Wave of state bills would restrict public access to police body-camera footage
Source: Associated Press
Wave of state bills would restrict public access to police body-camera footage
Associated Press in Iowa City
Friday 20 March 2015 16.36 GMT
State legislators are pushing to make it much harder to release police officer body-camera videos, undermining their promise as a tool people can use to hold law enforcement accountable.
Lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced bills to exempt video recordings of police encounters with citizens from state public records laws, or to limit what can be made public.
Their stated motive: preserving the privacy of people being videotaped, and saving considerable time and money that would need to be spent on public information requests as the technology quickly becomes more widely used.
Advocates for open government and civil rights are alarmed.
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Read more:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/20/state-legislators-bill-restrict-police-body-camera-video-footage