As body cameras have become all the rage in justice reform, skeptics increasingly wonder where all that footage will actually go. If release of the footage is subject to the whims (and retroactive editing) of the police force, it’s hard to see how body cameras will be much more than a symbolic gesture.
South Carolina now appears to be confirming some critics’ fears.
Governor Nikki Haley recently signed a law mandating body cameras in every police department. But, as the Columbia Journalism Review notes, the footage from all these cameras won’t be treated as public record.
An amendment to the bill states that “Data recorded by a body-worn camera is not a public record subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.” Those who are the subject of the footage, criminal defendants, and civil litigants may request the recordings.
Just as some predicted, police are citing privacy concerns as their reason for withholding the footage.
Footage would inevitably include sensitive information—the inside of a private home, for example, or shots of phone numbers and passwords—and knowing that the public could readily access it might dissuade victims from going to the police.
The situation is made more confusing, however, by the fact that South Carolina does mandate dash cam footage as part of public record, thanks to a 2014 lawsuit from a local newspaper.
Last month, 34 civil liberty organizations—including the NAACP and ACLU—released a set of guidelines for body camera implementations. They called for ready access by the public and media upon request, particularly “any filmed subject seeking to file a complaint, to criminal defendants, and to the next-of-kin of anyone whose death is related to the events captured on video.”
