Steve Mensing, Editor
♦ Filed last Tuesday in the N.C. House, HB 713 seeks to block public access to law enforcement dash and body cam videos like those witnessed regularly on national TV. This ill-advised bill attempts to make dash and body cam videos as only records of criminal investigations. Under North Carolina statutes, criminal investigation records are not public records. This serves to protect criminal investigations. Examples: crime scene photographs, tire imprints, DNA evidence, forensic laboratory tests, and eyewitness accounts.
Let it be recognized that in rare instances some dash and body cam videos are best not to be released because what is said or shown on them may bring retribution against witnesses or compromise a case. A judge could be the final arbiter on the release of videos to the public in these rare instances.
House bill 713 is posted at the end of this article.
Consider if dash and body cam videos were available for such highly publicized cases as:
• The Ferguson, Mo shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson. If dash or body cams videoed this incident, what effects would it have had?
• The North Charleston, SC shooting of Walter Scott by officer Michael Slager. (It was cell phone and dash cam videoed) We know the effect. Slager faces a rough ride through the criminal justice system.
• The Felicia Gibson incident back in 2009 in Salisbury where she cell phone videoed Salisbury Policeman Mark Hunter and was initially convicted for it and later won an appeal. The city of Salisbury paid a handsome settlement for violating her civil rights.
• The shooting of Eric Harris in Tulsa by reserve deputy Robert Bates. (It was caught on a body cam)
Most folks would agree that unedited videos are one of the cleanest and most accurate ways to demonstrate the factual behavior of both law enforcement and persons involved in crime scenes. We see what occurred without anything added or subtracted.
Here’s the case against HB 713:
• Such a law would promote a lack of transparency and potential cover-ups by the suppression of videos.
• To the best of my knowledge no similar anti-video cam law exists anywhere in the U.S. Be certain that news associations, free speech advocates, various sunshine groups of all political stripes, the Rowan Free Press, and the NAACP, would strongly oppose such a bill becoming law. These groups would surely drag the state into court for any adventure to suppress the public viewing of dash and body cam videos. Keep in mind the public and the news pressed for dash and body cams all across the U.S.A.
• HB 713, if put into play, would naturally heighten suspicions toward law enforcement among groups who traditionally distrust law enforcement based on historical interaction.
• HB 713 instead of quelling negative conjecture about law enforcement behavior, it would serve to inflame it. What people don’t see, fires the imagination. What happens in those “B” horror movies when the serial killer drags a nurse into a closet and slams the closet door behind him? The imagination works overtime. Videos end a lot of speculation and conjecture.
• Wouldn’t so called “frivolous” claims of brutality be quickly overcome by a dash or body cam video? What is to fear?
• Disturbingly, HB 713 doesn’t specifically require the release of law enforcement videos to those currently accused of criminal acts for their attorneys to inspect. This needs to happen in order for a defendant to properly to defend themselves. We’re talking about withholding evidence here. Would law enforcement videos only be given to the prosecutors office?
• Would law enforcement’s trust increase by suppressing videos and having only their words to go by? The effect of withholding videos would fire public distrust. It should.
• If someone fears video footage leaving an evidence room, simply make a copy of the original and hand this out.
• Law enforcement is employed by the taxpaying public. The “boss” has the right to know.
• Hopefully our legislators will review this legislative piece of nonsense and banish it quickly to the “Island of Misfit Toys.”
Let it be known that many fine men and women work in law enforcement, but on occasion bad apples find their way into the basket and people make mistakes. Dash and body cams show what actually occurred. So do cell phone videos from free lance activists.
House Bill 713:
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2015/Bills/House/PDF/H713v1.pdf
