The emergence of police body cameras has caused several communities to solve their own questions about what is and is not public record. Lawmakers are introducing a bipartisan bill to provide a final answer.
The bill creates several exemptions to public records laws for body cameras, such as if the video shows inside a private home, private business, or the victim of a sex crime.
Republican Representative Niraj Antani says body cameras are too new to have solid footing as far as public records are concerned.
“Right now it’s pretty much up to interpretation and it would and it will make it through the courts and then the courts would get to decide what it is, I think that it’s not up to the courts it’s up to the Legislature.”
Antani says any adverse police action, such as a police-involved shooting, automatically makes that video a public record.
Copyright 2017 The Statehouse News Bureau
