North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory has just signed a bill into law which prohibits dashcam footage as well as bodycam footage from being public record. His reason for doing so is basically to try and find balance between retaining the trust of citizens as well as protect the integrity of officers.
“If you hold a piece of film for a long period of time, you completely lose the trust of individuals,” McCrory said. He says police have learned that, “if you immediately release a video, sometimes it distorts the entire picture, which is extremely unfair to our law enforcement officials.”
Now, the upside to this is that citizens are still allowed to film police encounters. On the other hand, the Huffington Post reports that police regard body cameras as a part of the officer’s personnel file, making it private, so if you want to access to the footage, then you’ll have to file a request to obtain it. Should your request be denied, you must present a case to the state’s superior court.
This new law has alarmed many citizens of North Carolina, because it may prevent officers from being more accountable. Susanna Birdsong, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, says “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.” She added, “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.”
Roommates, do you guys think that this law helps or hinders the progress that is trying to be made with police brutality? Let talk about it!
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Source: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57850a43e4b0ed2111d7952a
