A system and method for modeling and distributing image data of interest to users is disclosed. Users on user devices such as mobile phones send request messages for image data captured by surveillance cameras of the system. The request messages include information for selecting the image data, such as camera number and time of recording of the image data, in examples. In response, an application server of the system collects the image data from the surveillance cameras, and supplies image data to the users based on a model that the application server creates and updates for each of the users. The model ranks image data of potential interest for each of the users, where the model is based on the information for selecting the image data provided by the users. Preferably, a machine learning application of the application server creates the model for each of the users.