaries"
G. To prevent unauthorized access to medical marijuana at the dispensary and, if applicable, the dispensary’s cultivation site, the dispensary shall have the following:
1. Security equipment to deter and prevent unauthorized entrance into limited access areas that include:
a. Devices or a series of devices to detect unauthorized intrusion, which may include a signal system interconnected with a radio frequency method, such as cellular, private radio signals, or other mechanical or electronic device;
b. Exterior lighting to facilitate surveillance;
c. Electronic monitoring including:
i. At least one 19-inch or greater call-up monitor;
ii. A video printer capable of immediately producing a clear still photo from any video camera image;
iii. Video cameras:
(1) Providing coverage of all entrances to and exits from limited access areas and all entrances to and exits from the building, capable of identifying any activity occurring in or adjacent to the building, and
(2) Having a recording resolution of least at 704 x 480 or the equivalent;
iv. A video camera at each point of sale location allowing for the identification of any qualifying patient or designated caregiver purchasing medical marijuana;
v. A video camera in each grow room capable of identifying any activity occurring within the grow room in low light conditions;
vi. Storage of video recordings from the video cameras for at least 30 calendar days;
vii. A failure notification system that provides an audible and visual notification of any failure in the electronic monitoring system; and
viii. Sufficient battery backup for video cameras and recording equipment to support at least five minutes of recording in the event of a power outage; and
d. Panic buttons in the interior of each building;
How to Comply with the Arizona Regulations:
Non-Security-Camera, but Security-Related Regulations:
Before we get into the surveillance end, we do want to draw your attention to the requirements for an alarm system ("series of devices to detect unauthorized intrusion") with a service contract ("interconnected with a radio frequency method, such as cellular, private radio signals, or other mechanical or electronic device"). Also, you are required to produce a photograph on demand, so you will want a printer and a PC or Mac onsite as you cannot connect a printer to your NVR. Lastly, your monitor will need to be 19 inches or larger, which is pretty much what everyone uses anyways.
You are required to have a battery backup for at least 5 minutes. You can use the wattage calc for calculating load or talk to our team to build a batter backup into your proposal.
Resolution
Arizona seemed to copy their recording regulations straight from Nevada, reproducing the exact same errors in both mathematics and general usage.
Like several state we already mentioned on this page, 704 x 480 is not a known recording resolution in surveillance and we have no idea where that came from. 720 x 480 is and that's probably what they meant.
D1 DVRs shoot in 720 x 480. (345,600 total pixels). With someone 20 feet away, with D1 resolution, your footage would look like this:
The regulation also says that you must be able to ID anyone at the point of sale location.
Now, you aren't going to be able to do that with the camera system that shoots in 704x480 (if that existed). You can only do that with HD. Most people opt for at least a 1080P camera. With someone 20 feet away, with 1080P resolution, your footage would look like this:
Conclusion, despite giving you a 1980s TV quality resolution requirement, they also require you to be able to clearly identify someone at 20 feet and for that you need a modern HD system. Ignore the lesser requirement as you have to meet both standards.
You are required to have a low light camera for the grow room. Low light cameras come in two forms - one with Digital WDR (wide dynamic range) or True (hardware based) WDR. Of the two, True WDR is much better. Almost all of our IP cameras have True WDR which will allow you to meet the regulatory demands for the low light cameras, however this regulation has no specific requirements for a lux rating (how we measure how much light is in a space) or clarify as what qualifies as "low light," True and Digital, so going with a Digital WDR product might come down to a judgement call for your inspector. True WDR would be your best option and that's on most of our products.
Recording
Storage
Like most states, the storage requirements are the hard part. Luckily you are only required to store 30 days of footage, however, you also will need to download footage and store it for 3 years should there be any theft. It is a bit ambiguous, but we're pretty sure that this download of "footage" is for the theft event, not of everything. We cover storage requirements pretty in depth on the main Cannabis regulations page.
*We're not lawyers and laws do change. We try our best to keep this page updated with changes to the law, but you should always do your own research or hire your own lawyer to guarantee compliance with the law.