North Carolina Law Restricts Police Body Cam Footage

Police have released footage of the September 20 deadly shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, but it might be the last time the state’s law enforcement ever share body camera and dashboard camera footage following a new law in the state that that will deny public access to the videos.

House Bill 972, which takes effect October 1, excludes police body and dashboard cameras from being considered part of public records, though individual departments are still allowed to release footage at their own discretion, reports ABC News.

“We are initiating a necessary balance to gain public trust, while also respecting the rights of our public safety of officers,” Republican Gov. Pat McCrory said in a July press conference regarding the new law. “Technology can mislead and misinform, which causes other issues and problems within our community.”

Many people have viewed the released police footage of the Scott shooting that supplemented a cell phone video from Scott’s wife, Rakeyia Scott, but it raised as many questions as answers, notes the Atlantic. Scott’s family said that he was reading a book and had no gun, while police said that he was armed and refused to lower his weapon – but no video has clear footage of Scott or the gun that officers said he was holding.

“One viewpoint of a video doesn’t often always tell the whole story,” McCrory told CNN. “The angles can make a difference, and [you’re] not hearing [the sound] often in the video, so that [adds to] the complexity. The video is one piece of evidence. We have to be careful.”

The new law’s opponents criticize it for going against the notion of holding officers accountable by making them wear body cameras, but McCrory said that restricting access to police camera footage ensures that “the constitutional rights of the officer” are respected along with the public and victims’ families.

“North Carolina’s new body camera bill sets up for the first time a legal process for the release of law enforcement video,” a spokesman for the governor said, according to the Atlantic. “It takes the decision out of the hands of politicians and puts it in the hands of an independent court system, which has been given wide latitude to make its determination.”

Sources: ABC News, CNN, The Atlantic / Photo Credit: Mpeake/Flickr