Commercial security camera installation for a Miami law firm covers the main entrance, reception, corridors and the doors to the file room and server closet, recorded without audio and never aimed into a room where clients meet counsel. ClearMax technicians install the cameras and the recorder on site as part of the office buildout, and the firm keeps control of the footage.
Last updated: November 2026
Where should cameras go in a law office?
Where people come and go, not where they talk. A camera plan for a firm usually starts with:
- The main entrance, inside and, where the building allows, the corridor outside it.
- Reception, covering the counter and the waiting area, so the firm can see who arrived and when.
- The file room door and the server closet door, paired with the door readers on the access control page.
- Back and service entrances, including any door to a freight corridor or stairwell.
- Parking or a ground-floor entrance, only where the firm controls it and the landlord agrees.
A camera at each controlled door pairs a name from the door log with a picture of who actually walked through, which settles most questions about a borrowed fob.
Where should cameras never go?
Into attorney offices, conference rooms, or any room where clients meet counsel. Those rooms exist for privileged conversation, and a recording there creates something that should never exist. The same goes for restrooms, a lactation room and any staff break area where people reasonably expect privacy.
The rule is applied to the view, not just the mounting point. A corridor camera that sees through a glass conference room wall is moved, angled or given a privacy mask in its settings, and the masked view is screenshotted for the handover record. Glass-walled conference rooms are common in newer Miami towers, so this check is done on site with each camera live, not from the drawing.
Why are the cameras recorded without sound?
Because recording sound brings Florida's interception statute into play. Section 934.03(2)(d) of the Florida Statutes makes it lawful to intercept an oral communication when all of the parties to the communication have given prior consent. A camera with a microphone in reception would record clients, couriers and visitors who never agreed to it. Many cameras ship with audio switched on, so each one is checked, audio is turned off in the camera and in the recorder, and the setting is listed for every camera in the handover record.
That is the default on every law office project, and it is not changed without the firm's written decision. Nothing on this page is legal advice; a firm with a question about recording law should ask its own counsel.
How long should footage be kept?
Long enough to answer the questions a firm actually gets, and no longer than it needs. One useful anchor is Florida's breach statute, which covers data in electronic form. Under section 501.171, notice to affected individuals is due no later than 30 days after the determination of a breach or reason to believe a breach occurred, subject to the delay and waiver the statute allows. A recorder that overwrites itself in a few days cannot help a firm work out, within that window, whether someone entered the server closet that holds its electronic records. The file room camera serves the firm's own review of who came and went. So the recorder's storage is sized to the retention period the firm chooses, and the period is written down.
Retention is the firm's decision, and it is worth making with the office manager and whoever handles the firm's records, since they are the people who will be asked to find a clip months later. Longer retention means more storage and more footage to protect. Shorter retention means less evidence when a question arrives late. The plan states the choice and the reason, and the recorder is set to match.
Who can see the footage?
As few people as the firm can manage. The recorder sits in the locked server closet, and access is set up like this:
- Named accounts for each person allowed to view, with no shared login.
- Viewing rights separate from export rights, so watching footage and copying it off the system are different permissions.
- Viewing from outside the office only if the firm asks for it, and then through the firm's own secure connection.
- Administrator access recorded in the firm's name and handed over at the end.
Cameras are wired to the office network through the switch, which also powers them. They are not placed on the guest WiFi, and their default passwords are replaced before they go live. The firm owns the system and its footage.
Do Miami's storms change the hardware?
For anything outside, yes. Section 1620.2 of the Florida Building Code sets its own design wind velocities for Miami-Dade County, by risk category, in its High-Velocity Hurricane Zone section. An exterior camera, its mount and its fasteners are chosen for that zone and coordinated with building management, or the view is taken from inside through glass. Most law offices sit on upper floors and need no exterior cameras at all. Those on the ground floor, or with their own entrance, usually do.
Power is the other half. The recorder and the switch that powers the cameras sit on the closet's battery, so a short outage does not leave a gap in the footage. A long one ends with a clean shutdown rather than a damaged recording.
How is the system handed over?
With a short, plain record the office manager can use:
- A floor plan with each camera's position and number.
- A screenshot of every camera's view, including any privacy masks.
- The audio-off setting confirmed for each camera.
- The retention period set on the recorder, and the storage that holds it.
- The list of accounts, with viewing and export rights.
The firm signs the view screenshots, which confirms that no camera sees into a meeting room. If the office is rearranged later, those screenshots are what the new views are checked against.
What about the building's own cameras?
Most Miami office towers already record their lobbies, elevators and garages, and that footage belongs to building management, not the firm. The firm's cameras start at its own door. Where a corridor camera would duplicate the building's view, the plan says so and the camera is left out, which keeps the system smaller and the footage the firm is responsible for limited to what it actually needs. If the firm ever needs building footage, it asks building management, which keeps its own retention rules.
Can cameras be added to an occupied office?
Yes. The cables run above the ceiling to the closet, usually in an evening or two. The quote is built from the floor plan and photos of the ceilings and closet. If more work is needed once a ceiling tile is lifted, it is brought to the firm's attention and the bid is updated. Each camera needs a cable, so cameras are usually drawn at the same time as the cabling.
Camera questions from Miami law firms
Should we put up signs?
Many firms do, at the main entrance and reception. The firm decides the wording.
Can cameras record sound in reception?
Not on these projects. Audio stays off on every camera unless the firm makes a written decision otherwise.
Can we use existing cameras?
Sometimes. Each one is checked for its view, its audio setting and whether its software still receives security updates.
Can staff see the cameras from their desks?
Only the people the firm names. A reception screen showing the entrance is common; a wall of every camera in an open area is not, because visitors can read it too.
Who keeps the footage if we move?
The firm. The recorder and its accounts are in the firm's name, and footage can be exported before a move.