By Nick Cahill, Courthouse News
SACRAMENTO (CN) – A California lawmaker’s effort to regulate the release of police body-camera footage has been sidelined until 2018 after his police transparency measure stalled in the state Senate.
Assembly Bill 748 was strongly opposed by law enforcement agencies after its author introduced sweeping changes in July. It passed through a Senate committee in July but was not heard again before a September 1 legislative deadline.
The measure introduced a balancing test for law enforcement agencies to use when deciding whether to disclose body-camera video from incidents such as fatal police shootings. It would make the footage available through the California State Public Records Act. The bill was sponsored by the California News Publishers Association.
Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said he will go back to the drawing board and bring up the bill again in 2018.
“California needs a statewide standard for the disclosure of footage,” Ting said in a statement. “In order to let the footage speak for itself, we need more time to find the breakthrough in this bill and I will continue to engage with stakeholders to find a transparent and equitable solution.”
Supporters of AB 748 contend that while many California law enforcement agencies have adopted body cameras, a loophole in state law allows them to conceal footage from the community, lawmakers and journalists. They claim police departments routinely deny access to body-camera footage by labeling it investigatory, and exempt from public disclosure.
“Current law, which gives police the unfettered discretion to determine what footage to release, lets law enforcement pick and choose which cases deserve transparency – and which cases don’t,” the Publishers Association argued in support of AB 748.
Law enforcement agencies rallied against the proposal, arguing that local agencies should be able to create their own guidelines because prematurely releasing footage could hamper police investigations.
“There are any number of possible permutations that could exist as to why a video should be released or shouldn’t be released,” Cory Salzillo with the California State Sheriff’s Association testified in July. “It could otherwise be evidence that is now out in the public tainting that investigation.”
Several bills aimed at regulating public access to body-camera recordings have failed in the Legislature in the past several years. Three related measures failed in 2015 and again in 2016, including proposals that would have prohibited officers from making recordings of patients in medical facilities and a requirement that police departments place body-camera recordings conspicuously on their websites.
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3 Comments
Its seems to me the have to much to hide and they dont want to be exsposed.These people take oaths to uphold the constitution and they violate that oath constantly.And when they take a car from an unlicensed driver or do there unlawfull searches and make u sit in the back of there squad car tbey are violating that oath wicth is a federal crime class a felony.Not only is it considered kidnapping it is also false arrest and using the red light to pull you over in a none emergency is also a felony.So of course they dont want evidence on film.With all them crimes they committed daily would be a threat to there fraud and exstortion.If anyone thinks this to be untrue i suggest you do some reasearch before making a foolish comment.This is one of the biggest problems of our time these people are supposed to protect us instead they create homlessness by taking your freedom by way of suspended licenses for not paying a ticket some people cant afford to give the courts hundreds of dollars.4 millon California’s people are driv8ng on a suspended license with 10 billon dollars owed to the court system.I pray it bankrupts the system it would serve them and the people right.This corrupted system targets the poor and has created homelessness on a unprecedented scale wake up AMERICA we have to stop this or you will be next dont think this cant happen to trust me it can and it will.
They should have to wear these it would prove in a lot of cases that they’re not doing their job correctly. Or it would prevent them from abusing their Authority because they would have the camera on hopefully a camera that their boss has a live Feed to. It would also help protect them in the event that they’re falsely accused. Police officer and or citizen they’re both equal and they both need that protection of the camera. He said she said doesn’t work in a Land of corruption.
Why not? Speaks volumes of the LAPD.