How an incoming law will affect Ohioans access to police body camera video
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Local police departments and a legal expert are weighing in on a recently signed bill allowing law enforcement agencies to charge hundreds of dollars for body camera video.
On Jan. 2, Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 315 into law, which will permit government agencies to charge the public and news media the “estimated cost” of processing videos for public records requests before releasing them. This could include video from body cameras, dash cameras and surveillance footage from jails.
The statute is intended to cover the administrative costs associated with editing the video since police departments often have to redact the voices or faces of uncharged suspects or victims whose identities are protected under the law.
Agencies will not be required to charge a fee and can do so at their own discretion. Departments will be allowed to charge up to $75 per hour of video, with fees capped at $750 per request.
“If you're only asking for 10 minutes from two police officers, that's 20 minutes of video, $25 is the amount that is capped at," said Susan Gilles, a professor of law at Capital University. "If you have, for instance, a hostage scenario, say you're asking for 10 hours of video from five police officers, then you're going to be up in the $750 cap.”
Currently, the Ohio Revised Code allows agencies to charge for public records but only nominal fees associated with copying the content onto items such as a paper or flash drive – not labor costs. It does not specify exact rates agencies may charge and mandates the records must be released within a “reasonable” time frame.
The state’s incoming law will allow agencies five days to determine how much they will charge and says they do not need to start redacting the video until they have the payment. More than the money, Gilles said she actually believes the bigger concern may be a “considerable” delay in the release of records.
“If the agency has decided to charge a fee, it gets five days to send out a letter saying this is what it’s going to cost and only when you actually pay that cost up front does the clock start running on whether you're producing it within a reasonable time,” Gilles said.
The entire public records portion of the legislation did not receive any public hearings, as it was added as a last-minute provision to the 450-page bill, which addresses numerous other topics. Gilles said she believes the legislation was not “well thought through” and that it will make public records less accessible to the public.
DeWine defended the policy, saying it will help agencies manage the time-consuming and labor-intensive work that comes with providing video public records.
"No law enforcement agency should ever have to choose between diverting resources for officers on the street to move them to administrative tasks like lengthy video redaction reviews for which agencies receive no compensation -- and this is especially so for when the requestor of the video is a private company seeking to make money off of these videos,” DeWine said in a statement.
Gilles said she is aware of arguments that the new policy is intended to stop people who use the public records for social media content and money but that the provision does not specifically address this issue.
“The goal they’ve stated doesn't match up with what they've passed, and I think it will be hard for law enforcement agencies to decide, if they start picking, who gets it without paying and who has to pay; that's when I think they're going to run into problems,” Gilles said.
Those “problems” could include lawsuits claiming discrimination, she said. NBC4 reached out to a variety of central Ohio local law enforcement agencies to see how they plan to approach the law, all of which said they had not made any decisions yet or were vague about their intentions.
The Columbus Division of Police sent the following statement: “Because this legislation was signed into law recently, our legal and policy advisors are taking the time to review it and its implications. The Columbus Division of Police is, and will continue to be, committed to the transparency and openness our community rightly expects.”
The Hilliard Division of Police said it had “no immediate plans” to change its policy. The Blendon Township Police Department, Whitehall Police Department, Gahanna Police Department, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said they are reviewing the new law and have not made any decisions yet.
Gilles said since the statute says law enforcement agencies may adopt a change to their policy, there is no deadline for them to make a decision.
The new law will go into effect on April 2. DeWine said if the policy has “unforeseen consequences,” he will work with the legislature to amend the language.