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He was buried on page 72 of New Ohio HB 315 a provision that would make it harder to get body camera footage from cops. As reported News 5 Clevelandthe new bill would allow police officers to charge people who request public records for body camera footage. charge? Up to $75 an hour and no more than $750 total.
That’s a lot of money for a public records request.
Here is the actual text of the relevant part of the bill:
“A State or local law enforcement agency may charge the requester the actual cost of reviewing or preparing the video recording for production, not to exceed seventy-five dollars per hour of video recorded, nor a total of seven hundred fifty dollars. As used in this section, “actual cost” with respect to video recordings only means all costs incurred by a State or local law enforcement agency in reviewing, blurring, or otherwise concealing, editing, uploading, or producing video recordings, including but not limited to the storage medium in which the record is compiled, staff time, and any other reasonable additional costs necessary to fulfill the request.”
The bill would also allow police officers to charge interrogators before police begin processing the video. “A state or local law enforcement agency may include in its public records policy a requirement that the requester pay an estimated actual cost before beginning the process of producing a video recording for production verification,” he said.
The bill has seen a lot of pushback from local media and voters. The governor and the police argued that cutting the video together for public consumption was taking them and valuable resources away from the police.
“No law enforcement agency should ever have to choose between diverting resources to move officers off the street to administrative positions that receive no compensation, especially when the video requester is the author. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said in a press release that it is a private company trying to make money from these videos.
Marion, Ohio Police Chief Jay McDonald This was reported to the Ohio Capital Journal This was partly an attempt to stop cops from cutting clips together for YouTubers. “They want domestic violence, drunk driving, bar fights,” MacDonald said. “In these kinds of inquiries, it takes hours and hours and hours to process that body camera, and it really makes it difficult for the media, for attorneys, for citizens who make inquiries.”
It’s true that there’s a cottage industry of YouTubers and broadcasters cropping up body cam footage for footage. It’s also true that a fee as high as $750 can put them out of business in Ohio. It could also hurt independent journalists and small newsrooms that rely on body camera footage to hold police accountable.
It can also prevent vulnerable citizens who interact with the police from seeing footage of those interactions.
Wisconsin signed last September Law No. 253. It’s similar to the Ohio law, but more narrowly targets people who stand to profit from body camera footage. While this affects YouTubers, it also affects journalists. Texas, Floridaand several other states require a fee to process body camera footage.
Ohio’s law is not a general requirement of the state’s police departments, but simply a limit on what they can charge. Each department will have to decide what they will get paid to distribute tapes to the public. Cleveland, for its part, said it was suspended for now.
“Right now we’re reviewing … we need to do our own research before implementing any policy,” said city spokesman Tyler Sinclair News 5 Cleveland TV channel informed about this.
Sinclair added that members of the press will at least have access to the body camera footage for free. “Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and we strongly believe that traditional media will play an important role in holding government accountable,” he said. “As such, we have no plans to charge members of the traditional media because we value our television, radio, print and digital media partners.”
