North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed another controversial bill into law Monday — this time one that places stronger restrictions on who can view video captured by law enforcement agencies.
The law, House Bill 972, now makes it so footage from body and dashboard camera is no longer public nor personnel record.
Only members of the public who are captured in the video can see the footage, and only then with agreement from the police chief or sheriff. If that person’s request is denied, that fight moves to Superior Court. The law enforcement agency involved and the local district attorney can also access the footage.
In addition, now only a judge can make the police video public.
The law goes into effect Oct. 1
“We have been trying to evaluate how we can deal with technology. How can it help us, and how can we work with it so it doesn’t also work against our police officers and public safety officials?” McCrory said, adding that the bill strikes the “necessary balance” between what the public should be allowed to see and the safety of officers.
The move by McCrory comes roughly a week after two black men in two different states were fatally shot by police officers. The video of the two mens’ deaths were captured via cell phone video.
The ACLU of North Carolina called the new law “shameful.”
“Body cameras should be a tool to make law enforcement more transparent and accountable to the communities they serve, but this shameful law will make it nearly impossible to achieve those goals,” Susanna Birdsong, policy counsel for the ACLU of North Carolina, said.
“People who are filmed by police body cameras should not have to spend time and money to go to court in order to see that footage. These barriers are significant and we expect them to drastically reduce any potential this technology had to make law enforcement more accountable to community members.”
