Release of body camera videos can take months
COLUMBUS, OHIO » In Columbus, Ohio, it took five hours. In North Carolina, it requires a court order. In New York City, police can wait up to a month — sometimes longer.
As the U.S. debates the future of policing, the policies that govern the release of body camera footage still vary widely across the nation, and pressure is building on law enforcement agencies to act swiftly, even if it means releasing videos when investigations have barely begun.
“It’s all over the board. A lot of it has to do with state laws. A lot of it has to do with previous litigation,” said Geoffrey Alpert, a criminal justice professor at the University of South Carolina.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, who made outfitting police with body cameras a priority of his 2015 campaign, said it was “critically important” to act fast to make the footage public after an officer fatally shot a Black 16-year-old girl Tuesday as she swung a knife at another girl.
“We all knew there were a lot of things being said and shared out in the community that may or may not have been consistent with what we have seen with our own eyes here,” Ginther said Wednesday.
“In times of crisis, it’s very important to be as transparent and as responsive as possible.”
That isn’t the case everywhere.
In New York City, police can wait up to 30 days to release body camera footage when deadly force is used, but that deadline is not always met. The state attorney general, who recently assumed responsibility for deciding whether to prosecute deaths caused by police, has pledged to release body camera videos quickly in cases it investigates.
In Los Angeles, a similar policy requires the release of video of fatal police shootings and other critical incidents within 45 days. The police chief or police commission can order the release earlier if it’s deemed to be “in the public interest.”
It’s even harder for the public to see body camera footage in North Carolina because those recordings are not considered public records. Instead, the media and public must request the release.
In Portland, Oregon, there is no body camera footage to see. The Police Department there is one of the few big-city forces that has yet to equip its officers with cameras.
In general, “There just seems to be no reason not to release 99% of the bodycams in these situations,” Alpert said, “unless there are faces you’ve got to blur out and other things you’ve got to do.”
More than 80% of departments with more than 500 officers now use body cameras. The figure is typically lower among smaller departments because of the high cost of storage.
Within individual police departments, there can be major inconsistencies in the release of footage.
The New York City department, for instance, sometimes has released body camera clips within hours when it suited the agency’s interests in justifying the use of force or explaining an event.
Other times, such as in the fatal 2019 shooting of a man in an apparent mental health crisis, the footage was kept from the public for more than a year and a half.
Without a consistent policy on releasing body camera footage — along with 911 calls and dashboard camera video — police departments run the risk of jeopardizing ongoing investigations into officers’ actions, said David Klinger, a former police officer who teaches criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Releasing a video before officers or witnesses have been interviewed or all evidence has been collected could threaten the integrity of the investigation, Klinger said, giving a defense lawyer an opportunity to challenge any disciplinary action or criminal charges.