Legislation proposed for body camera footage
Records would be kept at least four months
MADISON - Police would be required to keep body camera footage for at least four months and often much longer under a bill that went before a legislative committee Tuesday.
Under the legislation, the public would have access to some footage under the state’s open records law, but some footage could be withheld if it showed victims, minors or people in places where they have an expectation of privacy, such as their homes.
Lawmakers have clashed for years over police body cameras as they wrestled with when to make material available to the public and when to keep it private. Last year they formed a panel that included representatives from law enforcement and the news media to study the issue.
That panel’s work resulted in Senate Bill 50, which went before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
“We all agree this is a good bill,” said Ben Hart, the news director of Milwaukee’s WISN-TV and a member of the committee that studied the issue.
He said it’s important for the public to see incidents when police use force so they can have as many facts as possible to understand what happened.
“When people feel informed, it can make tough situations more palatable,” he told the Senate committee.
The bill would not require police agencies to use body cameras. But those that do would have to retain any footage for at least 120 days.
Police agencies would have to keep it for longer if the footage showed an arrest, police questioning, the use of force by an officer or an incident that resulted in injury or death. Defendants, prosecutors, police officials and courts could also require the footage to be kept for more than 120 days.
When footage was kept for more than 120 days, police agencies would have to keep it until all appeals were exhausted or courts determined the footage no longer needed to be retained.
In instances where footage showed minors, victims of sensitive or violent crimes or people in places where they would ordinarily expect privacy, police agencies would have to determine if the public interest in making the material available outweighed the privacy concerns of those depicted in the video. If footage was released in those cases, police agencies could blur the faces of minors, victims and those who had an expectation of privacy.
“When people feel informed, it can make tough situations more palatable.”
Ben Hart
WISN-TV news director, committee member