Body cams have been one of the tools used to increase transparency in police/citizenry interactions, and provide a glimpse into the reality of one-said/the-other-said conflicts.
Some law enforcement organizations have resisted the innovation mightily, and North Carolina's new law is a direct reflection of that.
'The new law reclassifies dashboard and body-camera footage as a confidential personnel record, giving access only to those pictured or heard in footage, or their relatives. Starting next month, journalists or members of the public, who can view the footage because at present it’s classified as public record, will need a court order to view it.
The law also bars police departments from releasing footage independently, because all requests go through a state superior court judge. It also gives police departments the right to refuse anyone access to footage if it could damage an officer’s reputation, jeopardize someone’s safety, or if it could harm an “active or inactive internal or criminal investigation.”'
Yes. Because we really need local police departments to block release of such footage where it might "damage an officer's reputation." And we really need a state court to be the arbiter as to whether (with the above proviso), anyone needs to see what happened in an interaction with the police that went badly.
Body cams aren't perfect, but the presumption should be that more information is better than less, and that (in a democracy) public judgment interpreting video images ought to trump vested interests' desire to keep those images secret.
A North Carolina Law Will Soon Limit Who Can View Body-Camera Footage – The Atlantic
The law, which goes into effect October 1, follows the release of video in the shooting by police of Keith Lamont Scott.
